SEO - One hit or monthly changes?

We offer SEO in Salisbury (that is search engine optimisation), and often get asked the cost or time involved in getting the top position in Google and Bing.

This is a tricky question to answer, mainly because there are so many factors and there is never a level playing field. As soon as we make improvements and push a website higher up the search engine rankings, our client’s competitors will rate relatively lower, and ask their SEO agency to work on their optimisation, it’s a constant battle. In addition, search engines are continually adjusting their algorithms to provide increasing accurate results, which always affects a websites positions.

The optimal way to apply search engine optimisation to a website is as follows:

Firstly by researching into the business sector, local region and competitors and, from this, creating a keyword strategy and online marketing plan. Without this any SEO agency could be ‘shooting in the dark’.

Once the SEO strategy is in place, we would suggest firstly optimising the website itself. This will consist of useful and relevant content, page names, headings, titles and links, all with integrated keywords (without overdoing it). We would also suggest some technical checks including duplicate pages, titles and descriptions, validating HTML, broken links and sitemaps.

The next stage would be to submit your website to search engines, and build some legitimate in-bound links by publicising your website around the web; but care needs to be taken to ensure that these links are of a high quality.

Once the website’s SEO is at a satisfactory base-level, and following this initial launch, search engines will start to allocate the website’s rank, and this is where the important work starts.

The website may rank well, in which there is little to do other than monitor. But more than likely it will rank well for certain keywords, and not so well for others.

To achieve the best SEO for a website, its position needs to be reviewed regularly, and keywords that are lagging behind need to be optimised further. This can be achieved by various methods ranging from offsite optimisation, to link building, to website modifications, to adding new fresh content in the form of news or blog articles.

This process should be on-going, with a continual cycle of making changes, adding content, and reviewing the effect it has had. Competitors will also be doing them same, although hopefully not as well, and so the changes should vary from sticking to your initial keyword strategy, to revising this and concentrating on harder or newer keywords.

As an example, a company such as our may start by concentrating on “SEO Salisbury”, then progress to slight variants such as “SEO in Salisbury”, and when these have been achieved move towards harder sets of keywords such as “SEO Wiltshire” or perhaps even “SEO”.

So, back to the original question; website owners shouldn’t necessarily look to make a single set of changes to optimise a website, but should consider a complete strategy that involves careful thought of their audience and keywords, an initial push, but importantly continually reviews, adjusts and improves the campaign.

A fat diet will never replace a healthy lifestyle, and similarly a small set of modifications to a website will never replace a structured SEO campaign.

If you are serious about search engine optimisation, then contact the Salisbury SEO specialists, Webbed Feet ^UK