:: Search Engine Optimisation SEO

(Download a pdf to explain the SEO service Webcreation offers)

Our standard service consists of two main services:

1. Submission and performance reports on search engines
2. Optimisation of web sites for improved rankings

Submission means to notify a search engine of the existence of a site. The engine typically then sends out a ‘robot’ (also ‘bot’ or crawler’) to go through the site and evaluate it for inclusion in the engine’s index. Our performance reports are the basis for recommendations and starting points for our work on a site.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) means modification of both the visible and non-graphical elements of a website to improve its ranking for certain keywords. E.g. if you have a scooter hire company in Auckland New Zealand, a typical search phrase (just a combination of your likely keywords) would be ‘scooter hire auckland’.
Both submission/reports and optimisation are important, because even if a site is indexed, if it is too far down in the results list a searcher will not see or take the time to look for it, and even if it is well optimised, if it is not in a search engine’s index, it will not be found by anyone using that engine.

Search Engine Package SEO 1:

Package 1 – Report and Search Engine Submission

1. Initial report on your web site’s current position on major search engines, through likely keywords
2. Submission to major engines not already listed, plus at least 25 other regional/international engines worldwide
3. Recommendations for improvement in the site, including correction or improvement of spelling, grammar and tone of language

This submission is initially needed by all websites to let search engines know instantly of their existence. From then, the engines’ robots (“bots” or “crawlers”) are sent out to index and rank a site. The more engines you are indexed in, the higher the number of people who can find you is.

Even if a site is already listed with major engines like Google, Yahoo! Search etc, occasional resubmission does no harm, and may be beneficial to let the indexers know the site is still alive and being cared for. Resubmission after an overhaul/optimisation is recommended to get the rankings improved quicker. It takes longer to wait for the robots to come visiting again.

Package 2: SEO stage 1

Package 2 – Search Engine Optimisation stage 1

1. Initial report on your web site’s current position on major search engines, based on results from likely keyword searches
2. Optimisation of pages in your site. This involves dynamic and individual modification of the page text and unseen html tags, according to the purpose of the page, and your intended audience. You choose how many pages we work on, but the more the better.
3. Submission of the trunk URL(s) to search engines so that the optimised pages may start improving your traffic and rankings
4. Provision of a conclusive report on the work and improvements made.

Package 3: SEO stage 2

Package 3 – Search Engine Optimisation stage 2

1. Thorough optimisation of other parts of html, including some of Webcreation’s own breakthrough techniques. This is an involved process, and we are happy to go through this in more detail with you face to face.
2. Optimisation of other features of your site, e.g. file compression, graphic file size optimisation for faster loading
3. Internal and External link checking in your site (check for broken/moved/unavailable destination links)
4. Submission of the trunk URL(s) to search engines so that the improved pages may start improving your traffic and rankings
5. Provision of a conclusive report on the work and improvements made

About Search Engines – A general overview:

How to get good Search Engine rankings:

How do search engines work?
Search engines help people find relevant information on the Internet. Major search engines have huge databases of web sites that surfers can search by typing in some text. Search engines send out spiders or robots, which follow links from web sites and index all pages they come across. Each search engine has its own formula for indexing pages; some index the whole site, while others index only the main page. Search engines decide weighting that will be placed on various factors that influence results. Some want link popularity to be the most important criterion, while others prefer meta tags. Search engines use a combination of factors to devise their formulas.

Directories - a different way to search
Directories are completely different again. They use humans to review and index sites and links. Directories have strict guidelines that a site must meet before it is added to the index. Consequently they have smaller but cleaner indexes. Yahoo! Directory, LookSmart, MSN, DMoz and others are examples of directories. Criteria that influence search engine rankings are irrelevant to directory rankings. Because people review the sites, more attention is placed on quality of a site. Its functionality, content and design are considered. Directories always attempt to categorise sites accurately (i.e. because of their format) and will often correct categories suggested by the submitted site’s Webmaster.

Hybrid search engines: a new generation
As the name suggests these combine a directory and a search engine to give searchers the most relevant, complete results. The Top 10 search engines/directories today are hybrid. For example Yahoo!, has a directory, which uses results from Google (a search engine) for its secondary results. Recently Yahoo! released its own, extremely good search engine too (Yahoo! Search).

What search engines do not like:
Invisible text, hidden links, most instant refresh methods, over-submission of a URL, excessive mirror sites… many search engines know these techniques and such sites are banned from many search engine indexes.

These are the basics, to help you understand what kind of environment Webcreation is working and excelling in.

Webcreation does not:

• own shadow domains


• put links to other unrelated or unwanted sites on doorway pages


• offer to sell keywords in the browser address bar


• fail to distinguish between actual search results and paid ads that appear in search results


• guarantee unrealistic ranking


• claim results from obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway


• operate with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info


• claim traffic from fake search engines, spyware, or scumware


• have domains removed from Google's index, or have blacklisted domains
  

Page Rank

Many people will have noticed changes in their toolbar PageRank scores (Google toolbar). Around 22 April the criteria was updated for this score so some pages went up, and others down. However Google itself has said that toolbar PageRank differs from the actual PageRank Google uses to rank a site. So looking at your site with the toolbar on may help you estimate how your page is ranked by search engines however will not necessarily accurately reflect the ranking or effect of SEO on your website.