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What are keywords? Keywords are the actual words or phrases that you would like to attract visitors to your website.
So for example, if you were a solicitor in Brighton, your keywords would be: solicitors in Brighton, legal advise Brighton, Brighton legal support and so on.
These are phrases (or words) that your target market may key in to find you.
Getting a website onto the first page of a search engine can be difficult and can be very time consuming.
What do SEO companies do? SEO companies would work on getting your website up to the top of the search results, this involves doing 2 things
- On-site optimisation
- Off-site optimisation
This would be done roughly 40% (for on-site) and roughly 60% (for off-site).
For on-site The agency would ensure the website is easy for search engines to read, that links work and the site has the chosen keywords appearing.
Content also plays a big part of an effective website.
Search engines love new content, so if there are new articles, press releases etc.
going onto the site (say on a weekly or monthly basis) then this would be good for the site.
This is why blogs are good SEO tools, as they are updated with new information which search engines like.
A stagnant website that does not change is not good for SEO.
For off-site Off-site SEO is probably where more of the work is done.
This work is on-going and is based on a number of different factors all based around generating links to your website from other websites.
The more links you can get the more popular your site is.
However links do vary in their value.
A link from a popular website (like a news website or an industry body) is more valuable that a new directory.
Google set up a system called Page Rank (or PR) whereby it grades all websites from 0 - 9 (9 being the highest).
So if you get a link from a PR 9 website this is worth more than a link from a PR0 of PR 3.
The sort of off-site things that would be done would be
- Directory submissions
- Article submission sites
- Online PR
- On-line web forums
- Social Media
- Buying links
Directory submissions Back in the early days of the web, the only way to find things were by using directories.
When the main search engines started, they used all the directories to create maps of the web and see what sites were popular and what sites were not.
Now they are used as a form of indexing sites.
There are 1000's of directories all around the world and new directories are started up daily.
The same does apply, all directories have a page rank and some are more popular than others.
Main directories such as DMOZ and Yahoo have established directories so a in these is highly recommended.
Article Submission Articles are a great way to get links, as they are considered by search engines to be new information.
There are a lot of article submission websites (mostly free ones) but like directories, they have a page rank, so submitting articles to high PR sites is good for your SEO.
Articles are also good to go on your own website - as new content.
As long as you keep them unique (and do not submit the same article to different sites as well as your own, it should have a good effect.
On-line PR This is a great tool, as it is a little like you writing 1 article, and it them being sent to thousands of websites.
They get picked up by blogs, social networking sites and also human readers.
Online PR is also for every, once it is up it is up and continually works for you.
Getting press releases is fairly cheap (around 45) so for the amount of exposure for the cost is very valuable.
On-line forums These originally were chat rooms for geeks and techies, but are now used by everyone for exchanging ideas, getting advise and also networking.
Read by search engines, they are a good marketing tool.
If you are clever in your posts and comments, you can get good visibility.
However some companies use them just for exposure, which can cause problems and give a bad impression.
So care is needed.
Social Media There are a number of social media sites that have become popular now with businesses to network and get exposure.
They are now read by search engines, so it is advised to read up and understand how to use them for building a presence and networking.
Buying Links There are mixed views on buying links, but our opinion is that it is OK.
Bought links tend to be very powerful in search engines eyes, so if you suddenly buy a lot of links, then you will be flagged up on a kind of radar and could be blacklisted.
However buying a link or two a month along with the other elements above, should be fine as part of the overall SEO strategy.
Search engines like see slow and steady growth as opposed to spurts of activity.
Making slow additions to your website is fine and search engines like this.
Doing a few of the above over a few months is also good.
How long does SEO take? This is a difficult question, as it does really depend on what industry your business is in.
For highly competitive industries (such as marketing, insurance) it could take months or even years until you see your SEO working well.
For less competitive industries (such as vintage stamp collecting or plastic flower cleaning) it may take a few weeks or a few months before you get to where you would like to be.
How much does SEO cost? Most SEO companies do charge a monthly fee for their services and would calculate this based on how much work needs to be done each month.
As mentioned it is not about getting things done quickly, but doing things slow and steadily.
There are no tricks to beat the system (and trying can get your site in trouble by the search engines) but f you follow the guidelines and apply patience and hard work (which is what it is) then you should see the results in your campaign.
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