SEO & search engine positioning UK & Europe

I can provide expert search engine optimisation for your website, whether existing or under development. Good SEO is always best if it can be incorporated into the site design from the very beginning. Many website designers do not understand SEO, or it's not part of their brief, or worse, they just don't care, which explains why many websites are beautifully designed but never found.

When I design a website, I incorporate good SEO from day one, which means that the important search engine spiders can parse your site and read the content.

If you ask me to optimise your existing site, I might suggest a total or partial redesign, depending on how big and bad the root problem(s) might be.

Good SEO is not just getting you ranked in the indexes, it's about meeting client expectations.

I'll give you an idea of what can be done and what budget is needed to do so. By the nature of the competition involved, optimising for "Manhattan Real Estate" is more complex and costly than optimising for "Antarctica Refrigerator Sales".

And good SEO is not just about rankings/positioning, it's about getting your target client onto your site and converting that visit into a return on your investment. I have a strong business background and appreciate that the small to medium sized business owner is after an effective ROI, not just great rankings.

Good SEO will target many popular keyphrases, not just one or two. And usually there are two types of keywords we need to target, sector and geography, which multiplies the number of keyphrases that need to be targeted.

A good SEO knows that search engine optimisation techniques are changing; what was good SEO yesterday might get you banned tomorrow. I actively participate and contribute to some of the best SEO forums available since 2002.

Every site is different and may require a different approach, but here is an overview of how I approach search engine optimization and how I can help your site get noticed in the search engine result pages (SERPS):

• We start discussing who your target clients are and get an idea of their profile. You know your business and need to help me understand your sector. We're only interested in your targeted visitors, not Joe Sixpack.
• We look at your competition; what are they doing right?
• We study your possible keywords and keyphrases.
• I'll help you target 2 or 3 keyphrases for the main pages of your website
• I'll target hub sites and authority sites for your sector and how best to get links from them.
• I’ll explain PageRank and how it works for you.
• I'll edit your page content taking into account keyword density and readability.
• I'll use our chosen keyphrases to edit page title, description tags, Hn headings, alt tags and keyword tags, otherwise known as meta tags.
• I'll study and possibly recommend changes to your navigation; is it still intuitive or has it outgrown its original structure?
• If I'm redesigning, I'll change much of the formatting to external CSS files.
• I'll plan and carry out a linking campaign. Text-based inbound links (IBLs) are crucial to SEO success and link reputation is more important than link popularity.
• I'll submit by hand to the most important directories. (Automated submission and/or monthly submission is NOT the way to go.)
• If necessary I'll recommend usability testing, although I've become adept at spotting trouble and can usually I suggest changes.
• I'll check for sloppy HTML coding.
• I'll check for validation to W3C standards.
• I'll do a sitewide check for broken links.
• If your site is multilingual, I can apply the above to the languages you offer and to the geomarkets you are seeking.
• I'll create a custom site map to help spiders parse all the content on your website.
• I'll create a custom 404 error page to help your visitors when they strike moved or deleted pages.
• I'll create a robots.txt file to block spiders from harmful areas of your website.

There are a number of things I will NOT do:

• There are a number of ways of cheating at SEO, that might get you short term gain, but almost definitely long term pain!
• I won't get your website banned or penalised by creating doorway pages, using hidden text, hidden links, cloaking, and I make sure that all testing I do on search engines is in accordance with their TOS (Terms of Service).
• I can tell you who to link to and who to avoid (link farms).

Furthermore, I'm interested in usability and will generally make suggestions to improve the usability of your site. See my page on website development for more information.

SEO Costs/Time

The above is an overview only, and I hope it gives you an idea of the process involved and how I approach each SEO project. It is not a short term process and I would normally recommend a minimum term of 6 to 8 months.

I will work with you to establish a workable budget but as a guideline fees start at €520/month depending on the complexity of the project and the level of competition in your sector.

Developing your website