What is SEO?In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the ongoing process of elevating a website's rankings within search engines, using a range of tools and techniques. In the main, there are two kinds of results which are returned by search engines: Organic listings are standard, 'natural' search results.
SEO normally concentrates on organic (or natural) search results as opposed to paid listings. Sembience helps businesses achieve high rankings organically for competitive search terms, significantly reducing any Pay per Click spend. Why is it important?The primary goal for any company which relies on a website for business is to attract online users. Studies have shown that the vast majority of these users find websites using major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, and that users are most likely to select links from organic search results, rather than paid listings. As such, it is extremely important to ensure that your website is displayed in the top ten search results for popular keywords and search terms related to your business. Many companies spend a considerable amount of money developing the look and feel of their website but fail to recognise the importance of SEO. It is a pointless and costly exercise to have a website that looks great but is poorly optimised, since potential customers may never even find the website. This can quickly lead to a lack of sustainability, especially if, as is becoming increasingly the case, the Internet is a company's primary advertising medium. Keyword ResearchDetermining the most effective keywords for a business is a fundamental first step in an SEO campaign. Many websites are optimised for the wrong keywords or key phrases because the site owner does not fully understand their target niche or demographic. When researching which keywords or phrases should be targeted, there are a number of primary factors to consider, including:
Sembience will work with you to establish what keywords or phrases users would enter into search engines to find your website. We will then complete a detailed analysis to estimate how many users search for each of these keywords per day, and what sort of competition exists for the number one slot in the rankings. This analysis is then used to refine the list of keywords and highlight potential long tail keywords, which will be used as the foundation for a targeted SEO campaign. Optimisation TechniquesThere are two basic Search Engine Optimisation techniques which determine where your website ranks within search engines - On Page SEO and Off Page SEO. On Page SEOOn Page SEO refers to optimising the content and structure of your website for search engines. When search engines index a website, they pay attention to how the site is structured and how content is presented. For example, when determining what is important on a page, they place the most relevance on what keywords are in the page title and its primary heading (H1 tag), therefore it is important that targeted keywords are placed within these elements. On Page optimisation relates to the foundation of a website's page structure. It forms the basics of the overall readability of a website to both users and search engines. Off Page OptimisationPriming the pages of a website for search engines is critical in the challenge to achieve top search rankings. Google is the most popular search engine today because it consistently ranks quality websites high in its search results for a particular keyword or phrase. Google does this without any human intervention. The key to climbing the rankings is to make sure that search engines believe your website is as important as you think it is. Google determines the quality of a website by the quality and quantity of links to it. If your website attracts more hyperlinks (from quality websites) than your competitors, then you will generally rank higher than them for the same content. Link Building
Active link building involves contacting websites to either submit or request a link. As part of our service, Sembience will add your website to a range of high quality web directories (for example, DMOZ and the Yahoo Directory). We will also seek out high quality websites that should be linking to your website, and request a link. Passive link building is all about creating great content that other people link to voluntarily. This is often called link baiting, and is a very powerful way of obtaining a lot of hyperlinks relatively quickly. Ideal candidates for content that will attract organic linking are topical articles and tools. The importance of attracting as many quality links in to your website as possible cannot be overstated; this is what separates you from your competition. There are many other factors and subtleties involved in effective SEO - contact Sembience today for further information. |
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Paid listings are those which appear as advertising at the top of a search results page, or as a listing down the right-hand side. These work on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis - companies sign up with a search engine (for example, Google) and select keywords which are relevant to their business. When people search for these keywords, the paid listing is displayed; each time someone clicks on a paid listing, the business is charged a fee. Pay Per Click fees vary according to how popular selected keywords are - very popular keywords are expensive, whilst obscure, niche terms are cheaper.
Whilst considered a part of Off Page optimisation, the important strategy of Link Building is a distinctly important part of any SEO campaign. There are two different ways to get more links to your website - active and passive. 