Google and the other search engines list the results they give you in an order of likely importance that’s decided by their ever-changing, complex computer programs so it pays to keep on top of this by using a search engine optimisation service.
These programs are usually referred to as search algorithms – the word algorithm is just mathematical shorthand for going through a sequence of events until a result is found.
In the case of Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines, these algorithms happen at lightening pace. Google tells you how long it took their program to get the results you see – times of a quarter of a second are typical, even when there are millions of potential results to sift through.
The aim of search engine optimisation is to give your site a fighting chance of appearing near the top of the results. And using a search engine optimisation service means you can concentrate on actually running your business, rather than turning yourself into a full-time nerd.
Like anything, the more you do something, the better you get at it. We’ve been optimising websites since 1995, which is before Google was even born. In that time, we’ve witnessed lots and lots of changes in the search engines. Which means we’ve found out what works and what are merely fads, designed to trick the search engines for a short period of time until their algorithm gets changed to weed out these spammy results.
This knowledge means that we only offer completely legitimate methods of improving your search engine rankings in our search engine optimisation packages.
You could spend years mastering optimising your web site for the search engines. And then hours and hours every month keeping on top of all the subtle – and not so subtle – changes. Or you could employ an expert like us.
You do this in other areas of your business. Chances are that you don’t run your own phone company, print your own headed notepaper, make your own pens and envelopes, etc. It stands to reason that the same goes for getting your site closer to the top of the search results.
The other thing to remember about optimising your website for the likes of Google is that results don’t happen overnight. They used to – maybe ten years or so ago – but the massive volume of pages that are indexed nowadays means that “instant” is impossible for the average website. Sure, a major news event will get a page to the top of the search results in seconds or minutes. But that page will drop out again just as fast when the news is over. It’s the way of the world.
It’s a bit like the race between the tortoise and the hare. The news event is the hare: it gets to the top of the search engine results fast but doesn’t stay there. Search engine optimisation is like the tortoise: it takes longer to get to the first page of Google but, once it’s there, it’s fairly easy to keep it there.
Just how easy depends on the industry you’re in. A chemist wanting to sell a blue pill online will have more of a struggle to reach the top of the results than, say, someone renting out a conference room or someone else selling custom made furniture.
Which means your budget should be set bearing in mind how competitive your industry is. If you’re unsure, just contact us and we’ll help.
The best time to start optimising your website is as soon as you can. Expect results to start showing through in a few months unless you’re in a highly competitive industry.