What
is the difference?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving
the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural"
or unpaid search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals
with paid inclusion. Obviously, the higher a site appears in the search results
list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. Both options give
a web site web presence. Although SEO is a better option in the long term as this
will improve the overall result of your web site presence. Why should
I bother?
You have gone to the trouble of designing a website and up loaded
it onto the Internet. How do expect people to find it? If you do nothing with
your website, you might just as well have, printed a million leaflets, and left
them in their box, it will give you the same result! Nothing. Can't I
just have hundreds of links or keywords?
No, it doesn't work that way,
black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing
and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and ruin
the user-experience of search engines. Search engines such as Google look for
sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indexes.
How
well is your website performing?
Where are you listed in Google for your
chosen search key word or phrase? if you are listed in the top 10 on the front
page, then well done, you are doing something right, it probably could still be
a lot better. If you are not listed on the front page, then it is time to take
action. Do not however, expect to get on the front page of Google for a very popular
search terms, such as 'bad credit mortgages', there are 23 million results for
this search term and unless you have a lot of time, and money, you are not going
to make much headway in pushing out the top performers. What can you
do for me?
It is better to find a more niche search phrase, one that is
not an actual industry term (this is one that the general public probably don't
use) most of the searches for 'bad credit mortgages' are carried out by industry
specialists checking their search results... and they are wasting good money on
SEM campaigns, trying to get the best position, for a phrase that no actual customer
is looking for. It is better to have 10 hits a day, by customers that actually
contact you, or buy some thing from you. Rather than 10,000 hits a day, that just
leave your site seconds after visiting, its all about targeting the correct people
and the search phrases they will/may use. What is the best course of
action for me?
I have a website, but have never undertaken
any SEO and do not know where I am listed.
If your starting from scratch
and need immediate results; I always recommend starting off with SEM such as Google
adwords, this still takes work and requires a little insight into how the performance
of searches and clicks are giving you results. I can set up a campaign for you
and monitor/report on the results, the initial campaign will need to be fine tuned
and adjusted to ensure you are getting value for money and getting the enquiries
you want. SEM will not, do your website any favours on its own, and will only
get you to the top of the paid Google results, if you continue to pay the money
required to beat your competitors to the best positions. This could eventually
get expensive, but it does depend on your profit margins and amount of sales achieved.
Whilst running the SEM campaign I would recommend SEO work to be undertaken
on your site, to improve, and enhance, your web sites natural search engine results.
Once the SEO is working satisfactorily, we can then slow down on the SEM if required. I
am listed in Google, but have not really looked at SEO before.
SEO is the
way to go then. I will review your website site content, titles, description and
keywords/phrases, research your best business search engine key words/phrases
and recommend changes to improve your website. The results are easily checked
and confirmed. Once this work is completed, I will recommend the best way to maintain
your new search engine positions. I am in the top 5 listings in Google,
but still do not get the business I want, I want more business.
Are you
actually offering services or products that people want! If you are (and I will
be able to confirm with you, the potential returns, on whatever services or products
you are offering) and your website is listed well in the search engines then perhaps
SEM is the way forward. We need to pull customers always from your competitors;
I will research your competitors SEM marketing strategy and suggest the best way
forward. Is it expensive?
Not as expensive as you would think,
and not as expensive as not having customers! Remember this is not about the amount
of visitors to your website, or about the amount of clicks on your adverts, it's
about the number of sales made.... Can I SEO myself?
Yes. You
can always improve your web sites performance in search engines. To get the best
results from your website; - Concentrate initially on content.
- Then
relevant page titles (Title Meta Tag)
DO NOT: Leave "Untitled"
as your Title Meta Tag.
DO NOT: Use "Homepage" as your Title
Meta Tag (this really is, only slightly better than "untitled").
DO
NOT: Use only your company name as your Title Meta Tag. Unless your company
name is searched thousands of times each month.
DO: add keywords and
keep the title short and precise. - Then metatag descriptions. (I don't
want to get into an argument with other SEOs about description tags - some say
they are a waste of time - I have done my own research and have proven results
that well structured description tags work.)
- Then key words and key phrases.
(Less IS more.)
E.g. <meta name="keywords" content="keyword
1, keyword 2, keyword 3, etc">
- The way your text is laid out
on your pages is important - make sure that targeted keyword or key phrases have
enough prominence on the page and are used enough in the text to have an impact.
(In a structured way - not just lists of the same word or phrase, this is considered
by some search engines as spam)
- If you are targeting Google (and this
is not the only search engine in the world - just the biggest) then ensure you
have created an XML site map and uploaded it using the Google tools (do some homework...)
- Ensure
your website coding meets the correct standard - check your web page at http://validator.w3.org/
The
above is SEO at its most basic, whilst some will argue that keyword and and description
tags are no longer used by the major search engines, they are still used by the
smaller and older engines . The steps above do work, and it does make a difference
to your listings - If you want any help with SEO (yes, I do charge a fee) please
do not hesitate to get in touch using the details found on my contact me page.
And remember "Results speak louder than words". Abiz
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