What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has become an important element in web development. And yet, few clients know how it actually works.
SEO became popular due to the near total dominance of search engines in finding websites online. Search engines have become the new yellow pages. If you’re not listed on the first few pages of a search, you might as well not exist.
Search engines have become increasingly sophisticated over time in order to avoid abuse by webmasters wishing to spam links and fill their site with irrelevant keywords.
Nowadays, they obtain more accurate results because they reward sites that are well coded with the proper combination of XHTML and CSS, are regularly updated with original content, and linked to by other highly ranked sites.
How does it work?
It’s fairly straightforward. To get good search results, your website needs to be professionally coded using modern development techniques, have plenty of original and relevant content, and be linked to by well ranked sites.
The first part of SEO is structural, namely how well the site is coded and what formal elements are in place to make it ‘search engine friendly’. Each of our websites conforms to the latest W3C guidelines, using a sound menu structure and a correct combination of XHTML and CSS.
The second relates to the content on the site. Search engines identify keywords directly from the content and not just from the “meta tags”, as before. The regular updating of content will further improve a website’s ranking, and can be worth considering if budget allows.
The third aspect of SEO relates to inbound links, that is, the number of high-traffic sites that contain a link to your website. This side of SEO has produced a whole new industry with a multitude of directory sites charging big money for adding links. Some sites still allow for free links however, and most industry specific sites will agree to a ‘link exchange’.
SEO professionals can then improve a website’s rankings though writing and submitting articles to large article directories (linkbaiting), obtaining inbound links from a range of established link directories, and analysing your target market to develop search keyword strategies.
So, SEO represents two key elements – the structure and content of the website, and then how that website is marketed.
Does Radar Maker provide SEO?
At Radar Maker, we develop websites to SEO best practices. All our websites are designed with people in mind and then coded to suit search engines.
We can then provide additional marketing services such as copywriting, article writing and submission, and link building strategies which can greatly improve your website’s ranking.