 Many people think that as soon as they have a website, they will be automatically found through searches. This is simply NOT the case! Others think that they rank highly because when they type in their domain name into the search bar and it shows up at the top of the page. This is not ranking - if people don't know the exact words you have in your domain name, they probably won't find you.
Ranking is the order in which you show up on a search engine's page for your specific keywords. The most ideal place to be is on the first page of the search. For example, if you type in "low cost web design", as an example, you will find Affordable Web Design Ltd among the first few listings at the top of the list. THAT'S PROOF of being well-ranked! If you read the "number of matches", you will see that we are tops among over 220 million matches... not too shabby...
Search Engines such as Google and Bing, and directories such as Yahoo, MSN, and many others, specifically look for certain things in websites in order to "rank" them. If someone tells you that they can rank your site by just putting in "meta tags" into the code, they are living in the past. Today's search engines are looking for many, many different parameters, including meta tags as a small part of the whole science of SEO. Unless you deal with a firm which knows how to incorporate today's search engine requirements into your website, it probably just won't work for you!
There are lots of people out there who say that they can build you a website. That website may end up being very visually pleasing, but if that person did not incorporate all the necessary "pieces of the puzzle" to attract the search engines, your website could possibly become virtually useless to you and your business, and possibly a total waste of money.
HOW TO READ AN INTERNET SEARCH
-
Different people will see different views when they put in search words, depending on how their own computer is configured. For instance, if you have it such that you see "Google Maps" listings when you search, then anyone matching your search who has submitted their listing to Google Maps will show up in the section next to the map. This is not ranking, but you do show up at the top of the page if people have this map feature enabled on their computers.
-
The top listings usually have a slightly different coloured background and are marked as "Ads". These have nothing to do with how well these people have applied search engine optimization to their websites. These websites have paid for their listing to show up. There is usually also an entire section of similar listings down the right-hand side of the page, and these are also paid ads.
- Only the top ten listings on a page, which start just below the coloured "ads" section, are really applying search engine optimization techniques to their listings.
Search Engine Optimization is probably the single most important factor in creating an effective website, yet it is also probably the least understood of all the processes involved in web design. Most people automatically assume that all web designers will incorporate all the necessary parameters into their creation in order to attract the search engines, but they don't. An exceptionally large percentage of people who know how to graphically set up a website actually have no clue at all how to optimize the site.
When it comes to web design, there are many different levels of knowledge, just as there are in many other fields. The best example of this is the medical field- a general practitioner is great for "every day" medicine, but he or she will send their patients to a specialist for most specific ailments. The same happens in web design, especially when it comes to creating a website in such a way as to be "search engine friendly".
Some people think that they can save money by going to their friends or relatives, or by creating a website themselves using a low-cost template design. Well, it's definitely the old adage of "you get what you pay for"! If their goal is to save money, they may be saving some money "up front", but they are in all likelihood giving up the probability of being found through internet searches by people who don’t know them.
No matter how good the friends or relatives are with computers, it again boils down to the specialization. Just like in the medical field, you wouldn't want your dentist to take out your appendix! It is also understood in SEO expert circles that pre-made templates are not search engine friendly, unless someone has gone out of their way to add a lot of the "right stuff", which often costs more than coming directly to the experts and having a customized website created just for you! In many cases, it's like creating a really nice-looking brochure, but then not delivering it to anyone!
The art of creating websites so that people can be found through internet searches for their particular product is very specific and unknown to most people who believe they can create websites. They can create website content but they are missing the most important half of website design unless they are completely familiar with the current search engine optimization techniques. Most individuals, and even most web design companies, either don’t know these techniques or if they do, usually charge a substantial amount extra to apply them to a website.
There are all kinds of "things" which need to be incorporated into a website in order to attract the search engines today, a lot more than just a little bit of background code and meta tags, as it used to be just a few short years ago. If anyone talks to you about just putting in meta tags when you ask them about search engine optimization, they don’t know current parameters at all and they probably won’t be able to help you very much. Each "search engine", such as Google and and BING, and each "directory" such as Yahoo and MSN, all are looking for different things. Web designers such as Affordable Web Design Ltd who have taken the time to study all the "ranking" requirements from the various better known search engines are constantly staying abreast of the ever changing requirements.
In addition, one of today's most important parameters for being found by the Search Engines is to have relevant links coming to your website, in other words links from sites that have something in common with yours. Our company's biggest “plus” is that Affordable Web Design Ltd. has found a way to generate thousands of relevant links going back and forth between all our clients' websites. Although absolutely no one can truthfully guarantee high search engine ranking, the majority of our clients can usually be found within the top ten matches for a particular Google search involving their particular fields and our rate of success is happily very high!
Of course as in everything, there are occasions when we can try our best but doing the first level of Search Engine Optimization as we do it simply doesn't work. This is specially true in cases where there are thousands of people within the same industry, all using the same keywords and all targetting the same markets. Although we takegreat care in adding the published search engine optimization parameters to our clients' websites, for which we do not charge any additional fees, our search engine optimization service can sometimes not be enough and the client may need to go to the next level, which is to hire Search Engine Marketers. SEM specialists do SEO work, but they also do several more steps, for which they also charge a fairly large monthly fee, usually averaging between $150.00 and $200.00. But keep in mind that even they cannot guarantee complete success.
What are Search Engines and what do they do?
A Search Engine is a computer based process (algorithm) which searches for certain information on all the websites in the world, then "ranks" them in accordance to certain requirements. A true Search Engine (such as Google, Excite, Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos, Bing and Ask Jeeves) has automated programs, usually called "robots, "spiders" or "crawlers", which search and index all the websites in the world. Another kind of "search engine", which is actually called a Directory (such as Yahoo, AOL and MSN), is one which is manned by people and is not automated.
The way the search engines index sites can vary among the different search engines such that the same search with different engines will yield different results.
So what all of this means in plain language is that if you want your website to be able to be found by people searching the internet for certain products or services, you need to deal with someone who understands the search parameters and what needs to be put into your website both in its "behind-the-scenes" code as well as in the body of the website itself.
The people who do this are called Search Engine Optimizers. Many search engine optimizers are also web designers, but very few web designers are also search engine optimizers. SEO processes take a lot of time and attention to detail, and Affordable Web Design Ltd sees that as a must in order to offer the best possible service to our clients.
There are no guarantees of ranking high in the search engines, no matter how knowledgeable the Search Engine Optimizer may be, because of the vast number of variables, from words to spelling of those words, as well as due to the technical complexities of web searches. However, we at Affordable Web Design Ltd. will do everything within our power to incorporate "all the right stuff" in order to try to help you rank as highly as possible for the keywords that are most specific to your business and our success rate has been simply awesome!!! |
