When you are looking for web design services nowadays, most agencies claim their service include SEO in their package in a certain extend, no matter you need it or not, or you know what exactly this kinds of services include. Indeed, most people know what is the principle of SEO, Search Engine Optimization, this the technique (or secret) to make my website appear in search engine as high rank as possible, or at least in the first page.
For example, if you search “house renovation work company” your will see whole bunch of renovation companies websites, renovations tips, even insurance…etc. You will click insides a couple of links base on the search result tile and description. If you find the answer and information your are looking for from the website context, your will stay there for a while. Otherwise, you just run away and try another search result. If you have tried (probably 2-3 links) and not make your happy, you simply search again with other keywords, wont give a mercy to kill your time by the massive search result your searching engine have prepared for you.
I’ve meet someone , input the whole website URL in the Google search box, When the result come, the first result 99% will be that website. My or most of people usual practice is using the web browser URL box to input the site URL. Anyways, I am not say they are wrong. In fact it may be an interesting topic of UI/UX to study in college.
Some of the clients don’t care much how they can reach potential customers in search engine. They just want to see their company website in the search result list, when people search their — company name. It is a simple job, isn’t it ?
What SEO service will do for my company?
In Hong Kong, the most popular search engine is Google , Bing and Yahoo. It is not doubt that Google should be the no. 1 search engine people will use in the fist place when they want to find anything suddenly pop our in their mind. Technically, there is no obvious conflict in the SEO technique for different search engine. Indeed there are few area we need to fine tune. We can discuss later.
So what is SEO service? It is simply a service using all kinds of tactics to upraise the search ranking. Looking the renovation work company as example, the user is searching a renovation company, he is potential user. All you need to do is let him know, hey, I am here, call me! First thing you need to do is make him click inside your can call tell how good you are.
So how the service make your website in high position , and the ranking can be retained for a while?
Some people thing that the SEO companies should know some search engine formula. They write a program and the search ranking will be moved high spontaneously.
We cannot ruled out this possibilities. Some companies may know the secret. ( not counting Google staff who develop the searching algorithm ). We have developed many different types of company website and blogs and we have tried different SEO techniques, and read tons of documents and website, including Google instruction, experts’ how-to. We couldn’t find Google or other search engine disclose their searching algorithm. However, there are some procedure we have tried and proved that they work. We want to share with your the findings. We will not go into too details but at least you will know the direction.
So, How does Google rank the search result?
Click Thru Rate
The people respond. Taking the renovation example, if the ranking of a website is originally in position 8 got more click thru rate (CTR) than the web sites in position 2 or 3 for a certain time period, the website originally in no. 8 will be uplifted.
Bounce Rate
The time people spent on the site. As mentioned, people click inside a web site and find nothing they feel interested, they will click another website immediately. The shorter time they stay, the high bounce rate. Therefore, if the bounce rate of a website in high position is high for a while. It is obvious that this website does not deserve their search keyword ranking and its ranking will go down.
Google RankBrain
Google is using AI everywhere now. We can imagine that AI is also apply for searching . Google RankBrain is the google ranking methods. Its objective is to provide the best result and search experience for the users
So what is the principle of Google to provide user the best searching result?
What is the method that Google is using for search ranking?
「Content is King!」
So you know what SEO company can do for you.
1 Analysis
They find out the best suitable keywords for your website, by using Google Keyword Planner, not too competitive and not too rare.
Cross check the web traffic (e.g. by Google Analytic). The keywords will high CTR will retain. The keywords with high bounce rate need to improve. They are misleading your potential customers?
2 Domain Name
The domain name (if not yet register) will affect the ranking . You can use your company name as the website domain name. The extra part e.g. Company Ltd. is not necessary included in the domain name,
3 Title and Description
Design a attractive title and description for your website to appear in search engine. It will help to improve your CTR.
The description is also important. If there is only company name , address and telephone no. It wont help much for the ranking.
The content inside the website much be in sync. with the context of the search title and description. It shorten be too short to keep your customer retain time. Too long passage will make your customer feel uncomfortable. Try to use pagination, graphic and attractive slogan, .e.g “Want to have a beautiful new house in 3 days?” “Renovation Super deal!”
4 Social Media
Use social media (Facebook, Instagram) to attract more traffic and encourage people to interactive with your company.
5 Mobile First
Responsive web design is essential. You web site should be compatible viewing in desktop, table and mobile, no need horizontal scroll.
6 Speed
Website downloading speed affect the ranking. You can refer to some speed report to find out any area you can improve , such as service setting, image optimization, …etc Some people use Google Page Speed Insights to analyse the website performance . You may not need to 100% follow the report’s suggestion. After all, it depends on the website feature.
7 TAG
Website TAG affect the SEO, e.g. the sequence of heading tag, using ALT tag for image, label…etc
8 Hyperlink
Internal link help search engine to understand your website structure. And high quality external link (backlink) wil help you improve the search ranking.
Moreover, the URL itself must be meaningful.e.g./price-of renovation/office/ instead of a.php?A=1。
9 Sitemap
The original purpose of sitemap is a tour guide for website visitors. it usually locate in the bottom of every pages.
For search engine, they will read another kind of sitemap in XML format for page indexing. We usually use CMS or other tools to make this sitemap, and then submit to Google search console.
10 Redirection
When your website is getting large and lots of pages with url, your probably use a lot of redirection, which is very useful especially for email and SMS marketing promotion. You can post a short URL link and then redirect to the original long URL.. However, you have the manage well with the redirection link.
Some of your pages may be obsolete, or you want to move to another sections and re-organize the folder structure. However, remind that some of your user may already bookmark your long link .
You have to keep track the redirection link. No matter 301( permanently) or 302 (temporary), Don’t make your pages all into 404 (not found)
11 Security
If you website involve in data collection, your have to use more secure web protocol https instead of http. It is also part of the SEO.
Even though your web site does not collect information directly from users, it may use cookie to log visitor information , or using Google Analytic to collect traffic data. EU is imposing “General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) which demand website have to explicitly indicate what kind of data collected and what is the purpose of collection. Normal website will put in notice in terms of use and privacy policy, while some website will add red / ember ticker on top of the each page.
In summary, when an SEO company offering a service to a company , he has to discuss in details about business, content involvement, and promotion direction, If they only add some tags on your site, it wont help for long time..
System and terms mentioned in this article
- Google Keyword Planner in Google Adwords
- Google Analytics
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Google RankBrain
- EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)