For all your print graphic design and website requirements in Christchurch, Bournemouth and Poole
Tel: 01202 474545
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Most of what you read on the subject of SEO and SEM is often misleading and self-serving. The position is not helped by all the disreputable telesales operations that promise SEO results they can never deliver (not to mention an over-priced and no-escape 12 month contract that is hard to escape because they have taken your debit card details for payment) … So it´s no wonder many people know they should SEO their website, but they don´t know where to go to get it done.
Let us first assure you that unless you SEO your website, you really are missing out on a very effective and totally free marketing initiative. Once your website has been correctly search engine optimised, it will continuously promote your business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year … with little further intervention on your part.
Here are few helpful pointers to consider about SEO:
- If you think about it, not everyone can have a top five ranking, and there may not be hundreds of potential customers searching every second of the day waiting for your website to appear in the top five rankings. So although you need to have a realistic expectation of what SEO can be achieve for your business, this should not deter you from carrying out the exercise. From our own perspective, we correctly anticipated that we would pick up an average of one new client a month because they have visited and responded to this website. This is a very satisfactory return on investment for us.
- Your ranking position will be affected by a number of factors beyond your control. The amount of competition you face for the search phrases you are targeting; the age of your domain and the size of the potential market you are going for will all play a part in determining how far up the search engine list you will appear.
- You should remember that SEO work requires giving specialists direct access to your website code. This access privilege should only be given to reliable people who will act professionally and responsibly.
- SEO is not a technical coding challenge. Success will only come from fully understanding the specific marketing objective to be achieved on a page by page basis, and then fine tuning the text in the meta tags and body copy to win the desired results. We see many examples of excellently websites, coded up by other agencies, where the required elements for SEO are present but they have not be addressed and followed through. The classic indicator of only paying lip-service to SEO is to confirm every page of the website has the same content in the meta tags. A job half done is not going to work at all.
- Whether a SEO exercise has worked can usually be determined within 10 days. So we recommend you think twice before committing to a 12 month contract! ALso remember that a bank may not stop a payment to a supplier where you have given them your debit or credit card details. This kind of contract is not like a direct debit or standing order where you remain in control. Often the only way to break the payment cycle is to cancel the card.
- Search engine records are continuously updated. So a SEO success today, does not necessarily mean success tomorrow; and
- SEO should not be an expensive exercise to carry out.
For a sensible SEO solution from a responsible SEO specialist, call us on 01202 474545.