Did you think you bought a search engine optimised website?
Did you receive a quote for a website that includes search engine optimisation. However, it is unlikely that the site actually includes it. Is it a scam?
In the Wild West of digital marketing, websites are still being sold with one-line offers that include. search engine optimisation. Usually, it is a matter of allowing the site to be found in a search engine, but these implementations have never heard of search engine optimisation.
What does a provider mean by search engine optimised pages?
What website providers often mean by a search engine optimised website is that the website is implemented on a search engine friendly website platform, with an SEO block added to the site that automatically creates the most relevant meta elements of the content so that Google can read it.
While the principle of the implementation is good, this only means the possibility to feed important information to the search engine and the user. If the content is not designed correctly, this implementation will not be of any benefit to search engine discoverability. In practice, the site author does nothing to promote the correct discoverability of the site, but calls it search engine optimisation.
Why is this not working?
The search accessibility of these implementations is usually poor due to content-related problems.
- Wrong terminology is used on the website
- If you don't talk about things on your site in the terms your customers use in the search engine, your site won't be found the way you want it to be.
- Insufficient content on the website and individual pages
- The total amount of content on a website and the amount of content on a single page has an impact on how it is perceived by search engines.
- The search result link has not been taken into account in the content design
- The Meta Title and Description determine what your link looks like in a Google search. This in turn affects whether people want to click on your link and this in turn affects how the search engine values your link and your site. If a site automatically retrieves the Title and Description from the content and these are not taken into account in the content, they may give both the search engine and the user the wrong signal about the content of the page.
- There are no dedicated content pages for the most important product/service keywords
- In practice, there should be separate content pages for the main product and service keywords, as well as for product groups.
- Apart from the Meta Title and Description, no other issues related to search engine accessibility have been exploited.
- There are hundreds of factors related to search accessibility. Title and Description are of course important and need to be right, but they alone won't get you far.
- The sitemap is poorly designed
- The sitemap acts as a table of contents for the search engine, which it uses as one of the criteria to understand what the site is about, what the site focuses on, how broad it is and who the content is for.
About search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation objectives
- The site can be found with the right search terms
- Site found high enough in search results
- Click on the website link
Search engine optimisation can be divided into
- on-site optimisation and off-site optimisation.
- project-based one-off optimisation and ongoing search engine optimisation
A website redesign usually involves a one-off optimisation of the site. This builds the foundation for the website's search engine discoverability, which at its best can go a long way.
How should search engine optimisation be implemented in the context of a website redesign?
When designing a website, a plan for search engine accessibility should be made at the outset, as this will affect the sitemap, the number of pages, and the need for content production.
In practice, it starts by thinking about how the site should be found and what kind of findability would be most useful to the business. This requires keyword research.
Keyword research in website design
Keyword research must be comprehensive and thorough. The keyword researcher must have an understanding of the motivations behind people's search behaviour and the different ways people approach companies' products or services. Finding out the search volume for a few words is not a substitute for keyword research.
Keyword research content
- The first stage of the keyword research aims to identify all the keywords, search phrases and topics that potential customers use at different stages of the buying process.
- The second step is to examine how much these search terms or search topics are used.
- In the third stage, the relevance of the search terms is assessed from the point of view of what the searcher means by each term, i.e. the motive behind the search.
Once the keyword research is complete, it would be a good idea to examine the current searchability and the competitive situation in the search engine. Based on this information, you can start to set goals, design the sitemap, determine content structures and the need for content production in more detail.
How can I identify the right search engine optimisation for a website redesign?
Forget modular offers
If the site builder has the customer's best interests at heart, search engine optimisation is always part of the site project. It is not an optional extra that the client can choose.
- If search engine optimisation is not done right away, doing it afterwards quite often means redoing the site again, which makes no sense.
- Search engine optimisation is also a time game. It takes time for changes to be indexed and results to stabilise. This is not something to put off.
- Searchability is so important that it should not be optional.
Search engine optimisation service description
If the written offer does not make clear what is meant by search engine optimisation, it is unlikely to be made. Ask for more information on search engine optimisation and compare the bids.
Search engine expertise of the website provider
If a website provider does not specifically offer search engine optimisation services, you can safely question their expertise. Check whether the company has any customer stories and references relating to search engine optimisation.
Content services
The company implementing the site is ready produce content or instruct you on the content requirements and review and edit the text content to meet SEO requirements.
Over-promising
When an operator promises a number one spot or an exact ranking, I would be suspicious and would like to hear a pretty good justification. Of course, an improvement in rankings can be promised if there are clear problems with the current site.
Price
It can easily take a day or two, sometimes more, to conduct keyword research, design a sitemap, review and edit content, define any metadata and meet with the client. When you really work on search engine optimisation, the price is higher. This is where you should not skimp, as your business may not be able to afford not to be found.
Is it a scam?
When these "search engine optimised websites" are offered, it can be pure incompetence, as there is no real understanding of SEO. Sometimes the offer is made more attractive by promising SEO and trusting that the customer will not understand to ask for more.
The problem is often related to what is meant by search engine optimisation. For some people, all things related to search engine discoverability are search engine optimisation, but this is not the case.
For the time being, much is left to the buyer's skills or knowledge.
Antti Kärki
Good digital marketing since 2003, but the humour gets worse every year. All in one package! Antti takes a broad view of marketing through the eyes of the client, the agency and the web analyst, but he is also keen to tackle individual issues. Antti's texts occasionally seek a little wake-up call, as the digital marketing industry has a lot of room for improvement.
