Website Promotion and Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation - get your website noticed by Search Engines

Search Engine Optimisation is a big buzzword in the online world. There are many companies promising number one placement for certain search terms and thousands or millions of visitors. While there are many serious and good optimisation companies out there, it is our believe that in particular many of the companies which promise number one placement in a series of spam emails are not worth looking at. Let's be realistic - they would promise a hotel in Cardiff to bring them to number on in Google under the term 'Hotel in Wales' .... they probably make the same promise to a hotel in Swansea ... Carmarthen ... Pembroke ... Haverfordwest ... and so on.

Search Engine Optimisation - the realistic approach

The image on the left show a search on google for 'preserves' (search done on 12th November 2007). The website of Wendy Brandon, a Centrepage customer who sells handmade preserves in her shop near Boncath and via mail order is in the seventh place. The amazing part is that the search returned 18, 600, 000 results - in other words - eighteen million six hundred thousand. We could have shown other results where customers of Centrepage Design occupy the number one spot ('Hotel Carmarthen', Restaurant Carmarthen') but given the high number of returned results we think that a number seven slot is quite impressive.

Now, would we guarantee a new customer that we achieve this kind of positioning? NO!. Because we don't believe that it can be guaranteed and even if it is achieved it can not be guaranteed to last. But ... there is much that can be done to encourage good search engine ranking ... please read on!

Is Search Engine Optimisation a waste of money?

Reading the above you might ask this question - no guaranteed results, no promise of permanent placements, reports of dubious companies offering the earth. Again , the answer is 'NO!'. It is not a waste of money but it is to some degree a misnomer. Optimising a website for search engines is just as much optimising a website for people.

Website Structure

It begins with the structure of the site. It is important that the site or page has a structure in the first place. The structure should contain certain page elements which make it easier to identify the importance of various section. If you have this in place you indicate what on your site is important ... to people and to search engines.

Website Content

The actual information you are providing is the most important part of optimisation. If your site is found under the search term 'Cottage in Cornwall' and your website is promoting a holiday cottage in Wales then the fact that you have been found and that somebody has looked at your site is absolutely useless to you - you have a disappointed site visitor. Be clear what you are talking about, provide information which is useful, make sure your information is well presented - this works for people and for search engines.

Know Your Customer

Knowing your customer goes hand in hand with Website Content. If you know who is likely to look at your site and why they have searched for it then you also know what kind of information they may be looking for. Provide the correct information - get ranked - get found! Call 0845 123 2563 if you want us to help you to improve your search engine ranking or send us a brief email and we will contact you.

Additional Optimisation Factors and Criteria

Of course this is not all what search engine optimisation is about, there are other factors to be taken into consideration. Some of these are internal to your site, some of them external ... some of them you can influence easily, some of them not so easily. The points on this page give a good basis for good ranking. To find out more call 0845 123 2563 or send us a brief email and we will contact you.