What makes good SEO? That is a question I am asked most every day. It is almost easier to answer what makes bad SEO?
The problem with much of search engine optimisation work and many companies that offer SEO services – usually as part of the build and development offering – is a fundamantal misunderstanding of the what search engine optimisation is all about. At IYES e-Solutions we receive many enquiries from companies with websites that have been “optimised” only to find that some key words have been added to the meta headers or that each page is identically set up. This is not search engine optimisation and at best does nothing at all, or at worst is detrimental to the site’s ranking on search engines.

Other companies may just register your site with search engines in the mistaken belief that is all that is required. We have had clients whose sites have still not been indexed by Google six weeks after being “registered”. In a recent campaign with a new site and a new domain, we had our client’s site not only indexed on Google within four days, but page 1 for one of their key search terms. Admittedly this is is unusual, but we expect our client sites to be indexed or re-indexed after the first pass by the search engine, which in Google’s case is normally with 14 days.

So What Makes Good SEO? Firstly, search engine optimisation, like any marketing campaign, is about understanding the client’s business, products/services and market place. Without that there is little chance of having much success. Each business is different and so the strategy for each SEO campaign needs to reflect each business’s objectives. At IYES e-Solutions we take time to understand each client’s business and to assist them in establishing what they want from their website.

An e-commerce site has very different objectives to a straightforward brochure site.

By understanding our clients’ markets we can assess the competition and then suggest a strategy for that business.

We then implement that strategy page by page, optimising each page individually. This, of course, involves more than just adding a few keywords in the meta headers and the whole page needs to be optimised including removal of redundant or extraeneous code, images, and wherever practical moving scripts to offpage includes for speed of loading and search engine spidering. Clearly this last element requires the SEO firm to have a strong understanding of web development – although not necessarily design.

And finally, good SEO is never cheap but bad SEO is always expensive. Not matter the fee to the SEO firm, if the SEO is done badly the opportunity lost to the client’s business can be much more than the initial outlay. Good SEO always pays for itself.