Being on the top pages of the major search engines will not happen overnight so please do not be under any illusion that just because you have a website it will fly to the top of the search engine rankings.
The competition for the top spots is very strong so you must be aware of what is expected of your website before you ask "when will I get on the first page of Google?"
Search engine optimisation and SEO is the method which website designers and search engine experts use to gain top end positions on the major search engines. There are many elements of your website and many off page factors that will either help or kill off your website's chances of getting the top 10 spots on the major search engines.
Unfortunately, SEO is not for the website beginner.
It takes extensive knowledge of the major search engines to get even within the top 100 results for the most competitive search terms.
The major search engines are looking to show the searcher (you and me) the most relevant results when they type in their query into the search box.
The search engines take hundreds of factors into consideration before delivering the results, then they reassess the results to give a more relevant result in the future.
Look at your new website as if it where a shop in the middle of the country side with no roads leading to it, no telephone lines and (dare i say it) no internet connection.
How do you expect people to come through your door if no one know about your new shop?
You need to tell the people and the search engines that your new shop is open for business and that you are ready to receive visitors. The best way to announce this is to get links to your website from other website's that are listed on the search engines.
To begin with a link from almost any decent website will do. This will at least get your new website found by the search engine spiders.
A search engine spider is like a program that navigates the internet looking for web pages. A search engine spider travels from site to site reading through the content of the websites and saving it in a database that the search engine then refers to for search results.
If your website is not found by the search engine spiders then your website is not on the search engine results pages... its that simple.
Spiders love website links. Getting links from other peoples website that are heavily spidered will get your website found quickly.
There is no point in having the best looking website if no one visits it.
On the internet, content is king. In other words having 5 pages of well written content is far better than having 1000 pages of crap content stuffed with meaningless content or copy/pasted spam.
Good content for web pages is well written text about the subject of your website. A good page will have at the very least 200 words about the subject of that specific page. A well written page will be appreciated by the reader and the search engines as it will let both understand what the page is about. It will also lead the search engine and the human visitor to the next page of interest which will be a link to the new page using key worded links, preferable inside the content of a paragraph. This is known as contextual linking.
This may seem obvious and simple now that you have read it but how many times do you click off a page because the information isn't relevant or poorly written.
I build website's with on page SEO factors incorporated into the design as standard.
On page optimisation will benefit both your human visitors and the search engines because it will help them both understand what your website and all the pages are about. It will also help them move from page to page in a natural manner without really having to think about what they are doing. This is known as intuitive navigation.
On Page SEO includes keyword positioning, internal contextual linking, page title optimisation and optimisation of the Meta description. There are many other factors including latent semantic indexing or LSI and page semantics but I wont go in to these factors in this page.
In a nut shell, Off Page SEO is getting relevant back links pointing to your website and displaying your website on other website's to help people find your website.
Simple.... isn't it?
If your website has many website's pointing to it through relevant back links, your website will be looked upon as an important source of information about your subject by search engines. An authority website.
BUT!!
Do not think that if you go to an automated link builder and get 1,000 back links pointing to your website in lest say 1 week, that your site will suddenly shoot to the top of the search results.
In fact it is more likely your website will get banned from the search results or placed on page 45,000 for trying to manipulate the search results.
If your website is new and about something like a bed and breakfast or a hairdressing salon, why would you suddenly manage to get all these links in one go?
The best way to get links is to get a steady flow of links to your website and to get Contextual Links. Getting 1 link per week pointing to your new website will let the search engines see that your website is attracting attention and that it is beginning to grow a bit of a following.
Lets say you get emailed by a company that is looking to do a link exchange with you and they say they will give you a link on their links page in exchange for a link on your website somewhere. How do you know if it is a good or bad thing to accept?
Take these factors in to consideration before even considering returning the email:
The best type of links will have none of the above.
The best links to your website will be a combination of all the factors below:
Other good places to get links:
A Search Engine Marketing strategy including an SEO service, will develop your site beyond the benefits that great search engine positions will bring.
Through careful market analysis and understanding of your online business, it is possible to not only get visitors to your site through the search engines, but help convert these visitors once they are there.
Fact: People who are actively searching for your products or services are qualified prospects who, in the most part, have already made the decision to buy!
Focused search engine optimisation brings the searcher and the supplier together.
For more info, give me a call on (01382) 525 896 or fill the form below to get in touch about your website rankings.
If you would like a free website SEO assessment please feel free to fill the form below.