Dreamscape Solutions News Blog
Bringing you up-to-the-minute reports from the eventful calendar at DreamscapeTuesday, November 13, 2007
6.5 Things All Website Owners Need To Understand about SEO
So very often when undertaking an SEO campaign for a new web business, or for a company who is new to the mysteries of search engine optimisation, things can go downhill very quickly when the client fails to understand that there is no magic switch which the search engine optimiser can flick and produce instant results.
The following are 6 (and a half) things which the client must understand when signing up for SEO services in order to prevent a lot of frustration on both sides:
1. SEOs have no control over how often search engines crawl your website. While we can do things to encourage them to come back often such as adding new content to the site on a regular basis and working on getting new links to the site on an on-going basis, the search engines and the search engines alone have control over what their spiders do and if they decide to only visit every six weeks and to only look at one page each time they come, then we cannot do much about it. As long as the the site is search engine friendly and the content is not stale they will eventually come back.
1.5 As an addendum to point 1, we also have no control over how long it takes a search engine to thoroughly index a new site. We can make certain that your site is search engine friendly, that all your pages are within 3 clicks of the home page, that the site structure makes sense and that there is a good sitemap which is accessible through the home page. We can start to build links which will indicate that the site is gaining in importance; but search engines will take as long as they will take in order to crawl and index your entire site. If your site is structured and coded well then eventually they will find all of your pages.
2. SEOs have no control over how quickly search engines acknowledge the changes you have made on your site and reflect this in your rankings. They may know that you recently rewrote all the head tags on your pages and each page now has a keyword theme which flows from the head tags through the copy and relates to the other pages on your site, but they may also take another six weeks to acknowledge that by showing your site for queries related to those keywords. They may only take 24 hours. But this is entirely up to them and how often they are re-ranking sites and how important re-jigging results pages are in relation to other changes they are making to their algorithms and their indexes is their call. You just have to be patient.
3. SEOs have no control over the weight given to any given on-page factor on your site. You may think that your pages are more relevant than your competitor's for a specific keyword search but if Google or Yahoo disagrees then there is not much you can do about it, except change your pages. The weighting of on-page factors is directly related to how your competitors' pages look and what works in one industry or for one keyword may not work as well for another.
While you can continually monitor the keyword densities of your competitors and where they put keywords in their head tags and on their pages, you will probably find that both your time and the time of your SEO is more wisely spent on providing clear, useful, focussed content that speaks to your customers using the same language they use to describe your products and services.
4) SEOs have no control over who links to you. The web is all about linking and if you want to link out to a site you find useful that is entirely up to you. In much the same way, if someone else wants to link to you then they can and should, provided they are not misrepresenting your site.
You cannot and should not worry too much about some scraper site or useless directory or other spam merchant showing up in your backlinks and these sites will not harm your rankings. The search engines are probably ignoring those links, your customers will not be finding you through those links and there are not enough hours in the day to chase up every single site of this sort to demand they take a link down, and even if there were time, they probably wouldn't do it. If for some reason someone does find you through one of those sites or a search engine decides one of those links should send you some authority, then consider it a bonus. Since search engines know that you cannot monitor every site that links to you, they do not expect you to do so.
5) SEOs have no control over what your competitors are doing. SEOs cannot control their PPC budget, or the amount of link building, link buying, viral marketing or linkbaiting they are doing in their own SEO campaign. Your SEO should take your competition into account and should be aiming to get you exposure in the same places that your competitors are visible, but if your competition is working to improve their own traffic and rankings at the same rate your SEO is working to improve your traffic and rankings then the most your SEO can do is to make sure that you have the best content and copy you possibly can and that they are pursuing inbound links from good, relevant sites and trust that your business outshines the competition.
6) SEOs have no control over the search engine results pages. If your SEO promises you a number one position or even a first page placing for any keyword then they are promising something they cannot guarantee. Good search engine optimisation is about making each and every page of your site as relevant for the right keywords as it can possibly be while building the authority and trust of your site through inbound links and effective search engine marketing. If your SEO does her job well then traffic and rankings should follow, but she has no magic button to press and no magic switch to flick which will guarantee that any search engine will do anything.
The following are 6 (and a half) things which the client must understand when signing up for SEO services in order to prevent a lot of frustration on both sides:
1. SEOs have no control over how often search engines crawl your website. While we can do things to encourage them to come back often such as adding new content to the site on a regular basis and working on getting new links to the site on an on-going basis, the search engines and the search engines alone have control over what their spiders do and if they decide to only visit every six weeks and to only look at one page each time they come, then we cannot do much about it. As long as the the site is search engine friendly and the content is not stale they will eventually come back.
1.5 As an addendum to point 1, we also have no control over how long it takes a search engine to thoroughly index a new site. We can make certain that your site is search engine friendly, that all your pages are within 3 clicks of the home page, that the site structure makes sense and that there is a good sitemap which is accessible through the home page. We can start to build links which will indicate that the site is gaining in importance; but search engines will take as long as they will take in order to crawl and index your entire site. If your site is structured and coded well then eventually they will find all of your pages.
2. SEOs have no control over how quickly search engines acknowledge the changes you have made on your site and reflect this in your rankings. They may know that you recently rewrote all the head tags on your pages and each page now has a keyword theme which flows from the head tags through the copy and relates to the other pages on your site
3. SEOs have no control over the weight given to any given on-page factor on your site. You may think that your pages are more relevant than your competitor's for a specific keyword search but if Google or Yahoo disagrees then there is not much you can do about it, except change your pages. The weighting of on-page factors is directly related to how your competitors' pages look and what works in one industry or for one keyword may not work as well for another.
While you can continually monitor the keyword densities of your competitors and where they put keywords in their head tags and on their pages, you will probably find that both your time and the time of your SEO is more wisely spent on providing clear, useful, focussed content that speaks to your customers using the same language they use to describe your products and services.
4) SEOs have no control over who links to you. The web is all about linking and if you want to link out to a site you find useful that is entirely up to you. In much the same way, if someone else wants to link to you then they can and should, provided they are not misrepresenting your site.
You cannot and should not worry too much about some scraper site or useless directory or other spam merchant showing up in your backlinks and these sites will not harm your rankings. The search engines are probably ignoring those links, your customers will not be finding you through those links and there are not enough hours in the day to chase up every single site of this sort to demand they take a link down, and even if there were time, they probably wouldn't do it. If for some reason someone does find you through one of those sites or a search engine decides one of those links should send you some authority, then consider it a bonus. Since search engines know that you cannot monitor every site that links to you, they do not expect you to do so.
5) SEOs have no control over what your competitors are doing. SEOs cannot control their PPC budget, or the amount of link building, link buying, viral marketing or linkbaiting they are doing in their own SEO campaign. Your SEO should take your competition into account and should be aiming to get you exposure in the same places that your competitors are visible, but if your competition is working to improve their own traffic and rankings at the same rate your SEO is working to improve your traffic and rankings then the most your SEO can do is to make sure that you have the best content and copy you possibly can and that they are pursuing inbound links from good, relevant sites and trust that your business outshines the competition.
6) SEOs have no control over the search engine results pages. If your SEO promises you a number one position or even a first page placing for any keyword then they are promising something they cannot guarantee. Good search engine optimisation is about making each and every page of your site as relevant for the right keywords as it can possibly be while building the authority and trust of your site through inbound links and effective search engine marketing. If your SEO does her job well then traffic and rankings should follow, but she has no magic button to press and no magic switch to flick which will guarantee that any search engine will do anything.
Labels: inbound links, on page optimisation, search engine optimisation, SEO, serps
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Chamber members Internet project celebrated in style
CHAMBER MEMBER Dreamscape Solutions and Gentry Grooming announced the launch of the stylish men’s grooming enterprise new website with a lavish party at Manchester 235.
Carrington based creative digital media company Dreamscape Solutions is providing a top-level corporate animated website that will act as a virtual environment for Gentry Grooming’s clients. There will be an online shop for their specialist male grooming own branded product range and a search marketing and pay per click campaign will also be implemented to increase online traffic.
The event, attended by the first winner of The Apprentice Tim Campbell and Gentry Grooming friend and client actor John Thompson, proved a great success.
Tim recently left Amstrad and Sir Alan Sugar to set up his own male grooming business and so the event and Gentry’s progress is of especial interest for him.
The 200 or so guests were also given a sneak preview of Gentry’s new television advert produced by Manchester agency BDH, which was well received.
Bernard McCabe managing director of Dreamscape Solution comments:
Carrington based creative digital media company Dreamscape Solutions is providing a top-level corporate animated website that will act as a virtual environment for Gentry Grooming’s clients. There will be an online shop for their specialist male grooming own branded product range and a search marketing and pay per click campaign will also be implemented to increase online traffic.
The event, attended by the first winner of The Apprentice Tim Campbell and Gentry Grooming friend and client actor John Thompson, proved a great success.
Tim recently left Amstrad and Sir Alan Sugar to set up his own male grooming business and so the event and Gentry’s progress is of especial interest for him.
The 200 or so guests were also given a sneak preview of Gentry’s new television advert produced by Manchester agency BDH, which was well received.
Bernard McCabe managing director of Dreamscape Solution comments:
“Gentry Grooming is a very ambitious company and so they needed to chose carefully their digital media partner to fulfil their plans. From both parties’ part of view I believe it will prove to be a great success.”Adele Lock, director of Gentry Grooming comments:
“Bernard and his team reflect our need to be creative and professional – to stand out. Our Internet project will add to our brand and be a big step in moving our enterprise forward."Gentry Grooming is currently franchising its brand across the UK and Dreamscape will be providing every franchisee with an online portal. There will initially be three portals, with that number rising to double figures by the end of the year.
Labels: Chamber of commerce, Dreamscape Solutions, gentry grooming co, Manchester, PPC campaign, SEO
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Onwards and Upwards...More New Business!
Manchester-based recruitment agency, Heads Recruitment, has recently given the seal of approval to Dreamscape Solutions Ltd and commissioned us to develop a bespoke website to cater for the needs of employers and potential employees. This new website will be taken to the forefront of the search engines by a Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click campaign.
Recruitment Agencies definitely like our web site designs, as evinced by our recent experience with Monarch Recruitment earlier this year!
Clarity Copiers, based on Carrington Business Park, Manchester, has also given the green light to a new website, and Traffic Management campaign, which is in development even as we write.
Breakfast for Business representative, Roger Jackson, has visited us in our Manchester office to tell us all about the morning network events which are run on a weekly basis across Cheshire and Manchester. So, if you want to network with other early birds and enjoy a full-cooked English breakfast, get in touch with Roger.
Recruitment Agencies definitely like our web site designs, as evinced by our recent experience with Monarch Recruitment earlier this year!
Clarity Copiers, based on Carrington Business Park, Manchester, has also given the green light to a new website, and Traffic Management campaign, which is in development even as we write.
Breakfast for Business representative, Roger Jackson, has visited us in our Manchester office to tell us all about the morning network events which are run on a weekly basis across Cheshire and Manchester. So, if you want to network with other early birds and enjoy a full-cooked English breakfast, get in touch with Roger.
Labels: Pay Per Click Campaigns, SEO, Traffic Management, Web Design Manchester
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