What is SEO? I just don’t get it and I am totally confused!

Don’t stress! We will explain to you in plain English what it is, why it is important and where we start with an SEO campaign. First what we do is work out what people are interested in your business products or services and what they search for.

That sounds tricky! How do you know what people are interested in and what they type into search engines?

It’s not that tricky really, you just need to know where to look! There are databases online that store that information and we know how to find them. You can help us out too by telling us all the important stuff you do and what you want noticed most.

Oh come on, that sort of stuff is private and protected, right? You could not possibly look that up!

It is all legit! The data we collect is just statistics, so don’t panic, no personal information is stored or viewed for this process.

Phew! I was getting worried for a moment. So what do you do next?

Glad you asked! Next step is to find and record keyword phrases that lots of people search for. We call this a Common Search Term (CST) or more commonly known as a keyword phrase.

 Ok. Why do you do that?

Well, because if a CST is used a lot then it is more likely to send traffic your way if we use it in your website.

Awesome, so that’s it? I reckon I could do all that on my own and save me some cash!

Not so fast non-geek person, I’m afraid not. There are a few more steps to go through. Shall we continue?

Sorry, yes please do. I thought that sounded a little too easy!

Ok back on track… the next thing we do is check the strength of the sites that already rank for those CSTs.

Who cares about other websites? I thought we were discussing SEO for my site?

We are still discussing your site. As any good business know it is important to know how the competition is doing. If these sites are well established then it might be hard to rank above them.

Oh great, so if that happens do we just give up?

We never give up! We just think it is best to know what you’re up against!

Right, ok, that makes sense. So what’s next?

Armed with the CSTs or keywords we want your site to rank for we develop web content that includes them and build web pages that use them.

Oh yeah, I’ve heard about keywords and how you just chuck them in the meta so search engines can find them. Too easy!

No, no it is much more involved than that! While Google looks at website Meta Tags it ignores Meta Tag Keywords because this technique has been badly abused in the past.

So now I’m lost. What do you need the keywords for then?

We include the keywords in the important parts of your site: page names, headings, sub headings, text, and even images and also in the deep, dark, hidden depths of your site that only Google can see (oh and us of course)!

Right-e-o, I think I am little out of my depth now. When can you start?

Hold on to your horses, there is still one more very important thing we haven’t discussed.

Really, what?

Links!

Links?

Yes links.

Why are links important?

Because Google reckons if a site links to you, it likes you and this makes your site important. Google also likes it when you put links to other sites in your pages as long as they are relevant.

Right, so let me see if I’ve got this…

Use words people search for, put those words in important places on my page, links show Google my pages are important, get Design to Envy to help me. Well done, you got it!

Hang on, just one last thing?

Sure, what’s on your mind?

Some of your competitors promise they can get me “on page one” or “in the top ten”. Why don’t you make this promise?

I thought you’d never ask! We don’t make those promises because it is not possible to keep them.

When choosing someone to help with your SEO remember the following:

• No one can guarantee “#1 Google Ranking” or “First page position”; check the contract fine print!
• No one “Knows someone at Google” or has a “Special relationship with Google”
• No one can get your site a “Top ranking in 48 hours”; the only way to guarantee this is with Google AdWords.
• Avoid “SEO Free Trials”; there is too much work involve with SEO to make it free!
• Avoid claims of “SEO secrets”; there is no magic potion for SEO just hard work!
• Make sure you retain ownership of your content (text, images etc). The last thing you want is to have your content held hostage or sold to a competitor!
• An offer that sounds too good to be true probably is. SEO takes a substantial amount of time to do correctly and so you get what you pay for

If you would like more information on SEO go straight to the master – Google! This is the link to their Support Page.