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.
Pilkington owned Alexandra Business have launched their new website www.alexandrapark.co.uk
Set in 22 acres of landscaped grounds, this major business campus offers the support and services you need, without the premium price tag.
When we were looking to develop a website to promote Alexandra Business Park we had to look no further than one of our own tenants - Bad Robot Limited, and we’re glad we did.
Not only did Bad Robot provide a website design service but they were also able to provide much of the photography and graphics as well as design an electronic brochure for us. I was pleased and impressed to see our site listed in Google - on the First page!
Overall, a helpful and professional service
John Bracken, Pilkington Group
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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