Company

As happens in a lot of companies, one business direction often leads to another. This has certainly been our experience with one of our own companies.

Using The Internet For Promotion

In 1998 we were in the business of aquarium hire. We realised early on that a website on the Internet was a wonderful tool for promoting a business very cheaply. It could be used as a brochure listing services provided, and to introduce the company to a much wider market than could be achieved through the usual marketing products such as the Yellow Pages.

Website SEO?

Website optimisation (SEO) or website ranking wasn't on the agenda when we made our first crude website. We hadn't even heard of SEO back then.

Ranking Position Is Everything

After our website was indexed by Google, we soon realised that having a website on the World Wide Web, with a search engine ranking position of 200, was a pointless exercise if one of the expectations was generating extra business from the Internet.

Thus began the journey to get our first website near the top of the rankings. After consulting with a few website companies, we soon realised most considered SEO as mainly black magic, and it would cost a fortune to achieve any worthwhile results. The usual Kiwi response to this was... D.I.Y.

It has been a continuous learning curve over the years, and often very frustrating. When one major search engine such as Google ranked a site well, another such as Yahoo would rank it lowly because its search criteria or algorithm was different.

High Ranking Position At Any Cost

Since those early days, the World Wide Web has progressed enormously, and has become more sophisticated. A top search engine ranking can be worth millions to a company. The major search engines have had to change their search algorithms continuously to beat the devious methods webmasters have employed to get websites at the top of search engine results. A top search result will generate higher traffic (visitor numbers) than a low search result. This is common sense of course, but raise the ire of the search engines by spamming or any other dodgy practise, and you will find your ranking go down into triple digit territory, or worse, have your website removed from their index entirely.

The Holistic Approach To Avoid Getting De-listed

Because of this dodgy behaviour, and increased competition, it has become a lot harder to get a good search engine result. Instead of being "clever", and risking being taken off the search engine index, a more holistic approach is required, linking background scripting with website page content, and using the appropriate keyword or phrase in the appropriate places on the website page at the appropriate frequency.

What Qualifications Are Required For SEO?

So, what does this all mean for you? What qualifications do we have for providing you with this kind of advice or service?
In a word, none.
Yes we have tertiary qualifications in Management and Accounting, but how does that help construct a website page that will rank well?
Answer, not at all.
When we were at school, the Internet didn't exist. There were no tertiary courses existing in website design let alone SEO.
The qualifications we believe that are required are first and foremost, an excellent command of the English language, to enable website pages to be constructed that will rank well and still read well. The sales copy must also be compelling to your customers so they take the required action such as make a purchase or make contact with you.

We have business experience gathered from our own businesses that can be applied to your website to maximise your customer responses that will lead to more sales. An example is creating a website that gives an impression of professionalism and integrity. If your website doesn't exhibit these values, why would your visitor expect your business to act accordingly?
Finally, we have enough XHTML scripting knowledge to be dangerous.

Good Design Is Not Enough

We have found that very well designed websites often miss the basics. If a site appears in search engine results with the result showing on the computer screen reading something like "ABC Ltd - Home Page", even if the site ranking was on the first results page of Google, the likelihood of a web surfer seeking information on blue widgets with red polka dots clicking on your link would be low.

If you feel your website ranking isn't where you would expect it to be, we will audit the site for free, and provide you with a list of any issues we find that are hindering your ranking results.

For more information on what areas are covered in the website audit, go to our Website Audit page or Click here to request a free audit of your site.

If you are planning an Internet based business, read our web page e-Business Fundamentals to get some ideas on the problems an Internet business has compared to a bricks and mortar conventional business before you start spending serious money.

If you are going to build your own website, go to our website Fundamentals page that highlights all the key areas that need to be addressed on any website if the owner expects their website to perform.

Some free advice. If your website is ranking well, has a high response factor giving you all the work or sales you can handle, DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING!

Regards

The SEO4U Team

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