A lot of people have heard of search engine optimisation, but most people don’t fully understand what the process involves. Most people will say things like “it’s about having words on your website in the code” or “you need to get lots of links don’t you?”.
These are both partly true, but search engine optimisation involves a lot more than that. SEO can be a very complex process, especially in competitive market sectors. As the search engines are constantly changing their ranking factors and the way that they assess websites, the work involved with SEO can change quite dramatically. However, a few things remain constant: quality and hard work.
For the past 5 years I have worked on websites in a wide range of different market sectors.
Well... the answer to that should be fairly self explanitory. The fact you are reading this page is a good sign. If you site starts to rank higher in the search engines then you will notice an increase in the number of visitors and hopefully business enquiries too.
You will probably find that your website ranks well when people search for your business by brand related keywords, but ideally you would like people to find your website when they search for product or service related words.
If you own a plumbers company in Nottingham called "Dave the Plumber" then your site should really rank first for "dave the plumber" due to it being so specific. Through SEO you would expect your site to start ranking for terms like:
The process of SEO may sound a bit complicated, but it is possible to break it down into a number of key areas:
Keyword research - A process that identifies relevant keywords that your site will be optimised for
On-page optimisation - Development work on your site to put the chosen keywords in key areas of your site
Off-page optimisation - focussed online marketing to help build links to your web pages
Content development - ensuring you have plenty of original content on your site to improve the relevancy to your keywords
Testing and review - reviewing the progress to make sure things are going along the right lines.
The process of search engine optimisation is different for every website. If you see companies offering generic “SEO packages” then it can be a bit of a warning sign. All of the main areas will vary depending on how your site is currently performing. If things are really bad, the on-page optimisation and content development are likely to need most attention.
In addition to SEO, I also build websites. If your site needs any development work than I will be able to do this for you, I have experience building and working on websites in some of the leading content management systems.
That’s right... I’m a freelancer and work from home. This means that I can offer my services for a much lower price than most web agencies or SEO companies. If you have a quote from a company then I’m pretty sure I could provide the same service for a much lower price.