James Lewis

Most companies approach a web designer or graphic artist when they’re thinking about creating a website. The word ‘design’ conjures up the image of a creative type, clothes daubed with paint as they slave over a site. Heading straight for traditional designers can create a lot of trouble for your business as it ventures onto the net.

The reason is three innocent-seeming letters: SEO. Any business aiming to get ahead on the internet has to pay attention to this acronym. Search engine optimisation is the series of tactics on a website designed to attract the search engines. By seeding SEO techniques throughout its structure, the site is more likely to rank high in search engine results pages. For this reason, SEO needs to be considered right from the early stages of website development. Plus, although it’s important for SEO to be involved in web development, web development often has no interest in being involved with SEO.

SEO is a technical subject that many website design companies struggle to understand. Many SEO experts shake their heads when presented with a freshly-designed site, because the designer has favoured flashiness over usability. This can be death in search engine competition.

While web designers struggle with integrating SEO, SEO experts often have web design skills as a basic tool in their arsenal. This is because often SEO firms have to work their way around existing web designs to blend SEO seamlessly into the existing website. The whole process can be a lot easier if search engine optimisation is considered right from the off-set.

When considering web design, it’s important to work SEO into your earliest plans. Getting in contact with a web design company that has SEO expertise is vital, and you can talk to us at Click Consult about our experience in web development.

During the 19th century, Wendell Phillips, a prominent anti-slavery campaigner, said: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Search engine optimisation may not be about freedom, but ‘eternal vigilance’ is central to the activities of many reputable SEO firms. This is because it is essential for an SEO firm to pay close attention to changes in the world of social media and the latest alterations in search engine activity.

If an SEO firm neglected to scan the horizon it would provide its clients with poor advice and badly planned search engine optimisation activities. It would fail to notice things like the opportunities provided by the rise of Twitter. It would fail to detect nuances like fluctuations in the number of Twitterers and in the volume of tweets. These important details may well be relevant to an aspect of a search engine optimisation strategy. For example, it may be beneficial for a specific firm to use Twitter as part of its attempt to boost its online profile. This can only be decided upon if an SEO professional is up to speed with the latest Twitter news. Knowing a bit of gossip about a celebrity Twitterer isn’t good enough.

If a search engine like Google, currently the most popular in the world, started to haemorrhage market share, an SEO professional would have to be among the first to know. Likewise, if Google provides a new service or feature it is essential for an SEO researcher to be up-to-date. Similarly, if Google is changing its algorithms for its rankings it is vital to be aware of the changes. Moreover, if a search engine makes a deal with another media organisation this may have a bearing on the future of search and therefore is worthy of investigation.

At SEO Consult we have the resources and the researchers to maintain eternal vigilance on behalf of our clients.

There’s been a bit of buzz in SEO circles in the last couple of years about social media marketing. With the increased popularity of social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, social media platforms now represent a great opportunity for any website to communicate with target users. Search engine optimisation experts have scrambled to develop tactics to incorporate social media networking into an average site’s SEO plan.

The scramble has featured a lot of mistakes on the way. Perhaps it’s because social media networks present such a excellent website optimisation opportunity for business that so many mistakes have been made. While most business opportunities need to be grasped with both hands, social media networks require a very delicate approach.

Take a Twitter example. Twitter, a micro-blogging site which allows users to post 140-character blogs on any topic, presents an opportunity for businesses to reach thousands of users in a very personal way. As the etiquette of the site encourages users to befriend as many other users as possible, it’s likely that a business can have hundreds of followers within a week or so of joining up. This instant popularity encourages most businesses to jump straight into advertising. This can be a colossal error.

Most businesses find that when they begin advertising on Twitter, their follower numbers drop off sharply. Once the mistake has been made, it can’t easily be corrected. The hasty ‘hey, I’m here and isn’t my business great’ approach can scupper your Twitter campaign, injuring your website optimization plan.

It’s important to remember that social media networks operate much like a party in real life. Bombarding people with advertising isn’t going to get you anywhere. A gentle, value-based approach that provides people with information is the way to go. When thinking about social media marketing and your search engine optimization plan, you can talk to us at SEO Consult.

The Article is written by seoconsult.co.uk providing Seo Advice and Search Engine Optimization Advice Services. Visit http://www.seoconsult.co.uk for more information on seoconsult.co.uk Products & Services
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So, you’ve decided to include social media networking as a part of your site’s off-page search engine optimisation plan. You’ve set yourself up with accounts on Facebook and Twitter, and are preparing to launch videos on You Tube. You’ve put not inconsiderable effort into your approach, but nothing seems to be working. You have few fans, and those fans just don’t seem very impressed. How do you change this situation to generate the buzz and links you expected?

As with any part of search engine optimization, your approach to social media networks needs the two Fs: flexibility and feedback. Flexibility, as your approach needs to adapt to conditions as you go along, and feedback, to let you know what those conditions are.

These two factors are important for every part of search engine optimization. When you implement on-page website optimisation tactics, it’s important to monitor their success and adapt your SEO plan as results come in. The same approach is needed for social media marketing. While there are specific data sources that allow you to monitor your on-page website optimization tactics, off-page tactics like social media campaigns rely on user feedback to monitor progress.

It’s important to know where to go for feedback for any social media marketing campaign. For example, say you posted a You Tube instructional video but attracted very few views. Without comments on the video’s page, you might be at a loss to know what’s wrong. A search of what’s popular on You Tube, a look at any competitor videos, and a search on social media pages on your brand name will give you the feedback you need to adapt your approach.

Strategies can’t be assembled like toy aeroplanes, according to instructions. Flexibility and feedback can help you prosper. Off-page SEO requires creative thinking, and feedback is just one example. It can help to have expert advice, and you can approach us at SEO Consult.