Seek and you will find!

The web is an open place and pretty much everything anyone is doing can be seen if you look. If someone else is having success through the natural listings then so can you. It may take money and time, but success can be achieved.

Positions are useless without conversions

Traffic without conversion only costs you money, firstly, through SEO, then through bandwidth and through missed opportunities. You can gain positions, but if the site is fundamentally flawed as a sales tool your positions will not gain you more business.

Google isn’t the only search engine but it is the biggest

You want targeted traffic and other engines can deliver it to a certain volume but Google has the biggest share of the marketplace. Remember Google is a hard task master but gains with them also means gains with the other search engines. Agencies that claim great success in Yahoo and MSN but no success in Google are masking the truth.

Links are King

Links are how the search engines find your pages in the first place. The number, quality and relevance of the links then affect the pages ranking. Build quality links and you will build your search engine performance.

Content is Queen

Unique, relevant, updated and keyword rich content is what search engines want to find when they reach your site. If you have the right content in the right format you will get noticed. Make an effort!

Rank the content not the site

Search engines are looking for content relevant to specific searches. Make the pages topic centric. Don’t confuse the page with too many subjects.

Get your keywords right

Make sure you use keywords that users use to search for your type of content. The way you refer to your business is not necessarily the way the user does. Remember short and long tail phrases. Make your pages rich but not with spam!

Track your visitors

See what they do on the site and optimise the pages they visit. Also see how they found you and optimise the route (this will often be specific to keywords).

Titles tags, heading and URLs

Once you’ve got your main keywords and built them into your page make sure the collars and cuffs to match.

The write stuff!

You should face each page like a copywriter. It’s easy to develop clunky copy if all you’re thinking about is keywords. You must get the tone of the copy right. You should be in engaging, succinct and on topic. Use catchy headers, bullets and call to actions. Avoid overload on a page, link to more detail. Avoid over repetition of keywords but ensure there are enough.

Un-sitely?

Use sitemaps in the right way. Don’t stuff unlinked content into the sitemaps it won’t get counted and may get you penalised. Use a tool like sitemaps.org; it will keep you up to date on what you need to do so that the web crawlers from all three of the big search engines are updated on the changes on your site. However, sitemaps won’t solve any onsite SEO issues if there are any. They’re just an extra tool.

If you build it they will come

Link building is a primary force within SEO. But why not just build a site that people want to link to in the first place. If you truly have something interesting, or unique, or of particularly good value on your site, word will spread and people will link.

Don’t block the bot!

Make sure there are no technical hurdles to crawlability. Viewing a site through a text browser like Lynx will show exactly how much is visible. It will show you if Flash, Java or Frames are potential obstacles to success.

Go direct to directories and do not pass go

Submit your site to Open Source Directory (DMoz.org) plus industry and geo specific directories.

Link to your inner karma

Include a clearly visible sub navigation row of text links at the bottom of the page. Add a hierarchical ’sitemap.html’ page. Make sure links that are in text include descriptive keywords.

So you open your browser, you go to Google and you type in your search and get a list of really relevant businesses just itching to have you as a client! It’s easy right – but how does it work? Is it magic? Is it random? Is it based on who pays Google the most money?

Well, it’s ‘none of the above’. It’s all based on a strict, tried and tested process which uses evolving criteria to determine which sites offer the most valuable and relevant information for those who are searching. Understanding how the search engines work is the first step to understanding how to approach your search engine optimisation.

Crawling

Search engines use programs called robots (also known as spiders or bots) which view individual web pages, retrieve the information from the page they are designed to retrieve and log it against the URL of the page for later analysis. They find the web pages they view by looking at the links on the web pages they are viewing and logging them for future viewing (this is often immediate). These programs are often referred to as ‘spiders’ because they ‘crawl’ along the links of the ‘web’.

Indexing

Once the search engines have the pages cached, they then create an index of the pages. This index is in the form of a ‘look up table’ of pages relevant to particular words. Words are given associations (often words that have relevance to each other) and pages which fit these associations can then be indexed against them.

Ranking

When a user searches within Google the system looks for every page within the index that directly fits the search or is associated with the search and then in real-time ranks the pages against each other using a range of over 200 factors, which they have logged for each page. These criteria include PageRank, level of association, number of times the search query appears on the page, authority of the page and occurrence in Meta data or title tags.

As you can see from the above the process is fairly well defined. Yes, it is true that the detail of the ranking process is unknown and could if you are sceptical be open to some unfair manipulation to favour people who spend money with Google (for example) but all the evidence suggests this is not the case. It is not magic although the algorithm (if we were ever allowed to see it) would probably seem like alchemy to the layman and it certainly isn’t random, otherwise the results would be very poor indeed.

OK, so if you want to know the best way to approach your SEO then read the rest of this site – that’s the good. However there are also the bad and the ugly!

There are various SEO strategies and tactics which will either hinder your positive progression in the search engines, flag you up for bad practices and decrease your rankings or at worst get you banned. It is worth pointing these practices out for a number of reasons.
a) Because some were legitimate SEO practices that have become out of date or no longer offer any value
b) Because some SEO’s still recommend them and they can still work but you need to be aware of the risk
c) Because some are in direct conflict with what the search engines are trying to achieve and you should avoid them
Here are the Bad and the Ugly of these SEO practices:-

Bad SEO

Over Optimisation

This is easy to do if you are uninformed, over enthusiastic or using a poor SEO partner. Anything that starts to make the site look like it is being written for search engines rather than users can be categorised as over optimisation. This can include – over use of keywords in page content, title tags, keyword tags, description tags, h tags and body copy, as well as over use of internal linking in copy and in footer links. Write for the user, not for the search engines.

Link Buying

This is officially frowned upon by the search engines, link buying sits in a strange limbo between an effective strategy and a potential ban. There are lots of successful sites that have built links by buying them. There are also lots of sites that have had their PageRank slashed because they bought links, sold links, linked to sites that sold links, or were linked to from sites that bought links. Balance and caution should be used.

Changing Content Too Often

The search engines love new content, they also like content which is updated, but if you change too much of your content too often they will lose trust in the content and how to index it. Add new pages, blogs and news but for older trusted content only optimise and update infrequently.

Ugly SEO

Hidden Text

This has been used widely to try and trick the search engines into ranking websites for content that the user never sees. Hidden text is most commonly achieved by setting the colour of the font to be the same as the background colour, making it invisible to the user. SEO’s have often used it to add content to a page when a client has not wanted the content for aesthetic or usability reasons. It has also been used by webmasters of gambling and pornographic sites to attempt to rank their sites for content which is unrelated to the actual subject matter. You should avoid hidden text at all costs.

Single Pixel Links

Once again these are links that are not visible to the user and therefore are counted as ‘hidden’. There are very few legitimate reasons for using single pixel links on a site and they have been used repeatedly to pass link juice to pages or sites that webmasters or SEO’s do not want the user of the site to see. You can fall foul of this if you have used an unscrupulous SEO or web development company who plant the link without your knowledge getting your site to drive PageRank to a site you have no knowledge of. Check your outbound links and steer clear of pixel links.

Doorway Pages

These are pages that are used as ‘bridges’ or ‘gates’ to either associated or un-associated pages. They are often pages which have content which is focused and optimised solely around one keyword but they do not actually sit within the standard architecture of the site. This means they are solely for search engines and cannot be reached by the user of the site, only through a search engine search or an external link. They are often used to ‘push’ traffic on to an actual site page using a prominent ‘click here’ or they are forwarded using a redirect or script. Any page that doesn’t actually sit within your site architecture and which you are trying to optimise is fairly suspect. It is even more suspect if the user actually never lands on it and is redirected to another page. Avoid doorway pages for SEO.

Cloaking

This is the practice of presenting content to search engines which is different to the content shown to the user through the browser. It is achieved by identifying the ‘user-agent’ which all search engine robots have and identifying if it is a user requesting the page or a search engine. If it is a search engine a server-side script shows an alternative version of a page to the robot. Most of the time the version shown to the robot is optimised differently to the page that the use sees. Once again this practice is seriously frowned upon by the search engines.

Link Farms

These grew in popularity in early 2000 focusing on websites like Inktomi, Hotbot and Yahoo! They were seen as an easy way to build links within a network of participating sites. They were originally reasonably innocent but as they started to become effective they became abused by unscrupulous web masters. By the time they had been abused and then identified by the more advanced search algorithms of Google, they were already being used by hundreds of thousands of sites which fell foul of the negative reputation they had developed. They still exist in various forms – exchanges for example and some companies still believe they offer a short sharp shock to improved rankings but it is a false economy and should be avoided.

If you have a website and you want to use that site to motivate enquires and develop business you need to market that website to attract potential customers. Search Engine Optimisation offers one of the most cost effective, sustainable ways to target potential customers.

It amazes me how many business –
a) aren’t aware of how many potential customers are using search engines
b) still have no idea of the basic elements of SEO
c) still believe SEO is like ‘magic’
d) have had bad experiences with SEO agencies or consultants
e) have no idea what return on investment they did or didn’t get from previous SEO
f) still have no idea how much difference a natural search engine presence can make to the performance or their business

There are three main ways of looking at how increased natural search visibility could impact the business:-

Building your Business with SEO

Simplistically, if you have better search engine rankings, you’ll gain more traffic, which will generate more enquiries and deliver more business. People use search engines to research, find and buy based on specific searches. If you want to target people who are searching for your type of service, you can and when they search they will find your site, visit your site and contact you. The key is in understanding how much you need to invest to gain decent visibility in the search result pages for the right keywords and how many potential customers are searching on those keywords. Once you know that information you can determine whether the investment is likely to generate a return. In most cases we have look at, the answer is ‘yes’, but we can help you determine this for yourself.

Building your Reputation with SEO

Both locally and UK wide, some of the first things a potential client will do to ‘check you out’, will be to go directly to your website or search for you, or words associated to your business in the search engines. SEO can ensure two things 1) that once potential clients reach your site there is interesting content for them to see and 2) that when they search for you in search engines there is good coverage for your brand and amongst key search terms, locally and nationally. Both of these factors could significantly enhance the process of converting a potential customer to a client.

Protecting your Reputation with SEO

As you can’t directly control the webpage’s that are listed in the results pages of the search engines it is often likely that similar brands, competitors or third party comments (sometimes unwanted) can appear in the search listings when someone searches for your brand. Optimising on-site and off-site in the right way can help you ‘own’ the Page 1 listings of the search engines for brand searches pushing down competitors and any third party comment you do not want, back to Page 2 where most users won’t find them.

Deciding on the right partner to help you with your SEO can be a real challenge. Not only do you have the issue of identifying a partner that can deliver the kind of results you are looking for, in the time you need them and at a cost that will deliver a decent ROI – you also need to decide on the type of agency and working relationship that is right for you.

Let’s look at some of the options.

Specialist SEO Agency

An agency like this is most likely to be the most technically competent at SEO, they will have the broadest experience and probably a good test base for new developments. They’re also however likely to be a little too preoccupied with SEO alone, have little experience of overall search and as an agency concerned with a large set of clients and maintaining profitability at the cost of customer service.

Specialist SEO Consultancy

Once again a consultancy like this will also be technical competent at SEO, they will probably also have knowledge of other areas of online marketing. You would probably work with more senior individuals that would aim to develop a closer, more personal and dedicated relationship. They are more likely to feel like they have your interests at heart and feel more like part of your team. However they may be less flexible than an agency and possibly more expensive.

In-house SEO supported by a Consultancy or Agency

As SEO is likely to be core to any modern business’s marketing strategy it makes sense that the business eventually takes ownership of the process and employs someone in-house. It can cut down the overall cost of outsourcing, give more control and allow the resource to become immersed in the marketplace. It can mean however that the resource becomes too introspective and not have the experience of the wider market, changes to best practice, new ideas, and opportunities to benefit from exposure to innovative new approaches. This can be overcome, in part by gaining assistance from a consultant or agency.

Web design agency offering SEO

This type of set up would probably be most proficient at the integration of coding with search. The website being the core of your SEO should therefore take centre stage and web development agencies are sometimes best placed to guide you on how to get the most from your site. The right web design agency can make a massive difference in the sites appeal to both search engines and users. However, external factors like understanding keywords and link building may be a weakness for an agency like this.

Online Media Agency

This type of relationship can be beneficial because it gives you the best opportunity to balance various web marketing strategies. The agency handles every channel for you; therefore there is no conflict when recommending which area they believe you should focus your effort and budget. They can however often be more ‘jack of all trades and master of none’. In the long term for most SMEs, SEO can deliver the best return on investment and outperform other channels that may have a more consistent cost profile like PPC and online classifieds. This means that you may prefer to have a specialist working on your SEO to really get you where you need to be as quickly as possible.

Full Integrated Media Agency

This type of relationship is similar to the one above however the overall media opportunities are greater and the focus on SEO smaller. This type of relationship only really works for SEO when there is clear bias or specialism within the agency, or where the agency is very large, handling big brands that demand specialist teams for each media area that have as much expertise as a small SEO only agency.