SEO methodology

We provide services of optimising web sites / web pages for better search engine rankings. If you've turned up to this page then you are in some way interested in the search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). This page provides a detailed explanation on our standard methodology and procedures.

Initial SEO consultation. This includes taking inputs from client regarding the site overview, understand the nuances of your business and also your expectations from the seo and online marketing campaign. Knowing from your side who your prospective rivals are. Finding out your goals and providing a preliminary evaluation on how easy or hard it will be to achieve those goals.

Basics and our approach in SEO.

• No sites like each other. The same remedy cannot be used to fix different problems.
• Nobody can guarantee top search engine rankings unless they own the search engine.
• We review each web site both manually and using various software tools, benchmark and, depending on findings, advise a custom set of actions.
• We aim our SEO techniques at a reach and relevant content and 'focus', correcting and adjusting all necessary components of a web page / site.
• We try to keep the design/appearance intact where possible.
• We advise web site owners to undertake a route of search engines marketing (SEM), subject to available budget.
• All proceedings are documented at each stage.

Principals and procedures

If you wish to talk to us about your website with a view to contract our search engine optimisation services (SEO), first you need to decide what exactly are you trying to achieve: what key words/phrases are you targeting, what kind of audience are you targeting. And the rest falls into the following routine:

In details:

1. Collect statistics / Benchmark.

Client shall submit the web site for review.
If Client has a sufficient web statistics analytic tracking software/service this will be used for collecting and analysing site access data, trends, usage and exit points. For more accurate data we must collect data for as long period of time as possible (at least a week).

The website performance shall be benchmarked and documented at this stage. This is necessary in order compare results of the SEO campaign with pre-campaign position and in order to show improvements at the end of the service to prove investment.

2. Audit the site.

The following areas shall be inspected:

1. Code consistency. Basic errors in the code will affect how search engines will treat the site.
2. Broken links. These may stop search engines to crawl/index the site further.
3. Tags. Items like <title>, <alt>, <!-- --> are taken in to account by search engines and should be present. These should contain important keywords.
4. Meta-tags. There should be present and contain important keywords following certain rules.
5. Research most popular keywords. Often companies target keywords/phrases that are not the most frequently entered on the web. Finding out and targeting right keywords/phrases will increase number of visits.
6. Keyword density. This is a fine art of search engine optimisation. The right proportion of keywords on the page will influence rankings. This relates not only to body text, but also to all other invisible elements (tags, styles), even to images names, link names and URLs!
7. Design features. It is important:
   • a. how easy it is to find information on the website;
   • b. how easy it is to navigate the website;
   • c. how quick the site’s response is;
   • d. how aesthetically appealing the website is.
8. Dynamic content indexing. Search engines are not indexing dynamic pages well in certain conditions. If particular products/services featured on the website are accessed only via search facility or generated dynamically these should be considered to included onto site maps or the ‘integrated doorway pages’ (static introductory pages) should be created for them.
9. Analyse competition. Strong and weak point of the direct competition shall be analysed in order either:
   • a. To adopt the strong points;
   • b. To capitalise on weak points;
   • c. To improve the sites and make it better than competition;
   • d. To make site “different”, interesting, compare to competition.
10. Target audience. The target audience / area / market segment to be defined. The site shall be evaluated if it appeals to the target audience.
11. ROI for current ad-campaigns. The collected statistics shall indicate the effective and non-effective campaigns (affiliated sites, mailing campaigns, banner ads etc), as well as problem areas on the website itself (perhaps users do not like to be forced for long process of registration, or even “Buy now” button is hard to find on the page, therefore people are leaving the site, etc. etc.
    

3. Advice / Report.

We shall identify problem areas and depending on finding shall provide advice to take one or multiple actions as follows:

1. Code consistency. Check and correct the code.
2. Broken links. Check and correct links.
3. Tags. Check and add/correct tags.
4. Meta-tags. Check and add/correct tags.
5. Research most popular keywords. Create a list of keywords/phrases to be targeted.
6. Keyword density. Optimise the existing pages for “search engine friendliness” and keywords without (if possible) having to change the design. It may be that addresses of some pages will have to be revised, as well as the whole addressing scheme shall be changed. This may go as far as purchasing a new domain name containing 1 or 2 the most important keywords and place the site there.
7. Design features. The design to be revised if necessary based on psychology/profile of an average visitor, corrections to ergonomics and the proposed improvements to usability.
8. Dynamic content indexing. This is usually done via URL-rewrite. Different techniques are used depending your server technology. Analyse competition. This will be used for evaluating design and/or target changes.
9. Target audience. This will define and drive the advertising campaigns.
10. ROI for current ad-campaigns. Successful campaigns shall be retained. New campaigns to be launched and monitored. The following can be considered:
    • Banner advertising.
    • Links exchange.
    • Pay-Per-Click campaigns.
    • Include external RSS feed.
    • To become a RSS feed.
    • Create an online forum.
    • Collect user feedback.
    • Email campaigns.
    • Featured articles.
    • Submission to directories and portals (this also increases the ‘links-in’ count)
    • Paid Web Site Submission.

4. Implement the proposed changes.

The Client shall study the SEO report and approve further work.

We shall commence and complete the work within the specified period of time (subject to a identified scope).

5. Collect statistics / Review.

Shortly after the completion of work and applying changes we shall commence collecting statistics. This will take some period of time and will indicate improvements in visibility and/or conversion.

The collected data shall be used as proof of effective investment.

6. Report.

Full SEO project documentation, together with the latest statistical data shall be submitted to the client for review.

It is recommended that the site be monitored on a monthly basis in order to address natural progression of markets, target audience, effectiveness of SEO campaigns.

It is recommended that we monitor competition in order to address changes to their strategy and presentation.