Over the last couple of weeks I have been working on a site powered by a Zeus Web Server. Part of the work undertaken was upgrading the site from it’s old ecommerce design querylink structure to new clean, seo friendly urls and also sort out any canonicalisation conflicts that were present.
This article was borne from an experience I had recently within an on-line SEO Forum. The poster asked a question on how to help his client get page one listings in Google and also what to put in his monthly SEO report. When I replied that he should never have taken this client on in the first place when he had no knowledge about SEO, the poster retorted abusively and chastised myself for not giving him the advice that he required. This got myself thinking: ‘How many charlatan SEO or Web Design companies are out there ripping clients off with promises of Page One listings or exuberant prices for no return!’
It has been stated many times on the web that getting to grips with SEO is more achievable when you start to rank your site for local searches. I agree with this wholeheartedly. Trying to roll up your sleeves and compete for highly competitive keywords when you have little or no experience is soul destroying and nine times out of ten a persons SEO experience will end right there.
Many-an-argument has taken place within on-line forums and community sites over the importance of having a top ranking position for a sought-after keyword phrase. Some contributors have readily stated that they are more-than-happy if their site comes within the top ten to twenty positions stating that their customer/client’s on-line ROI (Return On Investment) targets have been met and traffic to the site has doubled, tripled or peaked greater than their initial expectations.
Many websites suffer from not engaging with their audience. They may receive a constant stream of visitors 24/7 visiting their site but they fail to capitalize on this audience. Why? A common problem with most static sites and e-commerce shopping carts is they fail to hold the attention of the user long enough to earn a trusted vote of confidence and consider what is on offer.
Getting your site noticed on the internet can be a very daunting and sometimes expensive experience, especially if it’s a competitive market. This is why I decided to write this article to help and aid those struggling with or have just launched a new site and have limited or no budget set aside for marketing their website online.
Why would you build a website that can’t be seen by the search engines? Why would you pay for a website that can’t be found in the search engines?
Why did you choose your hosting company? Was it because the service that the company offered was second-to-none and strong up-time was guaranteed. Perhaps the cost was affordable? Maybe you had no choice in the matter and it was part of your website design package. Whatever your decision was, if your site is running shared hosting then you may be getting penalized by the Search engines without you even knowing it.
Once again Google takes another stride in keeping several steps ahead of its competition with releasing another nice new tool to play with - Google Insight - but more of that later. I wanted to do this post because I have become increasingly impressed by the development guys over at Google and their constant tweaking and updating of old favourite online tools to help make life more easier for webmasters, online business owners and marketers alike.
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