The truth about Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is not about getting your various web pages to rank well in the search engine results (SERPS). Ranking well is merely positive and often inevitable by-product of good optimisation.
SEO is firstly a process by which you set and maintain your web site’s on site and off site elements correctly and accurately to allow the search engines to find and index the pages of your site for the most accurate terms and order them fairly compared to other sites.
It is your business’ opportunity to help the search engines by presenting the pages openly so their algorithms can rank them in terms of relevance and considering your location, which we presume is in East or West Sussex.
Despite what slick salesman like to say, no one can control the search engines and any trick to do so is likely to get uncovered reasonably quickly with disasterous results.
You Cannot control the Search Engines
What you can control is how well you write, create and populate your web site’s content and how well you present it. Such as:
The keyphrases you target. YOU select which words to be found for based upon your marketplace, your customers and the competition. This is callled ‘Key Phrase’ or ‘Key Word Research’.
You web page code. There are certain requirements and certain desirable page elemetns which can have great benefit if included diligently and properly.
Your content. Search Engines like and recognise good, well written natural original content and sites which are updated regularly. Conversely, they also recgonise web pages with little content or with content which appears else where on other sites and they like this much less.
Your standing in the online community. If the right group of users get to know about your website and the content or products are useful or represent value, people within that interest group will quikly link to it ina natural and organic way. Search engines like this. This is part of your processes of engaging with your online interest groups. Good Link building, Social Media, Display Advertising etc are all methods of your legitimate online marketing exercises. Some yield traffic some yield links.
Just so you know that our description of SEO is 100% accurate, this is what google themselves say about SEO and what they want companies like Digital Growth to do.
What Google Themselves Say about SEO
Search Engine Optimisation Success Guarantees
Is it really possible to GUARANTEE a position or page 1 rank on Google?
No. it isnt, not in the short term. But dont let that put you off.
The SEO uncertainly comes from
a high number of on page variables
off page influencers (url, links)
your number of competitors
strength of those competitors
desiability of the keyphrase you target
how and when your competitors will react with their own SEO program?
uncertainty surrounding the weighting of the above variables
fact that google constantly evolve their algorithm to favour natural language and semantics and devalue falsified elements
Given this, a lot of people will ask “well why bother”?
Should I optimise my website ?
Any good business owner will consider investments carefully. SEO is no different.
However, the general answer is yes, you should. This is because not only is it good practice, but
an unoptimised website is worthless in the natural search arena
an optimised web site is far easier to construct and execute paid advertising campaigns for because of higher quality scores, click through and conversion rates
the optimisation process reveals priceless market research in the form of key phrases and behaviour
key phrase research periodically identifies new markets.
optimised web sites tend to be better managed, run, faster have better usability for the visually impaired and therefore convert better.
