Search Engine Optimisation

What is SEO?

SEO is the active practice of optimising a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines.

Why does my website need SEO?

The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines. If your site cannot be found by search engines or your content cannot be put into their databases, you miss out on the incredible opportunities available to websites provided via search - people who want what you have visiting your site. Whether your site provides content, services, products or information, search engines are a primary method of navigation for almost all Internet users.

Search queries, the words that users type into the search box which contain terms and phrases best suited to your site carry extraordinary value. Targeted visitors to a website can provide publicity, revenue and exposure like no other.

How Search Engines Operate

Search engines have a short list of critical operations that allows them to provide relevant web results when searchers use their system to find information.

1. Crawling the Web
   Search engines run automated programs, called "bots" or "spiders" that use the hyperlink structure of the web to "crawl" the pages and documents that make up the World Wide Web. Estimates are that of the approximately 20 billion existing pages, search engines have crawled between 8 and 10 billion.
   
   
2. Indexing Documents
   Once a page has been crawled, it's contents can be "indexed" - stored in a giant database of documents that makes up a search engine's "index". This index needs to be tightly managed, so that requests which must search and sort billions of documents can be completed in fractions of a second.
   
   
3. Processing Queries
   When a request for information comes into the search engine (hundreds of millions do each day), the engine retrieves from its index all the document that match the query. Other advanced operators (Google has a list of all the special operators Google supports http://www.google.com/help/operators.html) these determine / change which results a search engine will consider a match for a given query.
   
   
4. Ranking Results
   Once the search engine has determined which results are a match for the query, the engine's algorithm calculations on each of the results to determine which is most relevant to the given query. They sort these on the results pages in order from most relevant to least so that users can make a choice about which to select.
   

Speed Bumps & Walls

Certain types of navigation may hinder or entirely prevent search engines from reaching your website's content. As search engine spiders crawl the web, they rely on the architecture of hyperlinks to find new documents and revisit those that may have changed. In the analogy of speed bumps and walls, complex links and deep site structures with little unique content may serve as "bumps." Data that cannot be accessed by spiderable links qualify as "walls."

Possible "Speed Bumps" for SE Spiders:

• URLs with 2+ dynamic parameters (spiders may be reluctant to crawl complex URLs like this because they often result in errors with non-human visitors)
• Pages with more than 100 unique links to other pages on the site (spiders may not follow each one)
• Pages buried more than 3 clicks/links from the home page of a website (unless there are many other external links pointing to the site, spiders will often ignore deep pages)
• Pages requiring a "Session ID" or Cookie to enable navigation (spiders may not be able to retain these elements as a browser user can)
• Pages that are split into "frames" can hinder crawling and cause confusion about which pages to rank in the results.

Possible "Walls" for SE Spiders:

• Pages accessible only via a select form and submit button
• Pages requiring a drop down menu (HTML attribute) to access them
• Documents accessible only via a search box
• Documents blocked purposefully (via a robots meta tag or robots.txt file)
• Pages requiring a login
• Pages that re-direct before showing content (search engines call this cloaking or bait-and-switch and may actually ban sites that use this tactic)

The key to ensuring that a site's contents are fully crawlable is to provide direct, HTML links to each page you want the search engine spiders to index. One little tip is to remember that if a page cannot be accessed from the home page (where most spiders are likely to start their crawl) it is likely that it will not be indexed by the search engines. A sitemap can be of tremendous help for this purpose.

Google provide free information and webmaster tools here:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/about.html

This is extremely helpful in providing you with a free and easy way to make your site more Google-friendly. They can show you Google’s view of your site, help you diagnose problems, and let you share info with them to help improve your site’s visibility, this is certainly worth a visit.

The Digital Clarity Media Approach to SEO

Digital Clarity Media’s approach to SEO is simple we dedicate our SEO specialists teams’ time to helping our clients develop their own websites so that they attract high quality interested traffic that converts into sales and reaches ROI targets.

It is vital that we concentrate on giving both the search engines what they want, but also that the client conveys the message they need to convey. Don’t be taken in by promises from cowboys that you can appear on the first page in a few hours; you’ll soon be discovered and blacklisted. Digital Clarity Media don’t chase the latest technique that will soon be penalised or ignored by the engines. It’s a simple process - Giving the engine what it wants generates long term, sustainable traffic levels to help you achieve your targets.

At Digital Clarity Media our proven method of our SEO process is broken into 4 cyclic strategic areas these include:

• Step 1: Audit & Build
  Digital Clarity Media will produce an audit for each clients website detailing changes to be made to code, links, content, structure etc. It is then important that we help you implement these changes and ensure processes are in place to prevent future issues. If required we can even design and build optimised web pages for you & the pages can be uploaded and submitted, as necessary, to the search engines.
  
  
• Step 2: Monitor Your Rankings
  Digital Clarity Media monitor ranking and visibility scores for both paid and organic listings, enabling you to compare your results. We also provide advice on developing content to match the way people use search engines, to help attract additional visitors.
  
  
• Step 3: Continually Optimise Your Pages
  Knowing your position for various keywords and search engines is only the beginning. Digital Clarity Media provides straightforward and expert recommendations on steps to take to optimise your site continually. Recommendations are based on a comparison of your pages to an index of top-performing sites, as well as on comparisons to specific competitors that you identify. Search engine optimisation is not a one-time event. The SEO environment is constantly changing. Search engines update their rules, competitors optimise their sites, and new competitors enter.
  
  
• Step 4: Analyse Your Results
  Top positions mean nothing unless they drive business results. Digital Clarity Media offer Bespoke Reports on users, conversion and revenue, and can incorporate cost data for a true ROI picture. You’ll be able to see which search engines are driving the most qualified traffic. You’ll be able to understand which keywords or phrases result in greatest revenue. And you’ll be able to compare your results for both paid and organic search activities with results from other online marketing activities to ensure you are maximising ROI.