One such project that we have taken on was for Pharmaceutical Market Access specialists Roboleo. Since we did not know much about this area, this project involved extensive discussion with the clients, to determine which phrases best described their site. The second phase of this preliminary work was working out which variations of these phrases were actually searched for, through the use of Google’s Keyword Tool and previous web statistics on the client’s existing website – after all, being top of the Google results for a phrase which nobody ever types into Google’s search box isn’t much better than having no SEO at all.

Another project we’ve just taken on is for driving instructor Andrew Taylor or AAA Instructor Training – but again, his field is specialised. Andrew does give regular driving lessons in Wakefield to learner drivers, but his main area of expertise is training others to become driving instructors themselves. As with any profession, there are acronyms and technical language which can be hard to contextualise just by looking at the site as an outsider to the area. It may have been relatively straightforward to decide on the phrase “driving instructor training courses in Wakefield“, but “fleet ADI training courses” was a little more elusive. I’m guessing only a driving instructor trainer – or someone who wanted to become one – could tell me that was a sensible phrase for which to optimise the site.

While the Roboleo site was designed and coded in house at Semlyen IT, the AAA Instructor Training site is a classic example of a website created using a third party content management system which was not very search engine friendly. In this case we have taken on the site ourselves and stripped out the CMS, which means that we will now have full control over adding the SEO content.

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The higher a website appears in search engine results the greater the number of visitors.

For example: a builder located in York would like to be at the top of Google for “York builders”, “builder in York”,  “building contractor York” and similar searches.  The builder also has other phrases for which they would like a high position:  “house extensions in York”, “York attic conversions”, “property renovation York” and so on.  The builder also operates in nearby locations: Leeds, Harrogate, Hull etc. and would like high positions in Google for these localities too.

Google is the most popular search engine.  Google is usually used as the benchmark for a site’s SEO.  Where Google goes the other search engines usually follow.

An SEO project involves:

1. Working with the client to identify the primary phrases for which a high Google position is essential, and other phrases for which a high Google position is desirable.
2. Targeting phrases at different pages of the client’s website by making changes to the underlying website code (HTML) and content (the words that appear on the  page) in order to optimise pages for their allocated phrases.
3. Identifying and correcting issues that are barriers to optimisation.  For example, some sites are driven by content management systems (CMS) which don’t allow the website code to be fully optimised. In such cases the CMS would removed or replaced.
4. Setting up links from other websites to the targeted pages using the target phrases as the linked text.

Steps 1 – 3 are known as “on-site” SEO. Step 4 is known as “off-site” SEO.

Off-site SEO involves links to the target site from other good quality sites.  These links are usually, but not necessarily, reciprocal. A links page is set-up on the target site and other sites approached to “exchange” links.  Sites are chosen which complement rather than compete or detract from the site being promoted.

Often a client will already have a number other firms they do business with who will be happy to exchange links.  A builder might work with a plumber, an electrician, a surveyor, and an estate agent who have websites and can be approached regarding link exchange.

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Another new site undergoing some off-site SEO treatment is for the Haxby Group Medical Practice, who are based in the outskirts of York but are now extending and will have doctors in Hull at three new surgeries opening between autumn and Christmas 2009. This site was designed by Mode and coded by Semlyen IT.

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Recent additions to this list include a website for a holiday cottage in the Hebrides – Caberfeidh Cottage on the Isle of Lewis.

We are also working on a website for Honeybourne Homes – York builders who specialise in building new bespoke houses of high quality in the North Yorkshire area.

There’s the chance to win a house in Leeds at www.winmyfirsthouse.com. The competition is also raising money for the not-for-profit organisation Virtue Youth, which was set up to help disadvantaged young people.

We are doing some SEO work to promote a mini-site that is part of York interior designer Tricia Douglas’ site: Instant Interiors is a landlord furniture package service in which Tricia quickly provides complete interiors for rental houses, show homes and letting agents.

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The site for Buttonbag was a redesign of an existing site, built on the same domain, whereas the Cusp site is a new domain. The SEO links back to these sites have been added from existing sites at roughly the same rate – almost exactly in parallel. There are now around twenty links back to each domain from other sites. Given the different ages of the domains, it’s been interesting to observe how Google has been treating them.

Buttonbag, the older of the two, is now at no. 3 for the Google search ‘sewing kits for children’ and at no. 8 for ‘craft kits for children’. Cusp, a new domain, despite having had approximately the same number of links added over the same period of time, is yet to appear in Google’s listing for either the search ‘personalised christening gifts’ or ‘christening gifts’, the two main phrases for which it has been optimised.

It could be that there is more competition for ‘christening gifts’ than ‘craft kits’ – but is also very likely that Google is more accepting of the established domain and more wary of the new one, which it may be keeping “on hold” for a while just to make sure it’s nothing harmful.

Talking of websites selling products for children, the Twigs4Kids website -which sells organic children’s clothes and organic baby clothes – has had a recent SEO boost and is now at no. 1 in Google for ‘organic children’s clothes’. It had been hovering around no. 2 and no. 3 for several months, so this recent work has obviously made the difference.

The next step for this site could be to raise its rank for the search ‘organic baby clothes‘ – currently only on page 3 of the Google listing for that search, but new links are being added gradually. Future links will be targeted at the ‘organic baby clothes’ phrase since the ‘organic children’s clothes’ search is already a success.

Another new site undergoing SEO treatment is a page for Benson Grays Associates, promoting their mortgage advice service. Despite currently just having a holding page as its content, a large number of incoming links using the targeted phrases have sent it to no. 3 for the Google search ‘mortgage advice in York’ and no. 2 for ‘York mortgage advice’. This domain is only a week older than the Cusp domain, so hopefully Cusp should be making an appearance in the Google listings very soon.

I’ll post an update on the progress of these sites in the next few weeks.

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For example, when doing some off-site SEO for an estate agent in Wakefield, we must consider whether people are more likely to search for ‘Wakefield estate agent’ or ‘estate agent Wakefield’, or both to approximately the same degree. Then there’s the inclusion of the word ‘in’ – ‘painter and decorator york’ and ‘painter and decorator in york’ will yield different sets of results when submitted to Google.

Plurals are another variation to consider – although Google does automatically connect words to their plurals to a certain extent, there will be a difference between the results from a search for ‘landscape gardeners brighton’ and ‘landscape gardener brighton’.

So SEO decisions can be fairly complex, even when a website is offering one clearly defined service – someone looking for a York-based wedding photographer might search for ‘York wedding photographs’, ‘wedding photographer York’, or ‘wedding photography in York’.

When there are a number of different possible keywords, it becomes even more tricky. Take the example of a letting agent specialising in student accommodation – they want to be around the top of Google’s results for ‘student lettings York’, ‘student accommodation York’, ‘York student houses’, ‘York student letting agent’ etc.

Another consideration is locality – an interior designer in York may work both locally and nationally. It’s easier to become high up in a Google search for ‘york interior designer’ than simply ‘interior designer’, for which there will obviously be more competition – so it would seem more sensible to optimise the site for the ‘York’ search results, even though the designer wants to branch out into work further afield as well.

Some sites are developed for such niche-market products or services that it’s not immediately obvious what someone wanting them would type into Google. When searching for a company selling beds in York city centre, are people more likely to search for ‘York bed shop’ or ‘buy a bed in York’ – or even simply ‘York beds’ or ‘York bed stockists’?

I’ve been doing some SEO for a site which offers luxury camping holidays – a concept I hadn’t even heard of previously, but which obviously has quite a following – so have been implementing the phrases ‘cool camping’, ‘posh camping’ and a hybrid word which is completely new to me: ‘glamping’.

Another unexpected site was for a company selling mature trees and shrubs online – another idea new to me. This has been optimised for searches for ‘buy mature trees and shrubs’.

Getting the balance between the number of links from other sites using each of possible search phrases is a large part of off-site SEO. It’s possible to concentrate on one main phrase initially and then, when the desired results have been achieved, to switch to another. A company which has attained the highly prized number one Google position for ‘York chartered surveyors’ can further increase their website traffic by making any further links to their site say ‘York house valuations’ and other variants. Or geographical areas of coverage can be expanded: estate agents in Goole who have conquered the top slot in Google for ‘Goole estate agents’ can subsequently be linked to with the phrases ‘Howden estate agents’ and ‘estate agents in Selby’ to take in nearby areas as well.

Different products offered by the site can also be included – an ethical fashion boutique, having gained a high position for ‘ethical fashion’ might want to try improving its position in searches for ‘ethical shoes’ and ‘ethical jewellery’. In this case we may also change the page that the external links point to: if the site has a particular ‘ethical shoes’ page then the external links can go straight to the page itself, which will hopefully have been optimised for that term in its on-site SEO as well. Similarly, a site selling organic children’s clothes is now trying to improve its position in searches for ‘organic baby clothes’, with links pointing specifically to the ‘baby clothes’ section of the site.

All in all, there’s quite a lot to think about – and Google itself throws yet another element into the mix: search results will differ slightly depending on which browser is used, even when going through the same IP address!

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