SEO, or search engine optimisation, refers to the manipulation that can legitimately be performed on the web pages of a web site. Saying that the manipulation should be legitimate does not in any way suggest that it’s possible to do something that is illegal, but rather that organic SEO needs to be done in a way that is approved by the search engines.

The terms, black hat and white hat are often bandied around. The reference goes back to the days of the early western movies when the good guys wore white hats, and the bad guys wore black hats.

You could therefore say that white hat SEO is natural organic SEO, and black hat SEO is the kind that the search engines do not approve of. Back hat methods can get your web site banned, in fact, but it is not illegal in any real sense of the actual law.

There are two basic kinds of SEO: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to the things you can do on a web page to help it to rank well in the search engines.

The title tag should include your primary keyword and be relatively short. The description meta tag and the keyword meta tag should be included as well. Many search engines no longer use the keyword tag, but it won’t hurt, and might help to still use it.

The visible parts of the page should start with an H1 tag as the article headline. This should also include the primary keyword. The body of the article should have the primary keyword included in as natural a way as possible to a density of around 1% to 3%.

Off page organic SEO includes gaining external links back to the page. If the anchor of the link, the piece of text that can be clicked on, includes your primary keyword, this is by far the best kind of back link.

You have your web site up and running. It looks great, functions well, and everyone says it’s a work of art. But do you have paying customers? Does your new website pay for itself? Is it the money machine you had hoped it would be? If not, then you need targeted traffic! This article lists 5 benefits of having an SEO consultant.

1. An SEO consultant can critique your web site and discover its strengths and weaknesses. They can then develop a strategy that will lift your web site from obscurity to new realms of visibility, but a proper assessment of the current situation needs to come first.
2. Your SEO consultant will likely develop a strategy best suited to your particular situation. You web site will be search engine optimised before any traffic strategy is put in place. This will help the site to rise naturally in the search engine rankings, bringing in natural traffic.
3. A traffic campaign will likely start through article marketing. This involves SEO articles written by the staff of the SEO consultant to rank high in the search engines, but also to provide good information for potential visitors. There will also be a link back to the web site. This will provide a valuable back link, as well as a means for readers of the article to get to your web pages.
4. Continual monitoring of the situation is another thing you should expect from your SEO consultant. They will provide you with regular reports on how your web site is performing. Expect to see a steady rise in rankings and visitor numbers. If not, ask why not!
5. Your chosen SEO consultant can help to educate your own staff in the ways of SEO. This would not be for the more complicated stuff, but rather for the day to day running maintenance of the site. Understanding basic SEO will save your company a lot of money, and any SEO consultant who is reluctant to provide simple, basic SEO training should be viewed with suspicion.

There are no hard and fast rules, but there are a few things that should be observed. This article will take you through 5 tips that should hold you in good stead when choosing an SEO company.

1. Don’t be persuaded by outlandish claims. When an SEO company claims it can “get you to the top of Google in a week or less,” ask them to explain exactly what they mean in complete detail. Anyone can get a number one position in Google for an obscure keyword with no competition, but it won’t help your business in the slightest. The claims an SEO company makes must have highly relevant meaning that can advance your business, otherwise why bother?
2. Don’t be afraid to ask an SEO company to provide some evidence that they have had success promoting other businesses. In fact, any good company will be falling over themselves to show you the evidence. If an SEO company seems reluctant to prove that they have already successfully done what they claim they can do for you, be extremely wary.
3. Determine exactly what you will receive for the money you are asked to pay. Make sure that everything is listed in detail, and that you are happy to pay for what they state they will deliver. Shop around. Don’t be afraid of trying to get the best deal you can, and if an SEO company fumbles about what you will be getting for your money, go somewhere else. In fact, a good SEO company will usually over deliver. You will often get more than you expected as a measure of goodwill, and of their efficiency.
4. Don’t just leave everything up to the SEO company. Keep abreast of what is going on and monitor what is happening. Expect to receive feedback in the form of regular reports. Check for yourself that what is claimed to be happening is actually happening.
5. 5. Only accept an SEO company that offers excellent communications with you. It’s OK to use a company that is remote, but only if you have several good and reliable way of contacting them. It’s probably best to use an SEO company that you can actually visit in person, but this is not absolutely necessary.

1. Optimise your website for your customers. SEO for small business means targeting the right person, which means using the right keywords in your pages. Think about the type of person you will do business with. This is critical, for only then can you discover the right general keywords to target.
2. For effective SEO for small business you need specific keywords, the kind that people actually search for. To uncover them you need a keyword tool. There are many free ones available, such as the free Wordtracker tool, or Google’s free keyword tool. The best keywords are those that are very specific and comprised of several words. These keywords mean that those searching on them know exactly what they want.
3. Using the specific keywords uncovered in step 2, you can now apply SEO for small business to your page content. Assign a single primary keyword to each page. The content on that page should be focussed on the keyword. The content should have a title in an H1 tag that starts with the keyword. For best SEO for small business results the keyword should be included in the content body at a density of 2% to 4%.
4. The fourth SEO for small business tip is optimising the meta tags of your page HTML code. The most important bit is the page title tag. The primary keyword should be included in the title tag. The description tag should briefly describe the page content and include the primary keyword near the beginning. If you use the keyword meta tag, only include keywords that actually appear on the visible page.
5. The final SEO for business tip is to include your primary keyword in all image alt tags, and any links to other site pages. The aim is to leave the search engines with no doubt as to what the page is all about.

SEO for small business owners is not difficult to achieve. Finding the right SEO partner who can work within your budget and provide a cost effective SEO service is simple. Call The Blue Cube on 01527 595595 today!

Search engine marketing involving organic search results means that your website is encouraged to rank highly through natural, or organic, methods. This means that certain search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies are employed.

SEO can mean different things to different people, but at its most basic it is simply preparing your web pages and supporting them in such a way that they will naturally be liked by the search engines.

Search engine marketing preparation means on-page optimisation and off-page optimisation. On-page optimisation means ensuring that everything on the web page, including the hidden bits of the underlying HTML code, is at its best for the search engines. Off-page optimisation means bolstering up the web page by getting appropriate back links to it.

Organic on-page search engine marketing begins with the title. A web page should be focussed on a chosen keyword phrase, and the page or document title and the page content title should share the same keyword that the page is focussed on.

For example, if the keyword phrase for a particular web page is “Car Insurance” then the web page could be saved as “car-insurance.html” and the document title in the HTML title tag could be something like, “Car Insurance – All You Need To Know.”

The article that is visible to the visitor on the page could have a title like, for example, “Car Insurance The Best Deals.” The article following the title could be around 500 words and the keyword phrase of “Car Insurance” would be used within the body of the article between 10 and 15 times. This represents an acceptable keyword density of 2% to 3%.

Off-page search engine marketing means getting appropriate websites to link back to your site. This increases the importance of your website in the eyes of the search engines. You can create your own back links by having a blog where you post complementary articles about your website, or you can use social media sites. The best back links, however, are those you get from other sites who link to you naturally.