Search Engine Optimisation
'SEO' stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which means configuring your webpages and your web presence to improve your position in search engine results.
One very important point to say at the outset is that search engine optimisation is an ongoing process - it has to be done regularly over a prolonged period to achieve the best results. It is NOT a set of discreet strategies which can be done once and then forgotten about. For this reason we offer SEO and Web Support packages which will continually update search engine optimisation of your website and deploy new techniques and strategies as they become available. This is a fast-moving area of Internet technology, and it important to keep up with the latest advances. Please contact us to find out about our SEO and Web Support Solutions, which can be paid for monthly, quarterly, or annually, to suit your budget and cash-flow.
One advantage of coming to PeakEasy for your website is that we have been experts in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for many years, and we will carry out an initial optimisation of your website free of charge as part of the process of developing your site - so you do not need to go elsewhere for this.
There are lots of firms selling search engine optimisation as 'add-on' services. According to Google, who should know, some of them are reputable and helpful. Others are scam artists to avoid at all costs. You may be cold-called or emailed by some of the latter - be very suspicious! Rest assured that we will do all the search engine optimisation that your website needs.
We at PeakEasy Web Design believe in making your pages search-engine friendly while keeping them people-friendly and easy to use.
We avoid over-complicated webpages with lots of flashing signs and too much information in very small text sizes - you will see a lot of these - which just confuse and distract the user of the website, so they go elsewhere. Even some blue-chip companies who have paid thousands of pounds or dollars for their website have these 'over-flashy' websites.
We believe in websites which are user-friendly and easy to navigate, where any webpage is no more than one click away from any other webpage. You should never have to backspace your browser. Simple pages with clear writing score better in search engines.
Search engines are getting smarter all the time, but generally they see text and very little else - so websites done entirely in Adobe Flash or which employ other 'flashy' animations, effects and gimmicks are generally to be avoided. We can do animations as part of your website, but we like to keep them fairly simple, so that the file size is small; that way, your webpages will load rapidly even if the user has a slow connection. If you want a complicated animation or movie, it is better to use a video format - we are experts in video production so can make a professional video for your business which can be included on your website.
Google is, of course, the 800 pound gorilla of search engines. (In fact, we at PeakEasy have been going so long that we pre-date Google as an Internet company, but we recognise the success and importance of Google as the preeminent search engine world-wide). You just have to be indexed in Google. Google's Page Rank algorithm gives your site points depending upon how many other sites link to it, and the quality of those sites, in Google's opinion. That creates a chicken-or-egg problem: If no one links to your site, no one can find it, and if no one can find your site, they can't link to it no matter how good it is. So it is a good idea to have a Links Page so you can offer businesses reciprocal links back from your website to their website - they are more likely to give you a link if you can give them one back. We are happy to set up a Links Page for you as part of your website. But there is much more to search engine optimisation than that, and we will discuss all the subtleties of SEO with you so that you are aware of the most important strategies to help your Google ranking.
We will also help you set up a Google Local Business Centre Account for you business - this is important if people are going to find you on Google Maps - and it will also improve your Google ranking.
Online Directories
There are online directories to which you can submit your site for free - and it is important to do this with as many directories as you can find. Often, these are listed on the first webpage which appears after doing a search on Google, so just work your way down them and get listed; it's time-consuming but very worthwhile. You'll know the ones specific to your industry, and we know of some general ones. Submit your site to these directories, and presto! you have incoming links.
Other places to get links include your own personal page... the one your ISP lets you set up for free; also get links from your friends, your customers, and your suppliers. We'll put a link on our "Portfolio" pages for you, although we may rotate it in and out if the list gets too large. Similarly, we'll ask that you allow us to put an unobtrusive link to us from your site.
It's important to know that "link farm" pages are a bad idea. They can get your site banned or removed from search engine indexes, as can indiscriminate 'bulk' emailing - search engines may construe this as 'spamming'.