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SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is not an exact science, it’s a combination of many different variables which may or may not determine where your website is ranked. Most search engines have different criteria for effective ranking, but on the whole, the following tips can improve ranking and placement throughout them all. Do not be fooled by companies that say they can guarantee a number 1 placement for any keyword, they can’t guarantee anything!

1. Effective Meta Keywords, Key phrases and Description: So you all know this, right? It is actually said amongst the SEO community that keywords and phrases do not matter so much to bots and spiders, even with this said, if it relates to the content on your site, then the bots/spiders will pick this up and could improve ranking. Research is paramount on your keywords, there is no point in competing with major brands and/or companies which are well established on the net. They will always rank higher when you’re first starting out. Think locally! If I wanted a graphic designer in my home county of Dorset I would normally type in “Graphic Designer in Dorset”

Keep your Keywords between 70 and 100 words, less is more and would shine favourably on the bots/spiders. As said before, try and make these as relative to the content on your landing page as possible (I will go into content later.) At any point, do not spam your keywords as this could get you banned from being listed on search engines.

Keep your meta description short and sweet but as relative to the keywords and content as possible for exactly the same reasons as above.

2. Content, Content and more Content: The more content on your site the better, for the landing page try and keep it somewhat relative to the keywords and Description, and again, do not spam keywords in your content as your site might get rejected from the listings
(This is very bad!!)

3. Title: You can put keywords in your title e.g. “Graphic Design|Dorset|Blank Designs” This is a proven effective method for visibility and to improve your listing. I once just changed the title tag to a two word key phrase which wasn’t showing up anywhere on Google with 578,000 results and the following day I had hit the number one spot! The main point is to keep this short, around the 50 – 100 character mark.

4. URL: Try and get a main keyword in the URL, rather than index.asp/html/php (whichever extension you are using) try QualityDesigns.asp/html/php as your landing page, the Bots/Spiders love this!

5. Anchor Text: Anchor text some of your main keywords in the content and link to content that is similar, there is no point in linking to content that doesn’t even resemble the content of your keyword. For those that do not know what anchor text is, it’s the <a href=”linked site”>keyword here</a> you might want to add a target path so it opens in a new window and doesn’t link people away from your site, so it would look like this, <a href=”linked site” target=”blank”>keyword here</a>

Again, do not spam these!

6. Alt tags: Add an alt tag to images using main keywords, this too will improve placement on search engines. <img src=”imagename.gif” alt=”keyword”>

7. Site Maps: Create a Sitemap for your site linking to the main pages and don’t forget to link back from these pages to your landing page, this will help the bots scan every page of your site through the links and improve visibility of the content on other pages of your site.

8. Back Links: Possibly the quickest way to become visible on search engines is Back Linking, this is where you link to a site and they link back. When you’re first starting out you will find it hard to get someone to link to you as your page rank will be 0, and try not to link to sites with a ranking of less than 3, this ranking system is your importance to the web. Also try and find sites relative to your content in some way. Please, please, please do not use link farms, these are useless and could get your site banned from showing on search engines. If you’re struggling for creative ideas on where and how to back link then try writing an informed article on a popular guest blog, linking resources from your site or maybe consider paying for a link, this could be a risky move though! I have never paid for a link and can normally get a site listed within 24-48 hours. If you have designed sites for customers then the link to your site that you put at the bottom of the design will help, you could have a hidden links html file with just good quality links in which is linked from a pixel on your site.

9. <H1> <H2> <H3> <U> <B> Tags: Basic HTML tags can help too, Bold a few keywords out in your content, add some to header tags, underline some but do not compromise your design (didn’t really need to say that as most of you are graphic/web designers)

10. Good coding: Make sure you site is coded right and everything is in the right place or this could compromise your SEO as it may confuse the Bots/Spiders that scan your site.

SEO is a complex but fun art, there is nothing I love more than raging war on competitors and then giving them some banter at exhibitions. The most important thing with SEO Is to experiment with it and come up with unique idea to boost your site (and never reveal them to anybody) The tips above are commonly known in the SEO world and all I have done is to push these ideas out to you for yourselves to give it a go.
Another avenue you might want to explore is PPC (Pay Per Click) but you really need to read up on this and learn all the tricks as you could get stung bad and be out of pocket, I might write something on this a bit later.
I hope this is useful to some and good luck!
If anyone has anything to add then please do.