It is a myth to say that websites can be optimised as a whole. The reality is that each and every individual page contained within the website itself has to be optimised on a page-by-page basis. However, this process does not rely on any kind of magic or lucky chance; it is a quantifiable, systematic approach that only has one right way, but unfortunately lots of wrong ways.
Any website that does not have its pages optimised for the search engines will at best, struggle to compete against its competitor sites and at worst, will never get found at all for the SEO Keywords that your prospective customers are tapping into Google, Yahoo, Bing and the like.
Website optimisation or website SEO can be split in to two very distinct areas of focused activities; 'on page web optimisation' and 'off page web optimisation', both of which will have dramatic affects on the website performance itself.
On page website optimisation provides the essential platform, or building blocks, for the successful development and long term strategic direction of the overall search engine optimisation strategy of the website and involves the critical analysis of the following website performance metrics. It is important to note that all on page optimisation techniques and principles can be implemented quickly and affect the website performance with immediate results.
A common question we get asked is "why didn't our web builder (or designer) take this on page optimisation into account at the Website Designing stage, before the website was built, and why have we got to get it put right after the event?"
The simple answer is; a different set of skills and disciplines are required, which do not always fall within the remit of web building companies. Website designers are highly qualified people with technical skills, whereas on page optimisation requires the skills and abilities to research, analyse, compare and ultimately write critical sections of web copy so that the search engine crawlers and robots can easily find what they are looking for and index the web pages accordingly. Unfortunately, without the correct and detailed on page optimisation in place, all other efforts and activities to promote the site will potentially be in vein.
Off page optimisation refers to activities that can be carried out over the life time of the web site. Some cannot be accelerated, such as Domain Age, whilst other website optimisation metrics can be positively affected and relatively quickly. One of the most powerful metrics used to increase the Page Rank of a web site, and consequently its website performance, is the quantity and quality of inbound links coming into the domain itself or to a specific page of the website. Other off page search engine promotion metrics to consider are as follows:
Website optimisation using relevant SEO keywords is absolutely critical for successful website performance, but it doesn't have to cost a fortune and here at The Performance Gap Company, that's what we do best.
Why not drop us an email with your web address and we'll take a quick look at your site and let's see if we can help each other to help ourselves? missinglink@performancegap.co.uk