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Webbed Feet UK, web developers in Salisbury, Wiltshire

How to improve your ranking in search engines

I am a web developer in Salisbury, and I often get asked how clients can improve their position in search engines themselves, so I thought I’d write a blog article. 

Firstly, I’d like to emphasise that this article covers only a small part of search engine marketing (SEM). It is a very competitive area and when you’re competing for the number one position in Google it would usually be advisable to get an expert web developer with a proven track record. Also there are no set rules for search engine optimisation (SEO), it is more of an art than a science, especially at higher levels. That said, the following techniques should help improve your position in search engines without the need for your web designer, and give you an overview of how search engines work.

On-site SEO: Keywords and navigation

Classically web developers used to put keywords into things called ‘META tags’ which used to tell search engines what a website was about. However this was abused, and now search engines are very ‘clever’ in that they will ‘read’ a web page and try and calculate your keywords from that. The trick here is to guess what keywords your customers are likely to be using, and include those keywords throughout your website. Furthermore, each individual web page should have a different set of keywords to the others.

Let’s use Webbed Feet UK as an example. We’re web designers in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Our services cover search engine optimisation, web development, eCommerce and smart phone app development. It would therefore make sense that each of these services has its own page with its own set of keywords.

Focusing on our SEO page, we would first have to think of the most popular 3 or 4 phrases that people may search for. Examples here would be “search engine optimisation in Salisbury”, “SEO in Salisbury”, “search engine marketing in Salisbury” and “SEM in Salisbury”. Note that we would not concentrate on phrases that are too generic. For example “SEO” would be is an exceptionally difficult search to rank number one on due to the competition. Adding “in Salisbury” to this phrase not only make the results more achievable, but also there is a higher chance that the people searching would actually want to use our services.

Once you have your phrases, and have perhaps run them through software such as the Google Keyword Tool, you can incorporate them into your website. Try and do this so that the text reads naturally, try not to repeat the same phrase time after time. For example, rather than us using “... to use our services ...” we could use “to use our search engine optimisation services ...” and then we have more keywords within the text. Try and ensure that each key phrase is mentioned a couple of times, the rule of thumb is that keywords occupy around 5% of the content. If you add too many key phrases you run the risk that Google and other search engines may think you’re over optimising and they may penalise you, plus of course it doesn’t read as well!

Also try and use the keywords throughout your headings as these are given more emphasis. For example “SEO in Salisbury” is far better than “Welcome to my website”.

The same goes for the page title that you see in your browser’s title bar. This shouldn’t read “Webbed Feet UK Home Page” but something like “Search Engine Marketing in Salisbury, Webbed Feet UK”, with the important key phrase first.

In a similar way you should change your META description tag, but you may need your web designer to do this, it won’t take them long.

The trick with adding keywords to your content is to reword things just the right amount: Not too much so that it doesn’t read well and search engines think that you’re keyword stuffing; but enough to get your key phrases throughout the content so that search engines can index your page on your desired key phrases.

As each page of your website will be optimised individually, each page could quite easily be the first page that people find (known as their landing page). It is therefore important that both users and search engines can easily and naturally navigate from every page to every other.

Back to our example, what we would do is on our SEO page have a link to each of our other sections. These would be in the header and footer, which your web developer should have implemented, as well as throughout the text where possible. So if, for example we had the phrase “web designer in Salisbury” on our SEO page, we would make the text into a link pointing to our web development page. Note that “web designer in Salisbury” would also be one of our keywords for that page, and therefore be a much better link than “click here”.

SEO: Blogs, news pages and articles

With keywords and key phrases still in mind, you can use blog articles to your advantage. It is important that they provide relevant content, but at the same time you can incorporate keywords. Sometimes it may not be easy to rewrite the content of your page, especially if you have minimal text or if you want specific words to generate sales.

Using your blog you can write about whatever you want, and can use more words. Look at this article for example, it is hopefully a useful document for people wishing to boost their rankings in search engines, yet also it is a page on our website that has a lot of instances of our chosen phrases such as “search engine optimisation in Salisbury”.

Useful content is what search engines like, and it just so happens that we can blog about whatever we desire...

Depending on your blogging system, your articles could also be submitted to other websites, providing links back to yours, which search engines love.

Off-site SEO: Link building, forums & social media

If you are looking for a business, a web designer for example, then you could look on a search engine and try and establish which designer is best. However, if a friend recommends someone you are far more likely to trust the web designer. If several friends all recommend the same one, then you are very likely to choose them to make your website. Google and the other search engines work in the same way in that links from third party websites to yours all count.

Web developers use a wide variety of methods to generate inbound links to clients’ websites. These involve writing articles, posting on forums, and hunting for relevant associations and directories. This is a time consuming task, but having lots of links back to your website gives you some credibility and in turn boosts your search engine position. Current estimates say that inbound links count for 50% of your total SEO.

The quality and relevance of the site linking to yours makes a huge difference. So for example, we would want links from web development websites, search engine optimisation forums, or perhaps even local Salisbury-based websites. It is of utmost importance that you don’t SPAM these sites, or get lots of links from low-quality websites. The websites you post on need to be relevant and useful, and the things that you put on them should also be useful. Once again try and post on pages that include keywords, and use these (sparingly) within your content where possible, and obviously link back to your website.

So where do you start? Firstly search for your trade and find useful forums. We would, for example look on web development or search engine optimisation forums. Then setup a signature in your profile containing keywords and links back to your website. For example our signature may read “Webbed Feet UK: Web Design, SEO & App Development in Salisbury”, with “Web Design”, “SEO” and “App Development” all linking to the relevant sections on our site. Then start posting and helping people!

Google has recently announced that it is now considering social media in its algorithms. This means that every time someone mentions or re-tweets one of your tweets in Twitter, or likes one of your Facebook posts, it has an effect. Use this to your advantage to help your potential clients and improve your listings at the same time. For example we have recently started posting search engine optimisation tips on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Also remember that Facebook and LinkedIn have groups where you can discuss topics. If you start helping people here by posting decent articles Google will see that you’re interacting and follow links back to your website.

We are members of 4Networking, and often go to network meetings in and around Salisbury. 4Networking have a forum where all of the members ask questions and help each other. I have set up my signature containing links and keywords on this system, and have recently started posting useful comments to help people. When I first did this, Google reported a link back to our site within 24 hours, and we had already had several people view our site from it.

Inbound links are very useful in that they not only help search engines improve your listing, but also build you natural traffic from third party websites. Providing you are writing useful content it can only improve your website’s search engine optimisation

Search engine marketing, a summary

The areas discussed in this article are only scratching the surface of search engine optimisation, however they require no technical knowledge and are things that you should be able to do without the need for a web developer.

Remember that search engines are very ‘clever’ these days, and the best way to get a better position is to write genuinely useful content, and ensure that it is linked to from as many high quality sources as possible. Gone are the days when there is a quick fix.

You should log your current position; make some changes then check your position again in a month or two to see what has happened. Use Google Analytics and other software to see where your hits are coming from, and what pages people are visiting.

If things are improving, carry along on the same lines, if they’re not, change tack.

If you’re in a highly competitive market, or the changes don’t have the effect that you want then consult an SEO specialist, such as Webbed Feet UK, search engine optimisation in Salisbury ... do you see what I did there? ... keywords!

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Search Engines