SEO - The Basics

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an essential component of web design. When applied in the correct manner, SEO can be a vital marketing tool for any business. However, the competition is fierce due to the possible rewards of getting to No. 1 for a particluar search term.

When applying SEO techniques to a website, there are a few factors that play a major part in the results. Here we will explain what they are:

1. Page Names -This refers to the URL of a particular page, for example, www.designfresh.co.uk/design-fresh-portfolio.html. It's easy to forget that making the page URL a little more descriptive than 'portfolio.html' will have a positive effect on your search engine rankings. By adding a few more descriptive words or your business name you can help to make sure the search terms are indexed.
2. Page Titles - When naming a page within your website it's normal to try and think of something descriptive, such as, 'Design Fresh offer website design services'. However, this is not really what search engines are looking for, what they really want are your search terms. For example, we target 'Web Design Kent', so with that in mind we apply it to the page title of our homepage, 'Web Design Kent | Design Fresh'. That way the search engines will pick up both our business name and the search term we are targeting, this ensures that the page title is contributing to the overall search rankings.
3. Headings (H1, H2, H3...) - The higher the page heading the more it contributes to your search rankings, so a H1 ranks first then H2 and so on. You need to try and use your keywords as much as possible without going overboard, as using them too much may have a negative effect.
4. Content -New keyword rich content is king! The content throughout your website needs to be kept up to date and contain keywords and search terms as mush as possible. Although as stated previously, ensure that you don't over do it as the search engines will mark you down for spamming effectively. There is a fine balance between having a fully optimised website and that of a heavily spammed site with too many references to your keywords. Be careful...
5. Links -Inbound links are vital to any SEO plan, they can make a real difference to ensure you are placed higher than your competitors. However, to make sure that your website is worth linking to, you will need to have something worth reading on your site. That's where the content of your website and for example a blog/news area comes in. To have a realistic chance of getting some good quality inbound links from high page ranked sites, the site content will need to be interesting and relevant. It is often said that outbound links are not as effective as inbound links in helping with SEO. Although some links to other interesting sites as well as your clients sites will help to some degree.
6. Web Standards -When talking about web standards, effectively we talking about the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Now the W3C is an international community that helps to develop the standards for web design. The rules stated by W3C should be, in our opinion, followed as much as possible for every website created. This will help with SEO as old standards, such as building websites with tables, are now frowned upon. So with that in mind websites should now all be built using the latest coding techniques such as CSS and XHTML.

Hopefully reading this overview of SEO will help you to understand all of the areas that we would consider when carrying out SEO for your website. If you would like to discuss our SEO services, please get in touch.