Copyright © 2009 Steven Holmes

Search Engine Optimisation has become a billion dollar industry in the last few years as companies have realised the potential power of their websites. Appearing in prominent positions in Google‘s search results for keyword and phrases relating to your business offering can pay huge dividends in terms of leads, enquiries and sales.

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Due to the increased demand for SEO services there are literally tens of thousands of specialist online marketing companies who specialise in providing ongoing SEO services designed to propel your web pages up the search rankings, and in doing so generate more business for your company. As with any other service SEO comes at a price but sadly that price is usually too expensive for small companies to afford. There are companies who specialise in providing affordable SEO services for small to medium companies but they are few and far between, due in the most part to the large fees that can be charged for managing larger campaigns.

The idea behind Search Engine Optimisation is to convince Google and the other search engines that your website is the most relevant for the search terms that you are targeting. Google’s entire business model is based on relevance – returning a list of relevant web pages for any search perfomed.

Keyphrase research is the stating point for every SEO campaign. This involves identifying what search terms your prospective customers are using to products and services of the type your company offers eg. SEO Harrogate. There are various tools available to help you do this but by far the best, and most commonly used, is Google’s own Adwords Keyword Tool.

When you have identified a list of keywords and phrases you wish to target, the process on SEO can begine.

SEO can be broken down into two key areas: Onsite optimisation and off site optimisation. On Page Optimisation involves writing the keyphrases you have identified into key areas of your web pages. Google places particular emphasis on these elements when determining how relevant your page is for the terms you are targeting. The better your onpage optimisation is, the better chance your web pages will have of achieving good positions in the search results.

Off Page Optimisation involves increasing the credibility of your web pages in Google’s ‘eyes’ by building inbound links to your web pages. Google views inbound links to your website as recommemdations. The emphasis here, however, is on the quality of the website linking to your own rather than the quantity of links your website has. For example, a link from a well-established website in the same business area as you own will count for a lot more than a link from a poor quality, generic directory. Off page optimisation can be arduous and very time consuming but very beneficial if your work bares fruit

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