As long as everything is running smoothly, the web hosting company chosen for a website makes no difference at all from a search engine optimization point of view. This is no reason for complacency, however, because if the service does become disrupted the consequences can be extremely dire. It makes sense to choose a hosting company based on how reliable a service it provides, rather than concentrating solely on cost.

In addition to reliability, there is another consideration. The geographical location of one’s web host can affect a website’s placing in search results in a positive way. This is because search engines look at where the web server is located as part of assessing a website for inclusion in local search listings. As being placed in local search results makes a huge difference for some companies, it may be wise to think about choosing a web host which is, at least, in the same country as one’s own business.

If there are problems with the servers of a web hosting provider, leading to a website being constantly unavailable, not only is this annoying for human visitors, it also affects search robots. When robots are prevented from crawling the pages of a site they are unable to index them, and the pages have no chance of appearing in search results, or they appear but have low ratings due to the apparent lack of any content.

Sometimes web servers may be functioning but are extremely slow. This can lead to visitors becoming impatient and moving to other sites. It is also hopeless for search robots, as they may only be able to crawl part of a page in the time they have available, or they may move on before the page loads at all.

Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that search engines block a whole range of IP addresses that include spam sites, and this could include one’s own, perfectly legitimate site. There is also the possibility of having a shared IP address with a dubious neighbour. This is one of the reasons why it can be preferable to have a static IP address, one which is not shared with any other sites.

Some web hosting companies set limits on the activity of a site, perhaps by restricting bandwidth. This could be problematic if a site grows to become extremely popular, with a resulting increase in visitor traffic. Not only will web visitors be denied entry to the site but search spiders will be unable to get in to crawl it. In a similar way, some web hosts are overly suspicious concerning repeated requests to view pages and will make sure access is limited in this situation, which can sometimes prevent search robots from doing their job properly.

Taking all this into consideration, it makes sense to choose a web hosting company carefully. It could be worth spending a bit more in order to obtain a better-quality service and protect against any negative consequences for SEO.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we carefully consider all the factors that affect a website’s success.

An experienced SEO company will know that optimising a website for search results involves combining the scientific application of known facts with the ability to respond quickly and creatively to change. A strategy for success may be implemented after researching thoroughly into all the factors which should send a site towards the top of search rankings, but progress may not always proceed as expected, and plans could need adapting. Google is constantly changing its algorithms, so it would be foolish to approach web projects as if there was a concrete set of rules which could always guarantee positive results.

The scientific approach to search engine optimisation involves working with the known guidelines. There are a number of aspects of a site, all common knowledge, which need to be set up correctly, or it is likely to end up ranked lower in search results. Content is vitally important, and must be interesting, relevant, well-organised and not found anywhere else on the Web. All of the important content needs to be readable by search robots, so it is necessary to present everything of note in the form of text written into the HTML code of a page, rather than relying on JavaScript and Flash to display it.

It is known that clear, semantic HTML helps to give each keyword its proper weight within the hierarchy of a page, and that certain types of URL are more relevant and easily understood by search robots. Logical and well-structured site navigation with descriptive text-based links, together with an XML Sitemap, is useful in enabling all of a site to be crawled and indexed.

So far, the ’science’ is straightforward. There are plenty of known ways to increase the chance of a website moving further up in the search results. Why, then, is there a need to monitor a site’s progress and to alter the SEO strategy over time? The answer to this lies in that side of the process which is more of an art. Here, creative thinking and analysis, combined with years of practical experience, keep a website moving along the path that leads to the top of the search rankings.

As companies such as Google make changes to their search algorithms with the aim of improving the quality of the Web as a whole, this tends to favour the honest. If guidelines are followed to improve the standing of websites in search results ethically, this should leave one in a position to weather most of the tweaking of algorithms that goes on. There is also the policy of keeping an eye on what others in the industry are saying, as often this can indicate an upcoming alteration. As for the unforeseen, the use of an analytics program helps in quickly spotting when things are beginning to go off track. It can also provide clues about which areas of a site might be causing a problem.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we have the necessary combination of knowledge and experience to bring about, and maintain, the success of your website.

A search engine optimization company will put a lot of effort into understanding exactly how search engines function, in order to tweak websites in ways which will send them higher up a list of search results. Although some of what search engines do will always remain hidden, with methods changing all the time and not every detail being publicly revealed, there is plenty of general information about the way they work.

Search engine companies all store massive amounts of data, which they accumulate by sending out search crawlers to study the billions of pages on the Web. These crawlers, or spiders, are really pieces of software, and they are constantly navigating the websites online, following links and reading content on the pages they find.

All of the content discovered by search spiders is analysed in terms of its meaning. The occurrence of specific words and phrases, especially those in titles and headings, the number of times they are seen on a given page, and the co-existence of other commonly-associated terms, all help the search engines to determine the overall theme of a page. Pages are then indexed, in a way which enables them to be retrieved and served up appropriately in response to users’ search queries.

Search engines use mathematical algorithms, the exact details of which are a secret, and which are constantly being refined. These algorithms are used to decide how relevant pages are to a particular search. Thus, the chances of an individual web page being placed in the search results for a certain query is greatly dependent upon the exact algorithm being used. What is known generally is that search engines measure not only relevance but also importance, in order to decide how far up the search listings a page should go. Importance is a measure of how much the page is referred to by other websites, and the more trusted these websites are, the better.

This explains why links are so crucial for SEO, as having a large number of links to one’s site from other websites which are regarded as trustworthy and authoritative should increase the level of importance and therefore the position in search results. The measurement of relevance can also be improved by intelligent use of keywords, which explains why search engine optimisation companies research and plan which keywords to use, and where to place them within the content of a site.

Search engines do not only rely on automated processes in order to come up with algorithms. Google, for example, has teams of human beings involved in assessing the results of search queries, in order to monitor and give feedback on how the search algorithms are functioning. The input of these workers helps to maintain relevance. There are also people employed to notice those sites which breach Web guidelines, so that sites which tend to lower the quality of the Web can be removed.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we have a thorough understanding of search engine function and can put that to use in creating a winning website for you.

Accessibility means making a website easy to use for as many people as possible, and this can only be a positive factor for SEO in the long run. Since search robots rely upon text to extract information from sites, what is visible to them resembles what is ’seen’ by screen reading software used by visually-impaired surfers of the Web. The aim of search engine optimisation involves making web pages readable for search robots, so that information may be extracted and used in search results. Principles that improve accessibility in general tend to make a website more crawlable for search spiders at the same time.

Correct HTML, with heading tags to establish structure and emphasis within a page of text, and separate CSS files for styling, helps search robots extract meaningful information and creates a better experience for all visitors, with smaller page files which are quicker to load. A clear system of navigation with logical, hierarchical flow and descriptive link text makes life easier for users and helps search robots find and index all the pages on a site.

Where images are concerned, it is good practice for accessibility always to include some text within an ‘alt’, or alternative text, attribute, describing what the picture contains. This is useful for everyone should images fail to load for some reason. It is essential for visually-impaired visitors, as their screen reading software can then read out the information, giving a better sense of the page as a whole, and it is extremely useful for search robots that have no other way of determining what the image is apart from any clues contained in the file name or surrounding text.

Progress is being made in the ways search crawlers are able to evaluate images, and they may recognise the proportions of different coloured pixels, giving an indication that, for example, there are excessive amounts of flesh tone on certain sites, but they are a long way from being able to see as humans do. It is not yet possible for search robots to recognise words which are presented in the form of an image, although that could be remedied in the near future. That is why it is important to ensure all significant information on a website is in the form of text.

Flash files and JavaScript are not readily understood by screen readers or search robots, so any content which is vital for a website to function should not be displayed this way. Search crawlers are beginning to be able to extract some text information from Flash, but this is far from being able to comprehend the files fully.

A useful way of simulating how web pages appear to search crawlers, or screen readers, is to use a text-based browser such as Lynx. An experienced SEO company will view sites this way to determine which parts of a page are visible to search robots.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we can make sure your website is fully accessible to search engines and visitors alike.

The content of a website needs to be meaningful for SEO. It may seem like science fiction, but search robots are able to analyse web pages in terms of semantics and this has been the case for a number of years. In the future, the abilities of search engines to rate sites in this way will only increase, although so far they lag behind the astonishing capacity for learning currently demonstrated by some computers.

It is important for search engines to understand what is on a web page as thoroughly as possible because this enables the best range of search results to be returned in response to a user’s query. Sometimes the meanings of words and phrases can be taken in different ways, and the more a search engine is able to approach human levels of comprehension, the less chance there will be of turning up irrelevant search results that completely miss the point.

Search engines use something called ’semantic connectivity’ to analyse the content of web pages, which involves noting which words or phrases are commonly associated, and recognising this when they occur again. Search engines realise that words such as ‘apple’ and ‘pear’ often occur together, possibly often with the word ‘fruit’. In that sense, there is an ‘understanding’ that apples and pears are fruit but not in the way that humans would think of it. Still, it is a useful way for search engines to extract meaning from content.

From a search engine optimization point of view, this means that it will continue to become more important for the pages of a site to follow particular themes and ideas in order to rank well in search results, rather than consisting of a mishmash of random pieces of content and a scattering of adverts.

In addition to having thoughtfully crafted content, one also needs to mark up that content meaningfully in the HTML. This is another aspect of web pages that search engines study, and correct use of HTML tags, with text properly positioned within the structure of a page, will increase search engine optimisation. That means keeping content separate from style by putting all the rules for styling in a CSS file, and placing the most important text inside a meaningful hierarchy of headings.

There are secondary advantages to all of this, because visitors prefer to read web pages that make sense and have a logical flow. Once they have found such a website they will be much more likely to return, and to link to the pages from other sites. Putting the code for styling the pages in separate CSS files means that the HTML files are a lot smaller than they would be otherwise. The benefit of this is that web pages are much quicker to load, removing the frustration of waiting that leads to so many visitors clicking away to find an alternative site.

Making meaningful web pages is important, and one might consider employing an SEO company for advice in the initial stages. At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk, we can help you create a successful website.

A search engine optimization strategy would be incomplete if it did not take vertical search results into account. These are the niche results which search engines often add to general search listings to form what is known as ‘Blended Search’. Images, videos, news, blogs, local search results and maps may all appear in their own sections within the main results, depending on a particular search query. Alternatively, each type of niche search can be carried out separately, and if a site’s customers are likely to search this way, it can be vital that the website shows up in the corresponding search results.

If a website’s target audience is likely to use one of the vertical search options, it is wise to consider search engine optimisation with the aim of being included in those results. If potential visitors are most likely to be interested in the pictures on a website, for example, all of the images should be optimised for inclusion in the niche image search results.

Search robots cannot yet recognise images as humans do, although research is underway to try and make this possible one day. Instead, images are interpreted according to the text associated with them, and the words present on the page around them. The ‘alt’ attribute in HTML, which is used to describe an image, should always be used and made as helpful as possible. The name of an image file should suggest what that picture represents, and, on the web page, relevant text should be found near the image to assist search robots attempting to interpret its meaning. Videos may also be optimised, both for SEO and for video search in particular, using broadly similar techniques. As much descriptive text as possible should be present in headings, file names and on the page nearby.

The vertical search for news depends on information being very up-to-the-minute. Optimising a website for news search involves being able to deliver stories regularly and ensuring that they are always fresh and interesting.

Blogs have their own vertical search within Google, although it actually searches RSS feeds. Sensible strategies for optimisation include the obvious one of ensuring that it is extremely simple for users to subscribe to the feed. It is also worth considering including the full text of each post in the feed so that visitors can read without being forced to click through to the website. This presupposes that the text is not too long.

Local search listings can be critical for local businesses as, probably more than for any other kind of vertical search, the results tend to overshadow the rest of the page. First there is the large map showing the location of each business, and the corresponding list of companies may also be quite long. This means that even the listing right at the top of the main search results ends up a long way down the page.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we have the experience and expertise to help your website succeed by optimising it for vertical search results.

In order to keep your website error-free and easy to access, it’s essential that, like your car, it is given regular “health checks”. These need to be thorough, so it’s a good idea to employ a search engine optimization company to do the work. Remembering the old adage that a motor car gets a much better service if you know at least a little of what goes on under the bonnet, here are some of the things that search engine optimisation services cover:

General crawl errors. These can pop up at any time, but left unchecked they can build up enough to have negative effects on your internet reputation management plan. Search engine optimization services check for and resolve timeout and 404 errors, improving or removing pages so the errors don’t reappear. In response, the search engines will minimise the bandwidth needed to crawl your site, making search engine optimisation far faster to achieve. Minimising errors and making the content more accessible can get new pages into the search engine indexes faster and more often, leading to enhanced SEO.

There are several search engine optimization tools that SEO companies use to help locate and clear crawl errors quickly. Google Webmaster Tools includes a diagnostic for this, found under “crawl errors.” This gives a report of all errors such as “Timed Out” and “Not Found”. The wise search engine optimisation company will test each error found with an http header checker tool. FireFox has one as a plug-in. Often, a recurring pattern is discovered, in which case only a few repairs are needed, rather than hundreds. The ones to focus on first are 404 errors with external links. Repairing these will radically improve your SEO link building.

Error reports are about more than uncovering dodgy URLs. For example, the problem may be caused by multiple redirects ending in a 404 code, and if the web mechanic discovers this it can save them a lot of deep diagnostic delving under the bonnet. Another thing to watch for is the “restricted by robots.txt” message on the error report, as it often turns out the URLs haven’t been blocked by robots.txt in the first place. An SEO mechanic will run the http header check tool again, if they’re bemused by URL reports. Usually, what has actually happened is that the URLs listed are part of a redirect chain, which contains or terminates in a URL that has been blocked by the text robots.

Even if you have your site overseen by a search engine optimization company, it’s often a good idea to invest in a few SEO tools yourself, to double-check they’re doing a good job. Xenu’s Link Sleuth and SEO Toolkit are both considered essential workshop tools by SEO link building companies, who can customise them to their own specifications. Using Google Webmaster tools with Googlebot will check for both internal crawl errors and internal link redirects. Another trick is to disable JavaScript and CSS, and then browse the site using the Web Developer toolbar, setting the “User Agent” status to Googlebot.

SEO is a term that most people running businesses online will know. However, they rarely understand the intricacies and algorithms making up the ranking system – which is why they often place their site in the hands of a good search engine optimization company. However, this creates a Catch 22 situation -how can they choose a reputable and well-informed SEO company, from the hundreds that are out there?

Firstly, personal recommendation is always a good idea. Whether by word-of-mouth or internet forums, hearing from people who’ve had positive experiences and achieved lasting results is always the best way forward. However, if you don’t have this option, look at companies who come high on your searches and have blogs, articles etc. Study these carefully. Do they have worthwhile content, or are they keyword stuffed and full of errors? Compare the information to that provided in search engine optimization literature (online or in the library), to check for accuracy.

A blog that is regularly updated, contains articles more than 50 words long, has regular comments (of approval – no flaming!) and isn’t keyword stuffed may prove the site is worth investing in – but first check the content is original. There are lots of ways of doing this, the most straight-forward being to copy and paste a paragraph, and see how many results a search brings up. If the site owner has simply plagiarised someone else’s work and rearranged the words a little, this will show (Google will still find the words, no matter what order they’re in). Plagiarism detection software is another option. Copyscape, for example, is widely used by content buyers checking for plagiarised and re-spun articles.

Non-original copy doesn’t necessarily mean the SEO company isn’t trustworthy – there are plenty of ways to get copyright-free material – but it could mean they rely on third-hand knowledge in practice, in which case they could be working in a misinformed way. This is especially true if the information has been fed to them by a competitor. Something to remember for your own blog, by the way!

A good search engine optimization company should offer a free trial period without obligation. Avoid companies that offer free or low-cost short-term trial periods and insist on having your bank account details, until you’ve Googled the company name with the tag “scam” attached. If the first listings on your search are Trading Standards, the Better Business Bureau or Rip-off Report, keep walking! A reputable company will be keen to keep its internet marketing intact, and will generally offer a no-strings-attached temporary membership period, with the option to renew for longer.

For extra security purchasing goods like SEO tools and books on the internet, invest in a prepaid credit or debit card that’s not directly tied to your bank account. Freedom, Bread, Cashplus and several PAYG mobile companies now offer these, and they cost little or nothing to set up. Operating under Visa or MasterCard, they ensure no-one can take more money from you unless the card has been loaded first.

A good SEO company is central to the success of any online business. You can increase your profits enormously, for relatively little outlay. However, for those new to internet trading the way in which search engine optimisation works can be baffling, to say the least. So, what will a search engine optimization company do when it comes to improving your site?

The first thing they will look at, is how your pages are indexed. Search engine optimisation is about how your pages are ranked for given searches – in other words where the search engine places your site in response to targeted keywords. Many people place a lot of emphasis on their site content, using marketing text and blog entries rich in the keywords their target customers might use. However, this isn’t enough; the search engines have to be able to find those words and, once found, decipher them easily.

If a site has keyword content in the right density, yet does poorly in search engine rankings, a search engine optimization company will look at the site’s architecture. They will check the page links are navigable and that the site has a well established hierarchy i.e. a chain of links which includes categories and sub-categories leading customers and search engines to the page links. It’s also essential the site has readability – it’s no good including keywords if they’re hidden in intelligible text.

Many new website owners perceive company success only in terms of how high they get up the search engine rankings. Yet while a high placement is important, sales success cannot be measured in terms of ranking position alone. Discerning clients – i.e. those most likely to stop at your site and make a purchase – are also those most likely to skip the first few sites on a search and pick from further down. Experience has taught them that sites placed in the top 2 or 3 positions are paid ads. In other words, those sites ranked highest may not necessarily be the best sites to visit.

Good SEO technique means knowing that different rankings get different bounce rates. The bounce rate of visitors is the percentage of those who click on a search link, but then “bounce” away to another site rather than stay and make a purchase. High rankings don’t guarantee increased sales – they just point an arrow to the way in. Just because a site is placed higher than yours in the rankings, doesn’t mean yours won’t attract more successful sales. SEO means making your site attractive, as well as visible, to purchasers.

If your search engine optimisation company is successful, you’ll start to see an improvement in the rankings and, eventually, a position on page 1 of the searches. This will mean the number of visitors to your site will increase.

However, this isn’t the key to success – the conversion rate is. This is the percentage of people who visited your site and then took positive action, e.g. by making an enquiry or purchase. When it comes to search engine optimisation, your SEO conversion rate is far more important than where you’re placed in the rankings.

Many people enter the world of internet marketing after, perhaps, years running a successful “bricks and mortar” business. However, the moment they hear the words “search engine optimization” they go all of a fluster. They do a quick web search of their own, and when they see that the first two pages of results are followed by 900,000 others, they immediately decide to hang up their mouse.

The answer, of course, is to invest in the services of a good search engine optimization company, who will help them optimise their site while (hopefully) explaining it all in a way they’ll understand. So what is the big mystery about optimization? Why is it that some people make a living out of supplying search engine optimisation services, while others despair at the thought of having their own web page?

To be fair, things are a lot more complicated than they used to be. But then, with the number of SEO scams and technological developments, they have to be. When search engine optimisation services slap their hands over their eyes at the naivety of one of their clients they forget that, while they’ve been in the business throughout its evolution, this person may be totally new to the thrills of the internet, never mind search engine optimization. Like all things in life, if something that you’re a part of is evolving, your mind evolves with it.

When you set up an online SEO company, all you’re doing is creating a virtual format of a traditional store or office. Many people find this concept easier to grasp if they have a “clicks and mortar” company, i.e. one they run from a premises as well as an internet site. Quite often, they sell the same products in both places. They soon work out that search engine optimization is basically the same as marketing the products in their store – i.e. making them visible, accessible and attractive to customers and promoters.

As with shop ownership, a new website needs to keep things simple. If you were opening a new pet store in an unknown town, would you rent the largest and most expensive emporium you could find, and fill it with all manner of exotic birds, mammals and fish life? No, of course not. Chances are, you’d start off with the cheapest site you could afford, in a prominent area, and then go and see what your competitors were up to. If you were really lucky, you might find there are no competitors. Then again, they might be hiding, disguised inside garden centres and department stores. You never can tell.

Perhaps that’s not such a perfect analogy, as a lot of pet shops are run online these days. But you can already see that, right from the start, promoting a business is stressful and time-consuming work, whether you run it from the high street or a laptop.

This is why a good search engine optimization company, with a proven track record, is the best choice for someone new to internet commerce today.