Search Engine Optimisation UK
Search Engine Optimisation Achieved Through Quality
Back in the day it used to be the case that to get your site
ranked well in the search engines, Google included, if you just
got bundles of links to your site with the anchor text as the
keywords that you were targeting. Over the years the algorithms
have changed many times. They are constantly being changed to stop
SEO companies from being able to manipulate them to easily. Now
search engine optimisation is at a point where websites really do
have to have to be of high quality to stand a chance of getting
ranked well for the keywords relevant and highly searched for,
for the service or product they provide.
Lower quality websites can get ranked for a while, but they
do not tend to stay ranked in high postions. You need to have a
site which has quality content and is linked to by other quality
websites. Everything about your site should be useful or interesting
to the visitor. You have to ask yourself, if someone from Google
looked at my site would they consider this a useful resource for
the given subject. If the answer is no, then you
have some work to do on your site.
These days you need to design and write your websites with the user in mind. More than ever before The SEs actually favour sites which it considers to look natural and add value to the user. Things like videos and images being added to the home page all go in your favour.
Research and Reading Up On SEO
Research the net for different ways of adding value and interest
to your website. For example, there is an interesting article here at
Manchester Metropolitan University about SEO. Also many of the seo agencies
cannot only help you directly, but also have a wealth of knowledge on their
website. See Top Click Media's website for information and advice on
search
engine optimisation. They have many articles on all aspects of the
subject including a blog which is updated frequently. You really need
to read up on this subject at least to a moderate level if you are
going to get your site ranked well. It's not just up to your SEO company
to do this. You should have a reasonable idea of the workings of
optimisation. After all you it is your website and once you have an
understanding of the subject you may well be able to come up with new
ideas on how to improve your site and its rankings. Also it enables you
to see if the agency you have chosen to look after this for you, is
There are even newsletters you can join for a modest monthly
subscription that give you all the latest news within this subject
covering all aspects of SEM not just optimisation. Such journals include Search Engine News (SEN) which is one of the best ones around. In fact type in search engine news into Google and you will get a lot of very interesting websites on the subject.
These newsletters are great because in the world of SEM things are
constantly changing and you really do need to keep on top of the latest
developments. Ebooks while useful can often be out of date on the nitty
gritty of details unless the author is conscientious enough to keep them
updated on a frequent basis. Some ebooks are. The ebook on SEN is one
that is a must read. You get this to read as a part of your monthly
subscription. It goes into great detail on the subject and is probably
the best book I have read on the subject.
How To Find The Perfect Website Design or
Search Engine Optimisation Company
We give you some pointers when looking for website design or search engine
marketing services. When you are looking for either of these services please
be clear that many very good website design companies are no good at
search engine optimisation and vice versa. So do not necessarily employ the
same company to do your search engine optimisation just because they did a
good job at designing your website. They maybe good at both, but many are not.
They are two quite different areas and require a different set of skills and resources.
Read our two guides on finding good providers of these two services.
Good website design starts with 3 basic principles.
Make sure your website designer develops websites which are:
- Professional looking
- Easy to use
- Quick to load
If your website does not achieve these three things, then it is unlikely to ever reach it's full potential and at worst will be a cost to your business rather than a profitable extension to it.
When you employ a website designer you need to make sure you get a designer which understands and executes these three basic principles. Make sure you have a good look at their portfolio. Also email a few of their previous clients. Ask them what they think of the service they received.
There are many good website designers out there, but there are a lot of bad ones too. Make sure you get someone who will design you a profitable website and give you good technical support once the site is up and running.
Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click Advertising
Once you have a website which you are ready to market you will need to find someone to help you get it on page one of the three major search engines; Google, Yahoo and MSN. The market share each of these search engines has is in that order. Google is the number one. It accounts for about 80% of all searches.
There are two ways of getting ranked on the search engines. One is to use pay per click advertising and the other is to optimise your website to rank in the natural listings. To read about the difference between the two click here.
Often companies good at search engine optimisation are good at pay per click management, but this does not necessarily follow so please do not assume one follows the other. When looking for a company to provide these services you will need to do a little research and then make a short list of companies to interview. First lets deal with search engine optimisation.
A good search engine optimisation company should have:
- It's own website ranked reasonably well for keywords such as their county plus search engine optimisation or other popular search engine optimisation related keywords. Search Engine Optimisation spelt with a z or s are the most competitve ones.
- You should quiz them about how they go about optimising websites. Certain techniques can get short term results but in the long run can cause your site to drop in the rankings. Once your site has dropped it may be hard to make a comeback.
- A list of at least 3 websites they have optimised which rank well for keywords which are useful to that website and are not to obscure. Get a portfolio of websites from the company and positions those websites rank for in Google. Then check them in Google and see how many websites are listed for those keywords. You can see the number of sites listed for the kywords you searched for in the top right of the page on Google. Under 1 million sites is very low, 1million to 3 million is still fairly low, 3 million to 10 million is moderately competitive, 10 - 80 million is competitive and anything above this is high.
Regarding employing an SEO company also:
- Phone or email the companies that own these websites on the portfolio to see what they thought of the SEO companies services. This will also ensure that you know they did optimise the website and not just taking credit for another companies work.
- Do not buy optimisation services from a company that promises you page 1 of Google. There are lots of unethical search engine optimisation companies which make promises they cannot keep. Virtually all, if not all ethical search engine optimisation companies will not make these type of promises as there is never any guarantee. Search engine optimisation is the art of playing the search engines at convincing them to rank your website for certain keyphrases. A good search engine optimisation company will say we expect or are confident we can help you, but we cannot guarantee it.
- Read up on SEO on forums and guides on the internet that talk about this subject. you will find loads of them on search engines. Get a bit of an idea of what is involved. You do not need to be an expert, just well informed.
- With your new knowledge of SEO make sure you ask the company plenty of questions before employing them to provide this service for you.
If you have any questions drop us a line at kjell@kjell.co.uk
A good Pay Per Click Management company should be Google Adwords Qualified. Read up a bit on the internet about managing an Adwords account and pay per click advertising with other search engine networks. Then when you ask them questions you will have a good idea of what to ask and what the answers should be.
When buying website design, SEO or pay per click management services always remember, just because they started off doing a good job does not mean they will continue to do a good job. Do not be afraid to get a new company to provide these services if you feel they are no longer up to scratch. Just because they are nice people does not mean they are giving you value for money. Always review the services they are providing you periodically.
A good example of all the seo and website design stuff we have talked about here is this credit card and financial website which we have worked on for the last two years. www.ukfinancialoptions.co.uk is a website we are proud of. It basically a financial information and comparison website.
Another fine group of white hat SEO experts are Surge Digital. A search engine optimisation London based business that not only has a field of expertise in SEO, but also can help you with other online marketing activities. They can help to build a well organised PPC campaign which targets keyphrases which will convert traffic into customers. They can also help you with social networking to help build your brand and online presence, setup a Facebook advertising campaign and email campaigns. They have a team which consists of experts which can help you in all these areas of online expertise.
