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 Our SEO Method |
In an industry rather quickly filled by amateurs, if not sharks - how do we let you know that we know what we are doing?
We've already done it for clients - call us for details. But also by telling you exactly how we will approach the engagement
and what we will do in our work to successfully optimise for search engines.
Many SEO companies offer guarantees they very well know cannot be met. Their strategy is to optimise for phrases that people don't
use commonly, phrases of company names and not for the main search engines. You need a site that has good placement for the right
search phrases in the right search engines - that's first and foremost Google, followed by Yahoo, MSN and Ask. Turner Dow will guarantee
placement, but on a case by case basis and after some analysis of the factors described below. We'll know if good placement is feasible
for your budget and timescale. How do we do it?
First some background. In the early days, adding appropriate Meta tag data, a title per page and ensuring the content was stuffed with
occasional keywords was enough to get good rankings. But that's not enough anymore and rightly so. Now we need to recognise that the
internet is the place people come to compare, investigate, research and then shop. With town centres whining about loss of sales, the
brick and mortar world has for some time now ago come on-board. With so much competition for search engine prioritisation, the stakes
are heightened; getting seen and heard is a serious game that can easily be the make or break of most companies. What search engine
optimisation approach is successful in such a competitive environment? This one...
 Best Search Phrases |
Which phrases will your potential customers type in to a search engine? Finger in the air? Or is there a more scientific approach? Through
Google, Yahoo and third party vendors there are tools available that result in comprehensive results showing all phrases used by a
potential audience for your goods, services or information. Using that comprehensive list - search engine optimisation is targeted and
directed. Consulting with the client we pick out the ones that are most applicable and to be aggressively pursued for optimisation. The
size of your web site influences the number of phrases that can be realistically used in search optimising - but the entire list will
be well used as context for the engagement. One secret of good search engine optimisation is to use synonyms and various spellings such
as 'optimisation' and 'optimization'. In referring to the same thing a number of ways - we mimic natural language and avoid the appearance
of simply 'stuffing' keywords and keyphrases for artificial results.
Next: How does the search space topology influence the job?
| Analyse the Search Space Topology |
An examination of the existing search space is facilitated by the following questions to ascertain the level of difficulty of the
optimisation engagement: What is the current state of the search space? What is the level of competition? Search engine optimising for
laptops or car insurance is a whole different thing than optimising for Pre-1950's China Porcelain. What sites occupy the top positions
for the favoured search phrases? Are they good web sites and are they well optimised such that the fight to get to the top is going to
be bloody? Or is there a clear space for better sites with better structure to place their flag? These factors make up the topology of
the search space and obviously have an influence on the effort level for successful search engine optimisation.
Next: What about the competition?
| Competition Analysis |
Within the bounds of decent ethics, sites showing well for favourable search phrases can be looked at carefully to derive success factors.
Analysis reveals backlink profiles, site structure, keyphrase density tolerance and much more. Since much of the success of a search
engine optimization program depends on the number, quality and context of backlinks (links from external sites to yours), a good
analysis of a competitors backlinks is an essential step in the engagement.
Then the importance of the home page is compared with it's child pages and how they are associated within the site. What anchor text is
predominantly utilised within the site for which pages? Is the internal linking structure seen by the seach engines in it's source file?
Is the site database driven? Does it use the htaccess file? These factors tell us the level of search engine optimisation we are looking
at and how long we can expect to wait for results (the more aggressive the optimisation engagement - the longer we generally must wait to
see results in ranking - especially with Google). Obtaining success factors in this stage of the engagement will aid greatly in bringing
your site to the top of the pile. Next: Examine the structure of your existing site.
| Examine the 'As-Is' Site |
Having the search space environment in mind - the competition that has positive rank - the phrases needed for the site: What do
we actually have to work with? How has the site been structured? How does the database (if present) interact with the site for good
structure? Have there been any mistakes in the construction and operation that work against respect from the search engines? What can
be improved? What can be changed? What is the textual content of the site? Can it be seen by the engines? Does it have any existing page
rank (one of Google's means of measuring a site's worth) and what contributes to it? What duplicate content issues are there, and are they
tolerable or does it need to be changed? Turner Dow will comprehensively look at the as-is nature of the site in order to determine the
forward strategy. As well as looking at the site - we'll examine any similar sites with similar content that are associated with the
client and how these interact with the main web site for optimization. Every client generally has some duplicate and canonical issues
with their site, some are acceptable and some need to be amended in order to appease the search engine gods. If we are also engaged in
search engine marketing program, we'll look at the site from that standpoint - not just how to get visitors to the site but also how
to attain better conversion. Next: How we get links from external sites.
| External Links |
This is the most difficult part of the SEO process. There is no shortcut, no quick way of doing it. It's a skill that is in short supply.
Tools exist that claim to help with the process - but don't. Third parties exist that claim to get good links for low prices - but they
don't. Submissions en-masse to directories are of some long term value, but they barely make a blip on the SEO geigometer.
Submission of any site to search engines are next to useless - if search engines can't find sites that have one or more external links,
they aren't good search engines. Staying on top of seach engine algorithmics keep us tuned to what they consider important. One thing
consistently ignored by even mature SEO companies is the plain fact - as of the Jagger update (a particularly momentous algorthmic change)
of November 2005 - that the vast majority of reciprocal links are not quite dead - but they're on life support in the eyes of Google the
most important search engine. Don't sweat the small stuff. The only links to sweat about getting are the ones you have to sweat about
to get - one way, on theme, with the right anchor text. The SE's know that you can get easy links from many directories - so they don't
count them. They know you can get links from 'list-type' sites, so they don't count them. There is no easy way to get good quality
external links - this is the highest value we offer to our clients - we'll get them! The SE's will count them!
Next: How analytics help.
| Examine Site Analytics |
Excellent tools are available for anlysing how many visitors are using at the site and how they arrived there for successful SEO.
Google themselves recently bought a company that specialises in site analytics and make it available to webmasters free of charge.
Most hosting companies also provide good statistics on site access. But how to read these stats for good search engine optimisation?
We analyse carefully where visitors are arriving from, which search terms originated the visit, how many pages they visited, through
which page they entered the site, and from which page they exited the site. Good statistics also indicate from which part of the world
visitors are in. A very important statistic that Google makes available is whether the visit originated through a pay-per-click link
or though an organic link - thus indicating whether the visit incurred a charge or was free. A skilled analysis of site statistics
reveals current success factors and shows areas (such as search terms) which should be looked at for improvement.
Next: Start Work!
| GO! |
On the basis of thorough analysis as described above - time to start optimising your site for good search engine placement. You may
prefer that we make the necessary SEO changes through enabling site access for us, or to direct your web company to make the changes.
We'll work diligently and effectively through the problems. We engage with integrity - we'll also share your enjoyment of success through
an effective and comprehensive SEO engagement with Turner Dow.
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