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.
I am confident that at some point you have received an email offering to submit your website to thousands of search engines for the low low cost of £79. The value may change but the message doesn’t - we can get you more traffic for very little money.
So what’s the problem?
You simply don’t need to be listed in a thousand search engines. Most people 99.9% in the UK use around 50 search engines between them. Out of that top 50 Google, Yahoo any MSN receive 85% of the searches. Knowing that where would you invest your time?
In addition some of the less scupulous mass submission services simply take your money and then generate spam email, which will give you know benefit and kill off your inbox!
Want better advice?
Have a look at this post search engine submission
Customers will invariably find your website through using a Search Engine, such as Google, MSN, or Yahoo. Submission is basically the process of getting your website listed in such search engines.
Google, Yahoo and MSN account for over 85% of the searches in the UK – with Google taking around 50%. If a listed website links to your website then your website will be found automatically… eventually. By entering your website URL (the full address including the http://) into the submission page you can speed that process up greatly. Simple eh?
For more information, take a look at
Google.co.uk - http://www.google.com/addurl/
MSN.co.uk - http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
Yahoo.co.uk - http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
What else can I do?
Submit your website to the Open Directory Project http://www.dmoz.org. This not only improves your ranking in Google but feeds many other search engines and directories although you must be careful not to submit to the ODP too often (every 3 months at the most), as this may actually impact on your listing.
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