SEO Explained
These are several steps to good search engine optimisation, which are outlined below:
1. Choosing the right keywords:-
There are a number of useful tools available that can tell you which search terms are being searched form, including Keyword Discovery and Google's Traffic Estimator. There is little point in guessing what people may search for and you don't want to appear for what you think people will search for without knowing that others are using those same phrases. For example, if you are a Guest House in Windermere how do you know which search term is the most used? It could be any "windermere guest house", "windermere b&b", "windermere bed and breakfast", "guest house in windermere", "b&b in windermere", "bed and breakfasts in windermere", "windermere b&bs", etc. Knowing which keywords are the most used is absolutely critical.
2. Competition Analysis:-
Using your keyword analysis the next step is to check the level of competition for each of the phrases. Here you need to know the number of competing pages which is shown at the top of the results page on Google. Generally the higher the number of results for a search term, the more difficult it will be to appear towards the top of the listings. From there I would recommend using a back links analyser, or yahoo site explorer to see how many inbound links each of the top 10 search results have to their site. This will give you an idea about how many links you will need to build in order to obtain a top 10 placement for that search phrase.
Here you need to be realistic about your goals. For example, it may be that "lake district bed and breakfast" will require about 1000 links in order to obtain a first page listing on Google, whilst "windermere bed and breakfast" may only require about 150 links.
3. Site Optimisation:-
Having determined the most used keywords and analysed the competition levels you should now have a prioritised shortlist of search terms under which you would like to position your website. Now we need to build these phrases into your site content. I recommend using 2-3 search terms per page in order to be most effective. These terms need to appear in your page title, description, keywords, around three times within the descriptive text on the page and should also be within your site's link anchor text.
4. Link Building:-
Once you have optimised your site it is time to begin the link building work. To maximise the effectiveness we recommend only using web directories, blogs and forums that have a Google PageRank of 3 (PR3+) or more. I would avoid paying for links as Google appears to be outlawing this process. Directories such as dmoz.org, splut.com and hotfroguk.co.uk are ideal for this type of work. If you have your own links page I would recommend establishing some reciprocal links with related businesses. For example, a bed & breakfast provider could exchange links with local attractions, restaurants and activity providers.
Link building does not improve your site's placement overnight, but it is an ideal short-medium term strategy for ensuring a high placement on Google.
We find that spreading the link building process over a number of months, ideally six or twelve, depending on the volume of links required, is the most effective means of maximising your site's progression within the search listings.
5. Traffic Analysis:-
Use you own weblogs, or if you don't have any you can install Google Analytics on your site for free, to monitor the increase in visitors and referrals to your website. In the weeks and months following this type of optimisation and link building work you should really begin to see an upturn in search engine referrals. I would also recommend making a note of your site's placement on Google, Yahoo and Live at the beginning of the process so you can check to see how many places your site has moved up the listings as the seo campaign progresses.
We can help you will all, or any part of this work, so please do not hesitate to contact us for a free quotation should you need any assistance with improving your site's placement within the search engine results pages. Call us on 01539 732430.
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