Search Engine Optimization (SEO), London

Many people plan, design and build their websites without giving any thought as to whether their site is search engine friendly, or whether it will be capable of attracting traffic in organic search engine results. At the last minute, after most of the site has been built, they try to optimise their site, not realizing that this work should have been done throughout the planning and building process.

SEO Services & Search Engine Marketing
We think about search engine optimization in the earliest stages of your project. For example, if it is at all possible, we help you choose a domain name that will allow you to include your most important keyword or search term in your URL. If you are selling bicycles then you would do well to have a domain name like sportybicycles.com. We don’t stop with the domain name and include your keywords in your file names as well. For example, a sub-page of this hypothetical site might be www. sportybicycles.com/road-bikes.html

We design your site with both search engines and users in mind
Your site should be easy for your readers to understand, but it should also be easy for search engine robots as well. We often find clients that come to us with a ready made web site have used .gif or .jpeg images to represent their headlines or other important text, and then this text will not be picked up by the search engine robots. In addition, if you have a site that is entirely in a flash format, you will not be providing the search engine spiders with much “food,” or searchable text.

Furthermore, if you have long strings of java script and complex style instructions in the head section of your html page it is better to put the java script in an external file and the style instructions in a separate CSS (cascading style sheet) file, in order to give prominence to the actual text of your web page.

All these problems can be corrected but it costs time and money! So if you can, consult us at the beginning of your web project and not at the end!

We write individual title tags for each and every page of your website
From the standpoint of search engine optimisation, the single most important sentence on any web page is the title tag. The title tag gives the search engine a good indication as to what your page is all about. We incorporate your main keywords or search phrases into your title tag, and keep them at the very front of the sentence. These keywords are more important than your company name (unless it is Coca Cola!). So our Sporty Bicycle Company might have a title tag that looks like this (title) Bicycles: Racing Bikes, Mountain Bikes, Road Bikes, Bicycle Accessories from the Sporty Bicycle Company(/title.).

The title tags of each of the sub-pages of the site should reflect the main content of those pages. We never use the same title tag for all the pages of the site.

Write a concise description tag for each of your web pages
Just as the title tag is the most important sentence or phrase on any page, the description tag is the most important paragraph on any page. We summarise the gist of your page in two or three sentences, again incorporating the keywords and search phrases for which you think people will use when searching for your site. A description tag for the home page of the Sport Bicycle Company could look like this: “The Sport Bicycle Company manufactures mountain bikes, racing bicycles, road bikes and bicycle accessories. Our bicycles are distributed and sold around the world.”

We put your keywords into headers and headlines on your page
Your readers and search engines alike need prominent headlines in order to understand what your page is all about. While a reader only needs to see the headline in a large bold text, search engines distinguish the headlines, which they regard as important indicators of the page, by noting which phrases are encased in header tags such as (H1), (H2), (H3), etc. H1 is considered most important and your first headline should be labelled with this tag. If the header tags make your copy look too big, then we can change the size of the headers by creating style instructions that will render the headlines into sizes that are consistent with the look and feel of your site. Remember, that your sites overall appearance is what will attract new customers too when they have found you!

We write copy that includes your keyword and search phrases at the beginning, middle and end
We write website copy that is search engine optimised, using good writing and presentation procedures. We state clearly what you want to say in the opening paragraph, elaborate on your basic ideas in the middle section of your text and at the end summarise what you have said, reminding your readers with text that is similar to the opening paragraph. We don’t try to stuff your page with the keywords. If we read the page out loud and it sounds funny, then we have overdone the repetition of your search phrases and keywords. A density of 2% is considered to be OK. Thus in a 400 word page of text your keyword might be repeated eight times.

We place your keywords and phrases in the link text of your web pages
So far we have placed the keywords in the strategic places of the web page: the title, the description, the headlines and the body text. Now we have to see that the keywords are included in clickable link text on the page. Whenever you are linking to sub pages or other pages of your site, we make sure that your keywords are included in the clickable portions of the links. Thus, instead of making a link that says “click here” for more information about bicycle accessories, it would be better to write: click here for more information about “bicycle accessories,” with the keywords “bicycle accessories” being the anchor (clickable) text.

We install a navigation system that can be easily followed by search engines
One of the most important steps in getting more traffic to your site is to ensure that all of the site’s web pages are included in the search engine indices. Normally a search engine robot will visit the main page of a site and follow links to the other pages. If your navigation system is based on java scrípt, or on images, there is a possibility that some search engine robots will not be able to follow the links and thus they will not pick up the interior pages of your site. One simple remedy for this problem is to build an additional text-link navigation bar and place it at the bottom of the page. This additional navigation bar will serve multiple purposes:

• a. Help the search engines to reach the interior pages.
• b. Put your keywords in link “anchor text”.
• c. Remind the user to go deeper into the site by repeating the navigation options again.
• d. Build a site map page or use the Google sitemap option.

Getting all of your pages indexed is so important, that it is also prudent we take another step that will ensure that all of your pages are visited by search engine robots. A site map is a page that has text links to all of the pages of your site. As with a text link navigation bar, a site map serves multiple purposes:

• It helps users to find what they are looking for on the site by providing an outline summary of all of your pages
• It helps search engine robots to land on the interior pages

After we build your site map page, we make sure to make a link to it from your home page and the other important pages of your website.

Once your website is up and running concentrate on off-site optimisation
So far all the steps that we have outlined are concerned with on-page factors, the parts of your website that are under your control. But your ranking in Google and other search engines will also be heavily dependent on off-page factors such as how many high quality sites link to your site. Unless you obtain a good amount of high quality links to your site, you will not be able to compete in highly competitive search categories.

By far the best way to get links to your site is for us to build you a site that has valuable content. We endeavour to build sites that are so “cool” or so unique, that other people will link to you without even asking you. Of course this is easier said than done, but it should be what we are striving for.

The next best way to get high quality back links to a website is to write informative articles (or have us write them for you), and get them published on other websites with a link back to your site. This process is known as article marketing and it not only helps to build incoming links, but it also builds your online reputation as an expert in your field.

Other common methods of increasing incoming links include submissions to important directories, participation in forums, and careful trading of links with respected websites.

If you follow the ten “do-it-yourself” search engine optimization tips that we have described in this article, you will have taken a big step towards guaranteeing the success of your online enterprise.

We follow these guides accurately and with passion to make sure that your search engine optimisation is a success on all levels. These simple facts make such a difference to being found and accessible.

If you arrive at our doorstep with an un-optimised web site created by someone else - don’t worry, as part of our strategy would be to look at this and see how we can improve on what you have already.

Note: Depending on your market and the forces within that market, we may recommend the use of a SEO specialist company and we have a number of partners in this arena.

We hope you found this information useful. We would like to remind you that this subject is best served, and more effective as part of a complete marketing plan or strategy, rather than in isolation. For further expert advice please contact us to discuss your requirements or post a question in our blog.

Be Seen, Be Found, Be Accessible, Be Successful!