Core Website Needs

SEO Hints

  • Pay for hosting, free options rarely give good access and control.
  • The same for domains, hobby sites suit you.freewebspace.com.
  • Avoid duplicate text, whether from other sites, or your own pages.
  • Valuable content is essential, SEO will not replace a good site.
  • Be compliant but base decisions on visitors as much as search engines.
  • Avoid shortcuts, such as trading links, or overuse of keywords.

The Community

The web by nature is a joined up entity, promoting your website in isolation is not a sound route to visitors or search engines.

Advice on SEO is helpful but should incorporate how you will work with the web, not just technicalities. This can be achieved at no outside cost, driven by the business or the website owner.

The Purpose

Never lose focus on the fact your website is a business tool. SEO is a well integrated addition to this, not an end in itself. Search engines do not buy anything.

Look after those who do with one eye on search engines. Optimising a website can then be enjoyable, as well as rewarding.

 

Search Engine Optimisation

SEO attracts complex definitions, when search engine optimisation simply means all elements relating to a website working together. To gain the best possible position in search, whilst serving and pleasing visitors.

Not so different to a marketing or communications campaign via any other medium, prominence and effectiveness. Additional considerations are knowledge of website construction, how search engines "think" and the way the web interacts.

A proportion of businesses will need technical input but are often in the best position to implement change. Outsourcing SEO is not the only option for websites, they might be served by practical advice to support their own development.

SEO is not Magic

The need is to work alongside another company's business model, a search engine. You have no say in that model but understanding this is simple. They make money by running ads alongside search results, market share is vital and this is achieved by returning the most relevant and helpful results.

To work with search engines you need useful, unique content which they can access and understand. Bear in mind they are also popularity engines, to satisfy their users and therefore in the way they rank websites. Having your site referenced by other relevant sites via inbound links and in social networks is useful.

That is the essence of search engine optimisation. Naturally there are technical nuances, particularly to move from doing okay to performing well. Few of them are however beyond understanding, or part of a hidden code.

There are exceptional people working in SEO but also a number of false promises. Good technical practice and a valuable site are the core of SEO. Not magic wands or secret schemes, just well applied, hard work.

SEO and your Business

The trickiest part of SEO is understanding technical requirements. This could involve developing skills within your business but many technical aspects are static, or a practical change to grasp, once understood not so difficult to follow.

For most smaller businesses, search engine optimisation can focus on advice and skill building. Creating awareness of search engine requirements is key, developing a website is more an ongoing strategy than an instant process.

We would encourage all website owners to take an interest in the basis of SEO. Misunderstandings commonly feature in our website expert evidence reports related to disputes. Even if you are just at the stage of having a few doubts, you are welcome to contact us in confidence.