5 often overlooked aspects of SEO | Net66

In this day and age, the internet is king. Without fully utilising it potential you are seriously limiting your business prospects. However, it is not enough to merely design and publish a website, you must also engage in a process known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.

Here at Net66, we believe that this is key to a successful website. After all, there is no point in designing and developing a fantastic website if no one will ever see it. Therefore, we have created a list of 5 of the most important, and often over looked factors in SEO. 

Content

 At Net66 we believe this is the most important factor. Your content should be well written, logical and reliant. It is also important to include your keywords, but first and foremost you should write for your users. There is absolutely no point in stuffing as many of your keywords into your copy as possible. While it may read well for the search engines, it will alienate your users, resulting in fewer sales.

At Net66, our digital marketing executives highlight two fundamental reasons as to why content is so important; firstly, when Google indexes your website it looks to the content to see what your page is about. There is no point in optimising your website to be for cats, when your website is really about dogs. Additionally, Google often punishes such deception, whether inadvertent or not. Secondly, your website must appear as advertised on Google in order to retain an potential customers. How long do you spend on a website that doesn't answer your search query or is badly written. 

Page Titles

It is of the utmost importance that the page title actually reflects what is on the page. This is the main way that search engines understand your website. Net66 often sees title tags that are simple and non-descriptive. For example, home pages are often titled just that: “Home”. It is much better practice to include a brief description of what the page is actually about. For instance: “Bill's dog walking service | Specialist K-9 Walkers | Bath | Home”.

Don't Design Your Website Without Considering SEO

Make sure that your web developer understands your need for organic SEO and that he has the relevant knowledge to implement your search optimisation strategy. Doing a retro fit SEO service on your website after it is built if far more difficult. For instance, take flash based websites, Google crawlers cannot understand flash – just text. Better yet, get an all in one agency that offers web design, development and SEO, like Net66.

Site Map

A large website needs a site map. This is something that Net66 aims to provide for all its customers as it helps search engine robots find every page with just a few 'clicks'.

Anchor Text

It is obviously important to link your customers to other pages in your site; it helps to encourage people stay on your website and directs them to relevant content. However, all to often our marketeers at Net66 see websites that use “Click Here” instead of having a descriptive, keyword as the anchor text. As Goolge gives higher value to text that has a duel function (such as headings) it is very important that people use anchor text for their keywords. 

Importance of White Hat SEO | Net66

One cannot over-state the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO). When you want to find a local business, hang-out or event, do you go and get the phone book? Of course not; nowadays everyone heads to the nearest computer and brings up their search engine of choice. Therefore, your website needs to be prominently displayed, on the first page and close to the top of the results. The reason for this is quite simple: pages near to the top of the search engine are often seen as being the most reliant, the most trustworthy and the most authentic. Here at Net66, this is our goal. We aim to provide authentic search results based on organic SEO methods.

Generally speaking, there are two ways to get your website onto the first page of Google. Firstly, you can purchase some Google advertising; this is known as pay per click or PPC advertising. In terms of SEO, this is often seen as less valuable as many people often ignore the ads. Nevertheless, there are some benefits to PPC advertising: enough that Net66 runs campaigns that fully utilise the power of PPC. For instance, the results are instantaneous (something that organic SEO cannot offer) and it does drive traffic. Secondly, there is organic SEO. This is often touted as being the most important factor in online marketing. This claim is not without foundation; as mentioned earlier, the higher you are on Google, the more trusted and visited your website will become.

As such, there is vast temptation to engage in unethical practices known as “black hat” SEO. Some methods of black hat SEO include:

• Hidden Text
• Spam Blog or Forum Posts
• Keyword stuffing
• Use of 'Link Farms'

However, these methods of SEO are, typically, contrary to Google's Webmaster guidelines and, as such, often get 'punished' by Google. This could result in your webpage being removed from the search engine giants results and not being indexed. Therefore, all your hard work and exhaustive SEO activities will be useless and your website will remain unvisited.

Thus, here at Net66, we believe that it is much more beneficial to engage in “white hat” SEO. These methods help your site to climb up the Google rankings in a more natural, ethical and approved manner. Some of the most effective white hat SEO techniques are:

• Ensuring that your site has quality content on your site.
• Using structural or semantic mark up and separate content from presentation.
• Providing proper titles and meta data for your pages.
• Doing adequate keyword research, and targeting your campaign for your area.
• Quality inbound links.

In addition to being both safer and ethical, white hat SEO also has benefits for your business or website. For instance, there is no point in getting to the top of the search results for one term, using unethical methods of optimisation, only to have high traffic and no sales due to people not finding what they need on your site. After all, how long do you normally browse a site if it is not what you searched for?

To ensure that your website observes the guidelines distributed by Google and doesn't violate any of the search engine's rules, it is advised that you employ an in-house webmaster or recruit a professional SEO agency, such as Net66, that has knowledge of the guidelines, and sticks to them. In conclusion, a poor, erratic or unethical approach to SEO can be damning for your website. Employ an agency that acknowledges that. Employ Net66.