What is SEO? (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO is the technical process and method that is applied to a website to deliver relevant content that is structured in a way that is beneficial to the web surfer and search engine robots.

SEO has become a real hot potato for companies to make money! So, is the process real? Well the answer to that one is "definitely"!. However, BEWARE of the many companies that are plaguing website owners, offering to provide magical results from search engine optimisation, the kind of claims that I’m talking about are claims like “guaranteed top search engine results” and “top 10 search engine positions guaranteed”.

Website owners are being pestered regularly by companies like this and unfortunately many are taken in by the claims and are paying a considerable amount of money for promises of top search engine results and submission to directories that are pointless, just to try and achieve highly ranked website positions in search engines.

So, What Should you Believe about SEO?

Well firstly, there is a process that will deliver good search engine positions, but there aren’t any magical answers. A well structured website that uses approved methods, is well written, with fresh unique content will do well for your business.

Given everything that we have said so far, it’s important that you don’t think that all SEO consultants are dishonest, many are very good and will deliver good search engine placements. From here on I’m going to take some time out to give you an insight into what really does make a difference and will help you to achieve good search engine rankings.

OK, we are not going to lay claims of guaranteed top results, instant results, or permanent top positions. There is no way that we could guarantee that your site will be number one in the search engine listing, the only way of actually delivering results like that would be if we were Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. However, by identifying unique content that is fresh, we will be able to get you at the top of the rankings for a word or phrase that only exists on your site.

With the benefit of considerable subject knowledge, I can tell you that getting good search engine rankings is about SEO and common sense, strict adherence to a basic set of rules, ensuring good user and search engine robot accessibility and quality page content.

Make sure that your website is accessible and usable by humans, use valid, semantic content, both of which will make your website attractive to search engine robots and consequently improve your search engine ranking.

SEO Guidelines that deliver basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Getting results that make a difference is imperative, if you decide that you would rather employ the services of a good SEO consultant, make sure that you are getting help from a reputable search engine optimisation company. Before you contract anyone carry to out work on your website, ask them to describe how they intend to deliver results. Don’t allow any black hat (unethical techniques) optimisation methods, they run the risk of your site being penalised or - even worse - banned from search engine indexes altogether.

SEO Shortcuts – Are There Any?

The only answer to that one is NO! If you are looking for a quick and easy way to get great results, then forget it. Expect considerable ongoing efforts to ensure good, fresh unique content that is both useful and informative.

Be patient, results don’t happen over night, some may appear in a few days, others can take 6 – 8 weeks or even longer to take effect, so understand that your efforts for improving the search engine positioning of your website are a long term investment.

Unique, Well Written Website Content

In our opinion this together with well written page titles and meta tag descriptions is vital if your website is to be successful. A technically perfect web site for search engine robots is great, but it won’t do you the slightest bit of good if your content isn't really good and unique! WARNING - Do not copy content from another website – you will be found out!

Grammatically and factually correct page content is a must. Whatever the topic of your website, make sure that the content is unique, spelt properly, informative and that it keeps the reader interested.

The best page content delivers three real benefits, firstly, it keeps the reader interested, secondly, the search engine spiders find their way though it easily and provide good rankings and thirdly, you will make more sales! In addition, returning visitors may well bookmark or link to your site, lots of inbound links are worth their weight in gold, they will impress the robots and deliver great search engine rankings.

The Importance of Keeping your Webpage Content "Fresh and Up to Date"!

Adding new content on a regular basis will keep the search engine robots interested and they will keep calling back and your visitors will for the same reason. The more you update your content, the more your website will be indexed.

Descriptive Webpage Titles and Descriptions

Keep your page titles interesting, simple, descriptive and relevant; ensure that the web surfer and the search engines know exactly what each page is about. Make sure that the user scanning through search results can easily understand what your webpage contains. The search engines will use the page title and description to link to your site from search result listings.

The TITLE and DESCRIPTION are both very important elements of a page.

Ordering the text in the page TITLE is simple, try the below example:

Page title | directory name | Website or brand name

Don’t make the ultimate mistake of using the same title text for every page on your site. It will be much harder for the surfer and search engines to find out what the page is about.

Correct Use the “H” Elements for Headings

Proper use of the H1 - H6 elements for headings will add to the visibility of your pages. Using graphics for headings should be avoided; search engines are not able to read these and aren’t going to pay much attention to them, even if the ALT tag is employed. Having said that, do make sure that you use the ALT attribute to specify alternate text for heading images, however, that text will not be anywhere near as important as real text.

Employing Search Engine Friendly URL's

Do not use dynamically generated URL's that generate a query string to tell the server what data to extract from your database. Search engine robots will have difficulties with this and the question mark inserted will mean that the search engine robot will not progress past the query string.

Use readable search engine friendly URL's, they will help both your ranking and your users. Fantastic improvements can be achieved just changing the URL structures of a website.

Rewriting a website’s URL's is complex, bit it is worth the effort though.

The Benefits of Inbound Links (Backlinks)…

Inbound links (Backlinks) are very, very important for SEO success, but they are not easily achieved. Good content will bring traffic and traffic will hopefully mean that other site owners find your content useful and choose to link to your site.

Use Valid, Semantic, Short and Accessible Webpage Content

Search engine robots will validate your HTML code, so avoid presentational content, keep to short and simple descriptive page text and mark sure that it is clean and does not contain spelling errors.

High Quality Page Content will Boost your Rankings.

Making your website accessible to vision impaired humans, will also help the search engine robots find their way around it. Search engine robots cannot see your graphics, so you keep everything accessible to all. Use headings, paragraphs and lists, but avoid using anything that may interfere with search engine spiders.

Submitting Websites to Internet Directories and Search Engines Carefully

Often slightly overrated, submitting a site to internet directories and search engines can be useful, especially if the site is new and hasn’t already been picked up by Google and others. Go ahead and submit it to Google. It won’t hurt, but most likely Google will find you anyway.

The major directories are worth submitting to, they are Google, MSN, Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project. Your listing will probably take several weeks to be indexed, so be patient.

Avoid Tactics that try to Trick Search Engines

Stick to methods of optimisation that are considered good practice. DO NOT employ the use of keyword spamming or stuffing, page cloaking, link farms, alt text spamming or any similar bad practices. You may find that they help in the short term, but rest assured that you will be caught out and the risk of being penalised or even banned from search engines is not worth taking.

Are Meta Tags worth your time and effort?

The jury is out on this one, although it is accepted that the majority of the search engines do use the Meta Description tag and therefore I believe that both the Meta Keywords tag and Meta Description tag should be included with every page. Incorporate a unique TITLE, Description and Keywords list for every page, but don’t!

Ok, Where to go Now?

If you have followed and applied my suggestions to every page of your website, you are on the road to success, but there is much, much more to it and forgive me for holding out on the fine detail. If you would like to take your site to the next level, then a comprehensive website optimisation solution is what you need, Which is where WebProSolutions.co.uk offer a full optimisation solution, you didn’t really think we would give it all away did you!

Well you would have to agree that that is Honesty, we are here to make profits to!

Contact us be emailing optimise@webprosolutions.co.uk with full details of your website, target market, keywords and keyphrases for your market place and we would be pleased to provide an individual search engine optimisation quotation for your website.

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