10 Things Website Owners Need to Know about SEO

As a web developer, I observe solicitations from unscrupulous SEO companies on a regular basis. And since we'd all like to be listed #1 on Google, people are often willing to listen. But with so many competing voices in the marketplace, who should you listen to?

It is my opinion that too many SEO companies overpromise, overcharge and underdeliver...

That's not to say all SEO companies are bad - but before you sign, you should know what you're paying for - and be reasonably certain the goals set are both desireable and attainable.

Here are 10 things I want to share with you about SEO in this article:

1. What is Search Engine Optimization?
2. The basics of SEO.
3. What you should know about SEO companies - and their "magical formulas".
4. A word about keywords.
5. Content Management Systems and SEO.
6. Pricing for SEO and it's relationship to value.
7. Unsolicited email offers.
8. Understanding traffic stats.
9. SEO timelines and the importance in analysing results.
10. Understanding your current SEO status - and why this is key.

1. WHAT IS SEO?

What is SEO exactly? Search Engine Optimization is the art of coding your website so that the chances of being listed favorably on search engines for your targeted keywords increases - and so you attract more visitors.

The workings of SEO is a mysterious thing to most people. From your point of view, it doesn't help that literally anyone can claim they are an SEO marketing expert - so how should you choose who to talk to?

Time to get educated folks. Unless you personally have a basic understanding of SEO, you've immediately given yourself a 50-50 chance of being duped. SEO can be incredibly expensive, and as a website owner, you need to know enough to be able to spot the genuine experts from the bad guys.

2. THE BASICS OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Be aware that there are numerous criteria that determine how your website performs on search engines. Here are what I consider some of the most important aspects:

• Title tags - Probably the most important part of any webpage. Listen for explanations behind the strategy of using title tags and the relationship to your keywords.
• Meta-tags - Back in the day, these were of paramount importance - and still are marginally worthwhile, depending on who you listen to. However, Google's recent advice is clear - while the description meta-tag is still used for "snippets" on search results, it no longer affects ranking on Google, period. In addition, the keywords meta-tag is ignored completely by Googlebot.
• Content - IS STILL KING. One thing you do want to hear is how your existing content will be optimized, and how your content can be developed to target more relevant keywords/phrases. Strategic use of keywords in filenames, headings, anchors and content in particular are key.
• Clean Coding - The standard of your coding (and how it affects SEO) is debatable between professionals, but I like my websites to be built with code clean enough that it validates with the WC3. Of course, in a world of widgets, this isn't always possible, but nevertheless, it should always be the goal (IMHO).
• Link Building - Inbound links from other websites is one criteria, outside of your actual website, that can really boost your page rank significantly. But they have to be incoming links from good quality websites - and more importantly, websites that are relevant to the content of your website. Expect advice on how to increase the inbound links to your website.
• Directory Submissions - As part of any good SEO campaign, you should be looking for industry specific and/or geographic specific directories to submit your website to. Note - Google, Yahoo and Bing all have free local directories you can be listed in.
• Blogs - Blogs are a great way to develop content, attract viewership - and sell yourself or your company as the experts in your field. But blogs aren't for everyone. Blogs require a lot of effort and commitment. Having a lame blog is worse than not having one at all. Be sure you have a solid strategy - and be realistic about your ability to keep it up-to-date before you start.
• Social Media - Also a great way to increase the visibility of your business and develop those lines of communication with your customers. But it's not appropriate for every business - and even for those that it is appropriate for - remember the old line - "build it and they will come"? It never applied to websites, and it certainly doesn't apply to social media profiles. To be effective, Facebook and Twitter accounts also require a lot of time and dedication.

3. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SEO COMPANIES

Everyone wants their website to rank well - but unfortunately, there is no magical formula. SEO is a very subjective science, and every company will take a slightly different approach. When talking to any SEO company, keep the following in mind:

• SEO representatives are generally GREAT sales people - NEVER sign up on impulse.
• Ask how long have they been in business.
• Do they have experience in your field? If not, do they take time to listen and understand how your business operates and the market demographics which you serve?
• How do they measure their success?
• Ask for specific examples of success stories and testimonials from other customers.
  
• Be aware that it is very easy for any SEO professional to take apart your current SEO strategy and claim that your position could be improved dramatically.
• Analyze their opinions and suggestions carefully - and ask lots of questions.
• SEO companies can ruin your search engine visibility overnight with "black hat" techniques or simply misguided changes.

And the Golden Rule? Be very wary of anyone giving rock solid promises.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Walk!

4. A WORD ABOUT KEYWORDS

Keywords are at the center of SEO - but your keyword strategy can make a break your SEO campaign. Good SEO companies will talk to you about keyword research and strategy.

• Not all keywords are created equal - some attract more user searches - your SEO should be making decisions with the benefit of knowing the global and local search volumes of keywords.
• Not all keywords are targeted equally - some will be more competitive than others - this is where strategy comes in - should you target more specific keywords with less competition, or the more generic ones with more competition?
• Keyword density - this refers to how often your keyword appears on your webpage. Too few and you're under-optimized. Too many and you could be accused of keyword spamming.
• Subject Specific & Geographic Keywords - If your product or service is of a local nature, you will likely benefit from targeting geographic locations.

5. Content Management Systems and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Content Management Systems (CMS for short) can be really helpful for businesses. They allow for easy building of websites and editing of content, without having to be well versed in HTML.

However, be careful. Content Management Systems can be a disaster for SEO. Here are some of the issues to be aware of:

• Reasons for Migrating - As the website owner, if you are interested in being able to update your own website, choosing a CMS could be a good idea - but be very wary of any SEO wanting to migrate your site to a CMS simply for their own benefit. Most professionals will use industry standard tools such as Dreamweaver. If they are not well enough versed in HTML that they need to use a CMS, you should walk, or at least have them work with a professional web developer.
• Dynamic Links - Many content management systems will produce long and meaningless urls for your webpages. Static page urls that are optimized are much more SEO friendly than the dynamic links that a CMS will likely assign to your page filenames.
• Bad Title Tags - Some content management systems don't allow for TITLE tags to be independent from the heading of your webpage. This can sometimes be less than ideal.
• Renaming Webpages - If your SEO's plan is to include the migration of your static website to a CMS, be sure they have a plan for properly redirecting old pages so that you don't lose traffic - and so you don't lose any page rank they might have built up - see 301 redirects.
• Bad Coding - Content management systems are not generally known for their ability to generate efficient or clean coding. They often overuse scripting and the end result will rarely come close to W3C validation.

6. WHY PRICING FOR SEO DOES NOT ALWAYS REFLECT VALUE

There are no industry standards on SEO pricing, and many do not publish rates. This makes it pretty difficult to shop around. But beware: when it comes to SEO, pricing isn't always the best indicator of the quality of service you can expect to receive.

Some businesses are lured by low cost vendors into thinking they are getting a bargain - after all - it's so cheap, "it must be worth a shot". Others are lured by more expensive vendors - if they are charging thousands per month "they must be good". Both can be right in some cases... - and wrong in others.

When considering pricing, be aware that the difference between a low cost and a premium service may simply be their own internal strategy - ie. one has decided to target smaller businesses with low budgets, whilst the other has decided to target larger, established businesses with deeper pockets.

Websites can fall from the sky after shoddy SEO work - from both low cost and premium SEO services alike. My advice - pricing is important, but don't let it be the deciding factor - choose a company that has a proven track record, can explain their strategy and point to examples where they've had success.

7. NEVER RESPOND TO UNSOLICITED EMAIL OFFERS

When you receive unsolicited email for SEO services that promise huge increases in traffic, search ranking, qualified leads and everything in between (as we all frequently do) - IGNORE them, no exceptions. If they are resorting to SPAM to increase their business, you obviously cannot trust them to use legitimate techniques to increase your business.

Ever had something like this drop into your inbox? "I recently visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..." I particularly like those old school emails that proudly claim to offer 1000's of search engine submissions. Of course, 99% of people use one or two of the top three search engines at most.

It might also be pointed out to you how your website might not be showing up well on search results for one or two very specific keyphrases. Never mind how obscure the example given is, or what the global search volume for the keyphrase in question is - and never mind that for every keyphrase you target, there could be several variations - some of which may rank better than others.

Be sure you have a good overall understanding on where you are positioned on search engines for all your chosen keyphrases before you jump to conclusions, or accept those opinions being offered.

8. UNDERSTANDING TRAFFIC STATS - SEO COMPANIES MAY PLAY ON YOUR IGNORANCE

Do you review your traffic stats on a regular basis? Do you understand them? Web professionals aside, who really understands the difference between hits, page views, visits and unique visitors?

Unfortunately, these terms are often abused. For example, a claim that you've had 1000 visitors to your website might impress you - but is that total visits, or unique visitors? If I visit your site once a day, my visit will be recorded 7 times in a week, but only once for the unique visitor stats.

Not all traffic is created equal either - so it happens you are getting 100 referrals/month from a directory your SEO has placed you in. Does that sound impressive too? Is it equally as impressive if the average time a referred user from that directory spends on your site is less than 5 seconds? Enter "Time on Site" stats and "Bounce Rates".

Traffic stats can often be interpretted in many different ways...

9. SEO Timelines and the importance in analysing results

It is impossible to say exactly how long it will take for any changes in your website to affect your search engine visibility. But this underlines the importance of continually monitoring your position.

Firstly, it's important to remember that your website doesn't exist in a vacuum. Your ranking can change even if you never make any changes to your website - for example, perhaps your competition has improved their prospects.

Changes to your website aren't the only thing affecting your position either. Maybe you've gained - or lost - inbound links - or maybe those websites that link to you have gained - or slipped in page rank.

Still, it's important to have a realistic expectation on when to expect some improvements from optimization your SEO has done. Results from SEO aren't instant. I've seen websites take months for pages to be updated on search results - but I've also noted new websites get indexed within days.

If you've updated your site often in the past, you can expect the search engines to update their index more frequently. I have websites that are updated every day - and Googlebot visits every day too. Generally though, your homepage is more likely to be updated more frequently than other pages - but pages that are 2 or 3 levels "deep" may take much longer.

Most SEO companies will ask that you wait 3-6 months before critiquing performance. This is reasonable in most cases. But if you know your site is crawled regularly, then it's fair to expect earlier results. Hopefully, you will see improvements sooner rather than later, but if you do notice your traffic taking a nose dive, then do not be afraid to question the situation.

10. UNDERSTANDING YOUR CURRENT SEO STATUS - AND WHY THIS IS KEY

It is vital that you understand your current SEO status before you sign on the dotted line for search engine optimization. Take time to review:

• How visible your website is at this point in time.
• What position you rank for your top keywords.
• Your traffic stats (Unique visitors per month, referring sites, etc).
• Your current conversion rate (How much business does your site generate from SEO referrals).

Only by knowing this information can you objectively analyze the impact of any future SEO strategy.

Final point - SEO is NOT the only way to promote or improve your website. Read our articles:

• 10 Ways to Promote your Website
• 10 Ideas to Improve your Website