The Dark Art of website SEO - exposed...!

SEO… Search engine optimisation. Lets face it, most people view this as something of a dark art – black magic even. But is it really as complicated as SEO companies try to make out?

We don’t think so.

To get your site high on Google there really ten important things you need to consider:

1. Sign up to as many listing sites as possible. This takes time and is boring but it’s worth it for two reasons; the first, Google looks to see how many sites are linking into your website and secondly people use these sites to source anything from garden designers through to cake suppliers.
2. Make sure that your site is hosted through a reputable company. Find out through your hosting company what country your site is hosted in. This often plays a large role in search rankings. If your company is based in the UK then you should really use a hosting company that is also UK based. Never use the cheapest hosting! The problem is, if your designer hosts your website for you, you may feel that what you pay is a lot of money already. In reality the vast majority of what your paying is probably going straight into your designer’s pockets and only a small proportion is actually paying for the hosting service. At AnsteyDesign we don’t believe in ‘mark ups’. The only fee you pay for hosting is the cost from our provider. We feel it’s fairer that way.
3. Content. Ok this might seem obvious but it’s really important. To begin with, you need to make sure that you have text on all the key pages of your website. Then, you need to write your web text as briefly and concisely as possible. It’s proven that people don’t spend long on a website and the one thing they really don’t do is trawl through reams of text. So, if in doubt, cut it out! This in turn helps your keyword density. That’s the other important thing for content – keywords. These are the phrases that people type when they are searching for your products or services. Google has some brilliants free tools to help you determine what your keywords should be. To use them search Google for ‘Keyword generator’.
4. Internal links are something that Google (and other search engines) look for. All they are, are links to other pages inside your website. Simple!
5. While we are on the subject of links, outbound links are another great way to boost your Google rating. It’s important, though, to make sure that the site you link to are relevant to your business in someway. It’s no good selling pet food and linking to mobile phones!
6. Keep your www address clean and simple. Don’t add in random characters (even to try and make yourself look individual). Google and other search engines won’t recognise them and you’ll end up falling off of the SEO list!
7. We touched on keywords earlier but there is more to them than website content. You need to make sure that any images you use have been correctly labelled with alt tags, meta page info is supplied, robot.txt and a site map is included.
8. Make sure you build your website correctly! Google is not a fan of frames these days, it much prefers DIV tags which provide greater readability and access for all browsers…
9. Get on to Twitter, Facebook – start a blog! The way Google picks up a website is changing. It no longer looks at the website structure it also looks at how often your company’s name appears on the internet. It’s important, therefore, to start using social network to your advantage. Twitter and Facebook can really make a difference to the effectiveness of your website.
10. Keep your site up-to-date. It’s really important that you don’t let your website grow stale. Google can tell if you don’t keep your site regularly updated and it really can have an impact on where it appears on Google and other search engines.

To speak to someone about your website needs call 01420 542 671