What is SEO?
When they carry out a search on sites like Google or Bing, most people will normally only look on the first couple of pages of results, of which there are usually many. Hence the need to make your site as search engine-friendly as possible in order to appear in these first few pages, and ideally on the first page.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a selection of techniques, which when applied to a website can:
- Get listed search engines like Google finding your site, and to know what search terms you want your site to be found for (Keywords).
- More visits, attract more traffic / potential clients with higher positions in the search engine results.
- MeasurabilityTo be able to measure how your site is contributing to your business
SEO is NOT an exact science
NO company can guarantee that they can get you the no.1 slot. Google and other search engines are secretive about how they rates sites, so SEO consultants can only use common sense and knowledge about what seems to work at the time.
During the design process of your site, I include good practice, basic SEO techniques, which will help your chances of being found and ultimately improve your ranking in the results.
SEO is something that should be ongoing, doing a little and often is usually the best way forward for sites serving a local area or region.
Affordable, Local SEO
Getting your site seen by your local area.
The sites I work on are generally for small businesses or start up companies, who don't necessarily need to reach the whole of the UK or beyond. Most serve a local region, a town, a county, or a region. Therefore localised SEO is required and is normally slightly easier because of the number of competitors within that area is less.
There are many SEO companies out there, who offer full SEO services. This service can run into hundreds of pounds per month. The cost should reflect the time it takes, for example, Hypnotherapist in Cumbria is easier to rank for, than say Hypnotherapist.
One of the biggest parts of SEO is also the most time-consuming: Link Building. Google loves sites to have links to it from other sites. Link building is about finding the right sort of sites that will benefit your site, with a link to it. SEO should be an ongoing activity with your site, constantly getting more links , changing keywords if needed, adding content to your site etc.
Search Engine Submission & Customer Tracking.
The big search engines for instance Google and Bing can take anything from a few days or up to several months to find your site and list it fully. There are two main ways the search engines will find your site. First is to submit your domain via submission buttons on the search engines - however, this route generally takes a lot longer for them to list your site.
Secondly a better way to get your site listed is through links to your site from other sites, (called backlinks) particularly on social sites like Facebook or Twitter.
As part of a site creation, I will arrange for a few links to your site, as well as ensuring sitemaps are in place. Google also has a disliking for newly created domain names. Don't take it personally, but it can take a while (about 6months) for your true ranking and positioning in Google to settle. So use this time to get quality links to your site.
Now, you've got all these clients coming to your site, you want to know, how many, what they're doing and if they're doing what you
want them to i.e. buying your goods or services.
I add Google Analytics to my sites and can talk you through the reports it produces, and what it means for you and your site.
Still wanting to do it yourself
If you want to do it yourself then why not subscribe to Pippas Web blog or find me on Facebook for suggestions of SEO you can try yourself & the latest SEO. news. Also there are lots of free SEO tools to help you meet your goals, check out these tools to get you started
Pippas Web can offer affordable SEO packages that suit both your site and your budget. To discuss your SEO requirements and request a quote contact me to discuss further.
