Despite it’s importance you cannot rely solely on SEO for your eMarketing:
- Google has 25.8 billion pages with a .com ending and 1 billion with .co.uk - that’s a lot of competition. In competitive sectors (e.g. loans, property, games) it may be very difficult to get good rankings.
- Only the search engines control what they display, where and when. Rankings cannot be guaranteed by anyone else! Occasionally they change the rules and that can be catastrophic for your rankings.
- Some companies may employ black hat techniques to improve their results. We refuse to use them as you will eventually be blacklisted.
- Successful SEO does require a high degree of specialist knowledge which is reflected in the cost. The initial SEO work can be quite substantive and, as importantly, does require on-going maintenance.
Most people would agree that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important elements of search marketing. Why pay for the initial expense of SEO?
- The cost is fixed regardless of the number of clicks so in the longer term it provides better value for money
- Generally 80% of the clicks come from the natural listings and 20% from paid listings
- Research shows some searchers NEVER click on the sponsored listings as they believe the natural listings give better, more relevant results
- Combined with paid-search it can also offer a highly targetted audience
An inbound or back link is a hyperlink link from an external website to a page on your site.
So why the fuss?
Google and many other search engines use backlinks as part of their ranking calculation (part of how they determine the order to display search results). Inbound links from sites which already rank highly and which are relevant to your site will improve your rankings.
Getting listed in search engines can take some time. Having a single link from a highly ranked site is usually the fasted way of getting listed.
Tips for increasing inbound links
- Press Releases - always include your website URL
- Relevant Anchor Text - provide people with the text you want them to use to link to your site. Always include keywords
- Web Directories - An important source but be carefull not to waste time and money listing in every directory you can find.
Confused by terms banded around by your SEO people? It’s understandable. Technical people think nothing about throwing technical terms around like ninja throwing stars.
There are many factors which influence the results you see on search engines. These factors can be split into a few basic categories:
On Page Visable
This is basically what you can see on screen when you visit a page on your website. Your copy (written content), alternate text (displayed when you put your cursor over an image), anchor text (text you use for links to other pages) and links to 3rd parties.
On Page Invisable
The information which is behind the scenes on the page you are visiting. The code used to create your website. The information (or meta data) used to describe the page
Off Page
Everything else! Mainly inbound links from reputable, high ranking, related sites.
What is Black Hat SEO?
Basically it is the use of techniques which have been banned by the search engines because they results in a distortion of the search engine results. The use of these techniques is at your own risk as they can (and probably will) result in permanent exclusion from the search engines. We never use them - they are reserved for those companies who have moved over to the “dark side”.
What should I avoid?
- The following is not an exhaustive list but it will give you a good idea.
keyword, anchor text and domain name stuffing - repeating your key phrases over and over to raise its presence on the page
- Using hidden text or links - a definate “No No”
- Using techniques to artificially raise the number of inbound links to your page - eg through the services of link farms
- Cloaking - that is delivering different content to the search engines than your users to artificially raise your rankings
- Doorway / Gateway / Jump pages - pages which are designed as an entrance to the web site but which have no real content. Great care needs to be taken when developing landing pages to ensure they are not classed as doorway pages.
- Excessive outbound links to sites which are using black hat SEO
- Link Hoarding - obtaining as many inbound links as possible whilst giving out few outbound links
- Auto-generated content of no value to the user which is used purely to generate high ranking pages
So why are these banned?
These techniques are banned because they artificially raise your rankings. The principle of most search engines is to deliver results that are relevant to the search term you entered. If you are trying to distort these results you may find your site banned. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of optimising your site without the use of techniques which get you banned!
Search Engine Optimation, SEO, Website Optimisation, Page Optimisation - all names for the same process. Adjusting the content and structure of your page to achieve high rankings on search engines for selected key phrases.
Do I need my website optimised?
No doubt you are aware that search engines produce their results based on the keywords that you enter. Most search engines produce two sets of results, the natural listings and sponsored listings, and then present them together on your system. Without optimisation your website is virtually invisible to the natural listings.
It is a one-off process?
Unfortunately SEO is a continuous process, both to maintain existing rankings and to improve rankings for other key phrases that may bring in relevant traffic. However once your site ranks highly in a search engine you don’t pay for any traffic from that natural listing.
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