Search Engine Optimisation

(or how to get lots of people looking at your site)

about search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation is basically getting your website as high up the rankings in search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) as possible. It's a particularly involved and rather arduous process that, on average, will take the best part of half a year to conclude.

Search engine optimisation is centered primarily around:

• Getting links from other websites that are authoritative in your subject area
• Creating plenty of content for search engines to crawl through
• Making your pages easily understandable from a computer's perspective

Links

Gaining links inwards (that is, people link to you) is important because it's beyond your control. You can't feasibly manipulate links coming into your site, and that is why search engines love them. The idea is that the more people that link to your site, the more likely it's going to have content on it that's worth the attention of search engines.

Content

Creating plenty of content is the other half of the main formula. The more stuff that's on a website, the more search engines will take note of it, as there's more likely to be something worthwhile in there. Content creation is a very delicate balance, as it involves writing around specific target 'keyphrases' (for example 'Presentation Skills Training' or 'Cheap Flights to London') in order to maximise their relevance

Code

Lastly, there is the task of making your web pages more understandable to computers. As search engines are computers, this is quite important. Thankfully this is the easiest part, as it doesn't take too much time as long as an auspicious eye is cast over the code of a site and any design techniques.

Other ancilliary areas to search engine optimisation are also important. These are low-ish priority activities such as sharing images on gallery sites and social networking to generate leads and interest. Search Engine Marketting is the more in-depth pursuit of these goals. Although we don't offer search engine marketting as a service, we can advise and point you in the direction of organisations that can offer this if you need it.

what's involved?

Firstly, we'll liaise with you to establish exactly what your target market is. We'll then give you a ball-park cost estimate for the project and a timescale.

Once you've hired us, we'll draw up a contract that acknowledges the fee and exactly what content you'll be provided with. It will have our terms and conditions in, and it will also state what we need from you: such as text for web pages or photos of your office for example. In all, the contract isn't all that extravagant, just an outline of what is going to happen.

Then we start to grapple building the project, conducting all sorts of arcane techocraft. At the end of it, your website will be better placed in the search engines.

It's vital to note that some keywords are much more sought after than others. The more 'crowded' a keyword is, the longer it will take for your site to get into a good position. We will help you find good keywords (high number of searches vs. low competition) during the research phase of a search engine optimisation project.

what does it cost?

We have a standard rate of £20 per hour for search engine optimisation work: we'll calculate how much a project will cost based on this. After the initial researching stages (the most labour intensive part), there is a monthly service of 10 hours (£200).

Depending on the depth involved, a typical search engine optimisation campaign of 6 months can cost between £500 and £2000.

It's much more a marathon (little and often) than a sprint. Please bear in mind that search engine optimisation is a long, drawn out process that will take many months to complete; although there is no need for us to charge as if we're working 40 hours a week on the project - the workload is significantly less after the initial research stages.

If the project is projected to cost less than £200, then we will require payment in full for first time clients. Return clients and projects over £200 are payable half up front, and half upon completion.

want to talk?

If you're still unsure as to what exactly you need, or even if you do know but wish to chat to us anyway, please send us a message: using our contact form >> (www.latech.co.uk/contact-latech.html)

Advice will be impartial and honest on any website and branding matter, regardless of size.