Search engine optimisation or SEO abbreviated is a combination of different services aimed at improving the position of a website in the organic listings of a search engine (the top 10 positions on the results pages).
There are many different SEO services an SEO consultant or SEO company will use in order to achieve the desired result the client is aiming for. You may have already been approached by a search engine optimisation company who will offer SEO services with guaranteed results.
What is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising?
One of the most common techniques (not my preferred) used by companies to get results fast is by using Google Adwords to pay for the position. How it works is by choosing a desired keyword set and competing in an auction style system, effectively outbidding competitors to place your advert in the highlighted sponsored section of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPS). For example, is you are an SEO company in Sheffield, you may choose ‘SEO company’ as one of the main target keywords. Using Google Adwords you would then choose the maximum amount you are willing to ‘pay per click’ in Google should you obtain the top spot in the sponsored section.
PPC Advantages
- Very fast results (same day)
- Budgets and the return on investment (ROI) can be fully monitored using statistics and landing page tracking
- Ad groups can be demographically displayed and altered to suit
- Adverts can be displayed within an exact distance in miles/km of the business postcode
- Brand awareness is raised
- You only pay for clicks not impressions (the times a listing is displayed)
- Guaranteed traffic
PPC Disadvantages
- Short term plan
- Expensive prices for more competitive keywords
- Client money can be exploited by many unethical SEO companies
- Some SEO companies use these results to take advantage of non internet savvy clients to claim they have ‘got them to the top’ to get paid
- Results only last as long as your budget
- Budgets of less than £100 pcm don’t really make any difference
- Unless managed regularly you may overpay for terms
- Unless setup correctly money may be spread too thinly
- Unless setup correctly adverts may appear on other irrelevant websites
There are a few more positives and negatives however I can’t list them all on here today. The main thing to consider is that i’m not against PPC and I actually manage campaigns for clients but my point is that it needs managing correctly. Watch out for companies using PPC results as a way to measure their success and claim it is website search engine optmisation that will benefit you in the long run.
Why are other SEO services more beneficial in the long run?
Some Advantages Of Long Term SEO services
- The development work is longer lasting
- Far cheaper in the long run
- Traffic is limitless
- Naturally strengthened as content is added over time
- Brand awareness can also be raised by external website SEO techniques
- Cost can be managed monthly
- Costs can be paid on result of the SEO
- In house involvement is possible
- Multiple techniques are available
- SEO services can be altered so suit the client
- SEO services can be altered per campaign
- Long term results can be statistically monitored
- Media platforms can be utilised freely
- Viral and guerilla marketing techniques can be used to aid the SEO campaign
Disadvantages of SEO services excluding PPC
- Takes longer to see the benefits
- Some companies use unethical strategies in SEO which risks penalisation in Google and other search engines
In Summary
Search engine optimisation services vary from company to company, consultant to consultant. If you don’t use my services to help your company in it’s own search engine marketing campaign please be wary of the bad companies by doing your research and avoid running the risk of investing money inefficiently.
PPC is fine to use as a technique and is actually great for promotions, special events and people wanting quick results. In my experience companies that have a product to sell benefit the most from it as their cash flow and conversion rates can be fully monitored. Long term search engine optimisation strategies are by far the best in the long run all round. I advice a small investment into PPC campaigns to kick a website off or promote something quickly but feel the client benefits the most from long term SEO techniques.
SEO Advice FREE
This article is aimed at small business owners and people new to web design, it covers a bunch of techniques that work on small websites to regionally SEO your own website. I’m giving away a few SEO secrets as a good will gesture seen as it’s christmas (well nearly). If there is such a thing as karma I should have a fab xmas period for this one.
So Whats’ FREE?
Today’s secret SEO tip is how to alter your website and increase your Google visibility regionally. Easy for experienced SEO people but difficult for others to get their head around. Let’s say you are a design shop in Sheffield, your website is called something like afabshop.com and you aren’t showing up anywhere close to the homepage of Google.
So How?
In order to explain I’ll use a book metaphor, a good book has a great title and when opened you see a list of chapters. If you scan through to chapter 3, the initial paragraph opens with something related to the chapter, got me so far? Try to see your website is the same way, it’s all about being relevant to what the person is looking for and delivering the right content to Google when someone searches for a business like yours.
Is Your Book Worth A Read?
Your website may be called afabshop.com but try to give your site a title related to what the user has searched for in Google like ‘top design shop in Sheffield’, not the website www address I’m talking about a page title, after all, your logo probably has your company name on it anyway. Next, see the navigation as the chapters in your book, chapter 3 should be ‘The Design Shop’ rather than ‘ Our profile’. Then when the user visits chapter/page 3 it should have a visible page heading like ‘Design Shop in Sheffield’ followed by a paragraph or two discussing the design shop in Sheffield and the types of products sold in there.
Clarify Please
Inform Google that you have written a book on design shops in Sheffield, be relevant to what the person is searching for and remember content is key. If your website doesn’t mention your main keyword in the title, header and initial first 100 words then why would Google think your book is worth reading? It will probably give the person searching online a more relevant resource.
The Technical Bit (How To)
HTML is the programming language websites are built in (simply put), a web page has a head section and a body section. the head section is invisible to a user and contains information for the search engines amongst other things. It has a title tag which appears at the top of the browser, right at the top of the screen which names your website.
If your website is currently called ‘A Fab Shop’ change it to be a regionally specific key phrase, for example ‘Design Shop in Sheffield | A Fab Shop’. The body section is the visible section of the website on the computer screen i.e from my logo to my copyright footer. In the code you should have one H1 HTML tag which tells Google what this page discusses, ask your web guy/girl to ensure you do. Make the header tag (the chapter title) regionally specific to to the key phrase. Instead of ‘Welcome to my site’ or ‘Introduction’, go for the key phrase again but maybe reversing it, ‘Sheffield Design Shop’.
Finally make sure the first 100 words in the content are relevant to the target key phrase and include the target phrase multiple times rather than discussing the company’s family history and how good you think you are as design shop. That could be on a different page as the homepage is the most important page in a search engines eyes. Don’t forget, make sure its regionally specific.
One more thing, why not try naming the main image on the homepage to be more descriptive than image1.jpg or DC001.jpg to something like, design-shop-sheffield.jpg and naming the HTML image alt tag to be ‘Design Shop Sheffield’.
Ok, I’m kind of getting most of this but what else could I do externally from the website?
- Add yourself into website directories naming your company name as Design Shop Sheffield rather than Afabshop.com. This will increase backlinks to your website to for the relevant term and associate that phrase with your site more.
- Add yourself to Google. ‘HERE’
- Sign up for Google local business centre. ‘HERE‘
- Add your site regionally to DMOZ. ‘HERE‘
Any questions or if you need any help feel free to email me. If you found this article useful please use the social networking tools below to share the knowledge.
Merry xmas guys.
Why not?
Risk FREE search engine optimisation services, if I don’t get you the result you want, you won’t pay a penny.
My Experience
Over the past 8 years in the industry I have followed SEO trends, peaks and troughs in markets online and constantly maintained a finger on the pulse of what’s happening with the leading search engines. I have personally designed, developed and marketed 300+ websites and as times have changed, I have seen how top search engine optimisation on a website has become the key component to online success.
Why Me?
When I created this site as an existing business owner myself I did my fair share of market research and not surprisingly found numerous websites offering SEO services. I’ll be honest, there are some really great SEO companies out there and of course a bunch of bad apples. I wanted to give people a reason to choose me as an SEO specialist, either as an SEO consultant or to carry out the work myself over a selected period of time; that’s why I decided to offer this service.
How It Works (7 Steps To Success)
- I will have a look at your current setup
- We sit down and discuss target keywords and phrases
- Look at competitors that got it right and wrong
- You tell me the target Google positions for each phrase
- Based on difficulty, I give you a price and in cases a list of internal SEO suggestions
- I work for a minimum of two months to get you your rank
- When I succeed you pay for the result using the money earned from your new customers
Sounds Great, How Much Exactly Though?
Every case is different but as a general guide, the idea is you earn more money from the new traffic I generate, so most people prefer to pay monthly based on position success.
If I get you into the 7-10 spot in Google for a fairly difficult term, you would pay £50 pcm for 12 months for the work involved, position 4-7 £75 and 1 and 3 in Google £100 pcm.
Bear in Mind
If you don’t get the spots we decide on you don’t pay a penny for the work or advice up to that point.
Please also bear in mind this is a very popular setup as it is 100% risk free on the client side so I cannot take on all cases.
If you would like to learn more, simply call my Sheffield office on 08444 145 932 or mailme@theseospecialist.co.uk
This article is intended to highlight how being ‘in the news’ on and offline can help SEO for a website in a very positive way.
Press Releases
One of the fundamental techniques of good SEO is to create quality backlinks ideally from high ranking relevant websites. Personally speaking, I quite enjoy reading and learning about new things online. I also favour a link within a page to a page of links, so what better way to get users to the site than spreading your news across the web.
Most press related sites are highly ranking and have high traffic volumes so they are a great platform to aim for. The quality of the news is the key to success SEO wise. Make sure it’s something worth reading and its viral reach will naturally increase.
A recent client site has seen a huge increase in users by simply introducing their offline activities into an online press release and distributing across the internet through social media platforms and a few industry related blog sites. Minor word of warning, alter the article if you use the same one across multiple sites or you may risk being penalised for duplicate content.
Social networking
One of the fastest ways of spreading news online is by using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Create a following and you will benefit from repeat users.
Final thought
Try to maintain a regular pattern / date of release for your news, if you want to create a following or ‘keep in the news’ over a sustained period of time. A good way to achieve this would be to release news articles from an archive, maybe featuring a product or reigniting an old offer to gain new customers.
