Search Engine Friendly Websites - not all websites are equal

The basic SEO (search engine optimisation) requirements of an effective website are the same whether you are a sole trader, small business or large corporate.

If you want your business to appear in organic search results on Google (the organic results are on the left hand side of the Google results page), then you need a topline understanding of what you are asking your website designer or developer for - as relatively few of them offer  SEO services as standard.

So, keeping it very top-line here's what needs to happen...

#1 Select an effective domain name - domain names work best if they include your company name and what you do, and even consider location (here's where the keywords start!)

#2.Conduct keyword research – find the keywords that your target market is using to fing your type of services or products. Remember, search is generally speaking 'need' based and 'location' based eg Marketing Consultancy Hertford. If you're in any doubt use the Google Keyword tool - it's free, easy to use and will be a big help to you

#3 Check out your local competitors keywords and consider these both as keywords for your business, but to also find gaps in the market

#4 Brief a web design company to develop you a professional website that accurately represents your brand and company values, engages your current customers whilst attracting new ones.

#5 Develop your site content, which needs to be written with your target customer in mind, contain your keywords in the relevant places and is compelling, relevant and unique

#6 Ensure your web pages are search engine friendly by analysing each page and checking your keywords are correctly placed within the page architecture and the correct keyword density is acheived

#7 Promote the the website launch - such as submission to all of the engines (in the correct format), link building, Google Places, social media etc

#8 Measure, evaluate and refine - a website's work is never done and it can always improve and as such regular evaluation needs to take place.

Does your web company do all of this for you? If not, talk to Cariad Marketing - we do this for every web build. Every time.Plus a whole lot more....