Exeter Organic SEO

Sam Aspden came to us recently with a bit of a problem. She had bought a DIY “website in a box” for her starter business in wedding stationery design but unfortunately the site was doing very little. In fact even if she spelt her own name out in Google she still struggled to find herself.

Now, two weeks on,

Yeah it is on Google page 1!!! You’re like the Superman, Yoda & Optimus Prime of the SEO world, all wrapped into one.What did you want for xmas? Sam Aspden

So what did we do to get this huge turnaround?

Well firstly a complete appraisal of the necessary basic for Google SEO and not unsurprisingly the site was very lacking indeed. There wasn’t a single h1 heading, nothing much in the way of descriptions and little SEO focus to the text content. Probably the most perplexing aspect of the site was the mass of redundant code. It would appear that as the site was being developed the interface generated code that wasn’t actually needed. Loads of it. We threw it out, loads of it.

So we simplified the site, and in so doing we simplified it graphically too which makes it easier to read when people get there.

Looking at the infographic the first thing to be understood is that much of the process that leads to someone getting to a site has nothing to do with design or visuals. Until the line in the middle is crossed the viewer hasn’t even reached the site. It is essential to understand the both steps necessary to get traffic to your site and the steps needed to engage, fascinate and captivate people’s attention and retain the hard fought for traffic.

What was so great about working with Sam was that she took on board what was needed. She now has;

In fact Sam set these up the day after our first meeting, top marks. She has also put effort into generating some new keyword rich text for the site that say very clearly what she does, and as importantly where she wants to be doing .

Sam came to us after a recommendation from Sarah Treble, whose site we have created fully. This leaves us with a bit of a problem though, for many significant searches the two companies are vying for similar keywords.

…the good news is several jobs have contacted me through the website. Thank you for all your help, and your fabulous after care service! Sam Aspden

OK so I have spent a lot of time talking about search engine marketing and its various aspects. However this is all of limited use unless we understand the value and importance of text, particularly keywords.

Let me make it clear from the start when I say keywords, I am referring to text that appears in the

1. Page Titles (Meta Tag)
2. H1 tags
3. Body text (in particular text toward the page top)
4. Meta Tag Keywords
5. Meta Tag Descriptions

At Design Credo we have a number of hats available to wear, graphic design, photography, website design and of increasingly greater prominence SEO or search engine optimisation particularly for companies in Exeter, Devon and the South West. So, when we write for our own websites we need to mention these creative skills.

In essence we are trying to pre-judge what our potential clients might type on when using a search engine, particularly Google, when looking to access the services that we provide. Google still has the strongest market share but this doesn’t mean that we are oblivious to the likes of Bing and Yahoo though.

Some informative examples:

1. SEO Exeter Vs Exeter SEO ? If I Google ‘Exeter SEO’, Design Credo appears on the first page of a Google UK search whereas if I Google ‘SEO Exeter’ we are on page two. This is probably because my page title starts ‘Exeter SEO’ rather than ‘SEO Exeter’. Is this a problem? Well yes it is really because I suspect most people wold put SEO first and Exeter second when they do a search. Clearly there is a bit of homework to do.
2. Andrew Butler Photographer. My name is Andrew Butler I take photographs I am in the South West. So however does Andrew Butler and indeed does Andy Butler (by the way don’t ever call me Andy). In addition Andy Butler also gets his hands dirty with graphic design, I’m not certain whether this is the same Andy as photographer Andy Butler though. Suffice it to say that ‘Andrew Butler Photographer Designer’ puts me top of the list as indeed does ‘Andrew Butler Designer’.

   Clearly in an area of competition for the top slot there are winner and losers and the truth is that people will generally be searching for a set of skills rather than a person’s name or a trading name. As one of my customers correctly said the other day;

   “so what you are saying is that I’m not really famous enough yet, when I’m really famous my name will do but until then I still have to tell people what I do?”

3. Cheap Search Engine Optimisation Vs Search Engine Optimiser. Looking at these two search strings in the Google Ad-words Keywords tool, I was struck by the usage graphs for the two strings being almost a direct mirror of each other, with people now looking much more for Cheap Search Engine Optimisation. I guess it could be seen as an indicator of peoples’ changing needs.

To reiterate, we are trying to prejudge what people will search for and you may need to do some research. As an example I never really use the term agency, as in ‘design agency’ but I am aware that others do. Many people are aware of the term ‘SEO’ but don’t really know what it is short for. Is someone going to search for a ‘photographer’ or someone to do ‘photography’?

Location, Location, Location

Putting it simply, if your market is regionally defined this needs to be included in your keywords. There is no point in me battling it out with all of the website designers in the country if I only want to travel as far as Devon, so Devon and Exeter needs a mention. Keywords are filters too, they help you differentiate yourself and your services.

The bottom line website content needs thought, it is a different style of writing, you can’t assume Google knows what you are talking about, search engines need things spelling out to echo what your potential customers are spelling out on a search.

SEO is seen as the panacea to all of our business woes and everyone is an SEO expert. Well it is undoubtedly important but in the real world SEO is only part of recipe for online success.

Below are 10 questions to ask yourself if you are trying to communicate or sell services via a the internet.