Even for those experienced in the field, staying on top of Google's periodic changes to the way it manages who - and what - is found on the Google search engine when you put in a search term ('web design chelmsford' for example) can be a painful process.
Search Engine Optimisation
We are a Chelmsford based web design company, & we offer SEO (search engine optimisation) as part of the web design package as standard - there's no point us designing your brand spanking new site if no-one can find it as far as I am concerned! But we are primarily web design and not an SEO specialist company - there is a difference.
Maintaining your site's SEO to remain in your hard-fought-for position on page one can is something not to be sniffed at as we have found out to our cost recently.
After suffering a major set-back last year when the site was hacked (via WordPress insecurities), taken down by the host company & consequently dropped through the Google search rankings like a stone, we knuckled down & fought our way back onto page one.
Make time to constantly monitor your SEO
But we got a little complacent (not to say busy designing other people's sites!) & a spate of new-pretenders on the block have given us a bit of a kick up the backside recently. From sitting comfortably at number 4, we have dropped to what could be termed the relegation positions on page one.
So what do we do? We fight back again of course. If you're not on page one, then you're not a contender; that's not wholly true, but in our business it can be. The savvy company looking for a boost in Google's search rankings is not going to rely on a company that can't even get on page one themselves I'd wager.
Understanding how Google operates, that is, how their robots crawl the internet to allocate your site a position on certain search terms is about 70% foggy and about 30% clear sky.
Web content is king
Right now, content is king. The Google promise made by Matt Cutts of a war against web spam and sites with poor content seems to be kicking in. It's like the announcements were the bolt of lightning and now the thunder is now rumbling across the net.
Keyword stuffing
It used to be (in theory) so easy to get yourselves noticed. Of say twenty sites offering the same services in one field, you could expect that at least half of them knew little about SEO, so all you needed to do to jump above the other half was to shove a ton of keywords (for us things like 'web design chelmsford, 'essex web designer' etc etc) into the content regardless of how the site would flow or look.
Ironically, this might have got you on page one, but your content's lack of readability would be a potential turn-off for any would-be customer! Now, we are pleased to say, Google promotes sites with well written content, that is, content that means something in relation to what you do, and can penalise sites without. Gone are the days when you might scroll down to see a site with about 1000 random keywords in the footer.
Back-links
One thing seemingly hasn't changed though, the need for quality back-links. It stands to reason that if Google want to see the best get to the top, then one sure way of doing this is to promote those sites that have links on trusted, long-standing quality sites like Applegate*.
Never underestimate how good back-links are for your site's SEO. And yes, I know it's hard but there are many decent bits of advice by specialists out there on how to do this effectively, guest blogging is a great example. But be warned, make sure you do it right. Get googling!
Black-hat versus white-hat
Think good-witch/bad-witch here, Black-hat SEO techniques are those that Google regards as 'naughty', keyword stuffing is a good example. Buying links on sites set up just to earn money from sites buying a back-link is another. If you're linking in this way, or doing anything deemed black-hat, expect the joy of leapfrogging above your competitors to be short lived, You will drop, maybe further than you were before you tried this quick fix.
On the other hand, white-hat SEO is Google's (and your) friend, play by the rules and you can sleep at night fairly confident that, although it may take a bit of time, you will be better off in the long run.
*I have since discovered that, despite what many bloggers will tell you, Applegate only provide no-follow back links (free signup - not sure about what you get if you pay for an enhanced listing). So be careful to check that you're not wasting your time blogging on a site that will give you no beneficial backlink juice. So check with Firebug in Firefox to see if your backlink is followed or not..
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