Reality check!
Many factors affect the chances of achieving a ‘top 10’ page ranking on Google & other top search engines. Certain factors are easier to influence than others and our SEO service as detailed above focuses on the areas that can be controlled. Here are the main factors that affect search engine success: -
- How many other websites link to your website? (known as ‘Link Popularity’)
- How important are the websites that link to yours?
- How long has your website existed (does Google consider it a ‘trusted’ source)?
- How relevant is your website/page to the phrase the user is searching?
- How many other websites are competing for the phrases you wish to be found under?
- Is your page content genuine - is your copy (text) original?
- Is your website built in accordance with Google’s guidelines so that all the content can be indexed by their ‘spiders’?
- Does your website use ‘frames’ that could hinder Google from indexing your web content?
- Does your website have HTML navigation so that Google can use it as an index to find all your pages or is the navigation hidden inside a flash movie?
- Does your website use ‘tables’ in order to format the layout of text and images in which case you could be penalised?
- Is most of your website ‘hidden’ in a database that cannot be accessed by search
- Do you run an AdWords campaign as this will affect the number of visits Google’s spiders make to your website
If you want a more detailed layman’s guide please ask one of our consultants for a copy of our “95 SEO tips & tricks” document which covers everything that can affect SEO.
All websites built SEO compliant
Over the last 5 years we have focussed on perfecting our web construction methods to produce websites of the highest standard. ‘Highest standard’ covers many areas that are not even considered by many other design agencies and due to the technical nature of websites; clients may not even realise their importance. These include: -
Standard due diligence policy for all websites
- Ensuring website is cross-browser compatible (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox etc)
- Cross-platform compatible (Windows, Mac OS)
- DDA compliant (E.g. work with text-to-speech readers for visually impaired)
- SEO policy
Our standard search engine optimisation (SEO) policy
- A dynamic (self-updating) site map so all pages AND properties can be indexed
- URL re-writing so that pages have meaningful web addresses instead of code that Google cannot fathom.
- Client control over every page’s Meta Data (Meta Title, Meta description and Meta Keywords)
- AUTOMATIC creation of SEO Meta Data for every property on the website
- No usage of ‘tables’ in pages
- Avoidance of Java & Flash navigation links (Google cannot read these)
- Ability to insert ‘circular’ navigation so pages of website can be linked using words in paragraph text (as opposed to just the main navigation bar)
Search Engine Marketing (taking SEO to the highest level)
Some large companies have sizeable marketing budgets and will spend £000’s each month on ‘search engine marketing’ This involves adding links to your website onto other established websites and adding entries onto web logs (‘blogs’). This is a time-consuming and expensive process and results may take many months (6-9 months +) to appear.
Companies offering these services charge anything from £400.00 per month up to £000’s and are therefore only justified if the revenue potential is high enough. As the web continues to grow and the on line spending takes over from the high street; search engine marketing is becoming essential in the fight for web dominance and even survival!. Please ask about our Search Engine Marketing partners if you require this service.