Most days, I am somehow involved in the development of a website for a client, in amongst all of the application’s development that we do. Normally, these jobs take the shape of a client wanting a site, occasionally a design firm providing some designs sized for A4, and more often than not, a “search engine optimisation” company.
Search Engine Optimisation is as old as search engines themselves, and it seems that there is something inherently broken about how companies approach getting themselves a good ranking on Google (very few SEO companies seem to recognise the other engines out there any more).
For instance, in my experience, SEO companies will recommend that you load your pages up with keywords and key phrases, that you populate all of your meta tags with keywords and descriptions, and that you build sitemaps until your eyes bleed.
blah, blah, blah
Now, I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again – Google (and Microsoft, Ask.com etc) spend an absolute bloody fortune on search engine developers. These guys are the best at what they do, period. Their sole reason to exist is to come up with an algorithm that finds the best web page on the internet, for any given search term.
So, what makes a page the best one? Well, lots of factors that users care about.
For instance – think about Wikipedia. There are pages on there that are generally considered the authority on a particular subject (at least as authoritative as the web can be). This particular site is generally considered so because the information within is comprehensive, relevant, and usable.
There are no dirty tricks at play on wikipedia, there are no meta keywords, there is just good content.
So, how do you get to the top spot on an index like Google? Simple – just build your site to be the best it can for it’s users. Make sure your content is relevant. Make sure your content is up-to-date, and make sure people see you as an authority.
Ah yes….the other people on the internet..
These days the most siginificant thing you can get to help you up those rankings is inbound links. Engines like Google use inbound links and count them in a similar way to votes – however, not all links are equal For instance, if you’re site is about BMW’s, and the BMW.com website links to you – that’s a really big vote which will give you immense promotion. If a highly trafficked and relevant site on the subject links to you (for instance, Autocar), then again, big promotion. If random_blog_from_someone.com links to you – not so much help, but some at least.
In essence, the search engines know what people want, and know this by looking at what we look at. If your site is highly trafficked, has nice clean markup and relevant content as well as lots of people linking to you talking about a particular subject – then you’re onto a winner, you’ll get a good ranking. However, if you just stick a page up, stuff it with keywords and phrases and expect the rankings to climb, you’ll be sorely mistaken.
Which leads me back to the supposed SEO companies out there. Not all are bad, but there is a significant amount of bad eggs out there (and for some reason, most come across as failed web development shops).
Here’s a few good rules of thumb:
- If you come across a company that claims to be able to put you on the number one spot – walk away straight away – there are no guarantees (unless you only pay if they do achieve that).
- If you come across a company that does nothing but suggest meta tags, and a Google sitemap – walk away – there’s no significant benefit to either.
- If you come across a company that offers to buy inbound links for you on your behalf – walk away – they don’t work. Google are wise to these.
- If you come across a company that makes a few small suggestions, then just pumps out monthly SEO reports for you for a monthly charge – be wary – there isn’t a huge amount that can be done with this alone.
- If you come across a company that offers to get down and dirty with your content, immersing themselves in your target audience, checking out the competition, and putting forward fresh relevant content, whilst fostering valuable link exchanges with other good high-ranking sites – then consider them – especially if they only want payment by results.
Overall, SEO companies are much like plumbers or builders – if you know how to spot a crappy one you’re safer, but there are no guarantees at all – after all, you’re competing with everyone else on the internet. Best thing to do is get some companies to propose what they want to do, and then give you a trial period for free (or only charge if they actually improve your site traffic). Also, remember, you can also hire more than one.
So, in a nutshell, check our any potential companies carefully, and the moment they mention meta tags – punch them in the back of the head.
