Seo summary
Below is an overview of steps we would go through to ensure your site is well optimised and performing well with the search engines. This list is by no means exhaustive - we don't want to give all our tricks away! Contact us for further information.
Keywords - doing your research
Keywords form the basis of any Search Engine Optimisation campaign so the most relevant and strongest keyword combinations should be identified and agreed prior to starting the project.
It is important to have lots of keyword rich content on your website. It should however be written with the human visitor in mind, not for the sole benefit of search engines. Your content shouldn't be conceived at the expense of soundly structured, well-written copy.
Make the navigation easy to follow
The navigation of your website is important as it guides your visitor around your site and helps them find what they need, as quickly as possible. It is also important for search engines (using what are called spiders or robots) to navigate your site so you should make it easy for them to find the most important pages on your site. That's why the navigation systems we design are simple, and don't rely on technologies such as Flash.
Add a site map
Too many navigation options at the top level of your web site is not always a good idea. A sitemap should be present to allow visitors (and the search engines) to easily scan your site for content.
Internal cross Linking
Cross linking is creating links between internal pages with relevant content. The presence of these links not only improves your visitor's experience but can benefit your site in the search engines. They provide more easy access to important pages as well as demonstrate that further related content is available.
Filenames and URL structures
Every page on your website should have a meaningful URL structure and filename as it contributes to the search engines assumption of what a page is about. For example, which of the following do you think would be most meaningful, both to a visitor and a search engine?
www.officefurniture.co.uk/index.asp?tab=p_products_3&id=&pid=32&cid=4
or
www.officefurniture.co.uk/products/officechairs/
Page Titles and Headers
Any document is best given it a title that easily identifies the content. When you open that document you will likely confirm the content with a page title and/or headings. Search engines consider the title and page headers as strong indicators of the page content.
Meta description
Your web site's Meta description is an important tag in that the contents are used to summarise your site on a number of search engine results pages, including Google. We will review your description and make sure it is well written, unique to the page and include the relevant keywords (so your potential visitor can see it is relevant to their query). Consider that a good description when you rank #3 might mean you attract almost as many if not more clicks than the site that ranks #1.
Meta keywords
The Meta Keywords were previously used by search engines to identify the content of a website. Since unscrupulous web site owners were not entirely honest in using these, they are now not considered as important. Some smaller search engines still factor in the Meta words, so there is no harm in ensuring these are well considered.
Alt tags
Alt tags are 'alternative text' that are primarily there for accessibility purposes and accessibility guidelines stress that alt tags must be used for any image that depicts a message to the human visitor. Search engines also consider these tags as they offer further weight to a websites relevancy to a keyword search.
The Internet is all about being connected!
The number of 'links' - or 'Back links' as they are sometimes called - into your site are a key factor in ranking your site. Google uses PageRank as a factor in evaluating your SEO ranking. A good PageRank demonstrates that a website is an authority site. It's good to have a high PR for a number of reasons, mainly because when you are seen as an authority and trusted site, the search engines will visit you and 'deep-crawl' your site more often. You can attract a starting PR with good navigation and a search engine friendly design. To build your PR you should attract links from authority, trusted and preferably related websites (ideally with a high PR themselves)
Links should be gathered with caution. They should not grow too fast and appear as natural as possible. The links themselves should be optimised, where possible, for the keyword you are aiming to rank for.
If your Search Engine Optimisation campaign requires the link building placement we will approach this strategy using natural placement. We will gradually submit your site to search engine friendly directories, exchange links with related websites and in some cases we may advise that you invest in search engine optimised text link advertisements on related websites.
Considerations during the web site build (overview)
It's important to make it easy for the search engines to index your web site. There are some technical considerations that can affect how the search engines view your site and therefore reduce your overall web presence:
- Javascript. Limit your use of JavaScript or at least make sure this technology is properly implemented, sourced from an external file. If not used properly, it will hinder the search engines in finding your content.
- Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) CSS is a very search engine friendly way of formatting a webpage (and removes the need for tables). This should also be sourced externally.
- Avoid immersive use of Flash. Flash looks good on websites unfortunately it has no benefit where search engines are concerned. A site designed entirely using flash stands little chance of ranking well using ethical Search Engine Optimisation. Use flash elements sparingly, consider html alternatives and position any flash used below any spiderable content.
- Broken links. Dead links is a common cause of falling ranks. Fix any broken links as soon as possible. If you move a page to a new URL the search engine will still try to access that page. If you don't tell the search engine where to go immediately ranks will be lost. Always redirect to the new or most relevant replacement page. Where there is no worthy replacement, redirect to the homepage the link should redirect to the homepage
- Frames. Sites built using frames can rank in the search engines but they are not ideal. Advancement in web design means it is not necessary to use frames and we would advise a search engine friendly redesign of the whole site before going to the expense of optimising a framed site.
For further details on search engine optimisation either contact us online or give us a call on 0116 254 9888
