What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Good websites work well for search engines AND humans. Both are important. Both have different needs.

The SEO description covers all the many different processes which – when taken together – deliver an improved position or ranking in the results of internet search engines. Although all search algorithms are slightly different, there is a growing body of best practice which applies to them all.

Clearly, a prominent position in search results can be very beneficial. Many people only view their first page or first screen of results. On mobile devices and smaller tablets this may only be the top five results of any given search.

Organic, not paid-for.

Adverts and sponsored search results are clearly marked, and usually appear above organic search results.

Any business can pay to have their website featured amongst the top results. Whilst this is certainly useful during campaigns, and much quicker than performing proper SEO, the sponsoring of search results can have disadvantages, including:

  • A significant percentage of consumers automatically scroll past any advertising and sponsored results.
  • A website will only stay featured while the owner keeps paying for the position.
  • Competitors can pay for exactly the same service, which effectively dilutes the impact of your own spend.

Instead of only-temporary sponsored gains, proper white-hat SEO concentrates on improving your position in all so-called organic search results, which means all results which are not featured because of payment.

Of course, there is nothing to stop you doing optimisation AND advertising. Centre Neptune can help.

Want to run Google Ads as part of your marketing? Talk to us.

see our SEO BOOSTERS

Key SEO methods.

There are a variety of methods which, when properly implemented, can help improve your search engine rankings.

Indexing.

Indexing is making sure a search engine can find and index your website.

All major search engines use crawlers to constantly find information on the web. Their discoveries are then sorted, filtered and catalogued ready to be served up in their algorithmic search results.

Centre Neptune can ensure your website is being found and properly indexed by all the search engines, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and more. We can also exclude areas of sensitive content, if needed.

Linking.

Correct and appropriate hyperlinking, both internally and externally, ensures all parts of your website are accessible.

The web is built upon links and cross-links. This means that as a general rule, the more other websites link to your content (which is called backlinking), the more your website gains relevance and prominence in search engine results.

Centre Neptune can help ensure your link-building is maximised and maintained, both within your own website, and from all your relevant contacts and suppliers too.

Keyword-rich content.

The content of your website should contain sufficient instances of appropriate keywords, but remain readable and compelling.

Search engines use keyword frequency as one important metric in the ranking of search results. However it is important to get the balance and spread of keywords just right. Use too many of the same keyword, or popular but unrelated keywords, and your site will get pushed down the rankings, instead of up.

Centre Neptune can ensure the correct balance and spread of keywords across your website, including accurate meta content and descriptions for all images, videos, products, categories and tag lists.

Data.

Whilst everything on your website can strictly be called data, there are two specific kinds that are really important for SEO. They are metadata, and structured data.

Metadata is data about other data. A simple example would be the alt attribute, which adds a description to an image as part of the <img> tag in HTML. Ensuring that all images have accurate, keyword-rich descriptive content is a win for SEO, and also helps screen readers and non-visual users browse your site effectively.

Structured data is a method of helping organise and connect data. Proper use of structured data makes browsing and searching the web much easier, as it helps both humans (like you) and search engines (like Google) quickly locate the information they need. Extra pieces of microdata and JSON-LD can be added to page content to provide useful extra detail.

SEO can go much deeper than this. Ask us about it.

see our seo boosters

When to perform SEO.

Centre Neptune applies SEO best practice to all websites we build. If you are on any of our assisted self-build plans, we will happily advise you on how to approach it, too.

Ideally, you should consider SEO right from the start of your website design, and certainly before the actual build. If you ultimately want your website to get found by as many people as possible, it is never too early to start thinking about it.

Of course, you might already have a website which is poorly optimised, or which has been built without considering SEO. Do not worry, it is never too late – the process will just take longer and be a little more complex, but that is just one more reason why you should get it done as soon as you can.

We can also optimise any static HTML / CSS / JS or WordPress website which is already live, regardless of whether we built it or not. Get in touch and see how we can can help.

Is it optimise or optimize? Answers on a postcard. Or call us.

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