Developers Giving SEO a Bad Name

We realise this might look like “another rant” but just this week we’ve had calls from disgruntled parties who’ve purchased SEO ‘services’ from their local Web Designer / Developer.

When we research these companies it is obvious to the trained eye that their understanding of online marketing is limited at best. 

Their lack of scruples is simply giving SEO a bad name and making their ‘victims’ far less trusting of the genuine professionals operating in the SEO industry.

Add to this the many ‘quick buck charlie’ SEO companies that have sprung up in the name of profit, and you have an industry that is causing its own demise.

It’s actually quite easy to recognise these so called ‘SEO companies’ when they advertise for business. Infact, you may have noticed this yourself with so many SEO companies now using Google AdWords to advertise and attract new business leads!

There is of course a certain irony in a company selling SEO services by using Pay Per Click in order to be seen on the first page of Google!!! However not everyone can be up there for such competitive terms as “SEO” or “Search Engine Optimisation” and to achieve such a feat would require a prolonged SEO campaign. However, it should be expected that a company selling SEO should command decent ‘organic’ positions for competitive search terms.

More often than not, companies who are not experienced SEO’s are offing SEO services to their clients when they may well have had THEIR website designed before SEO even became a factor.

This is a big mistake… To be able to offer this service you require actual industry experience & not just have read about it in a book or magazine article…

I can understand the problems that face these designers and developers, but it is simple – if they do not change with the times they will become obsolete, no different in fact to operating systems such as Windows 95/98/2000/XP/Vista etc.

It has to be said though, that the same goes for SEO consultants. Things move on and an SEO’s training should be incorporating new techniques and information for the future – all the time. It’s an industry constantly changing and evolving and those who stop bothering to move with it will quickly need to find new careers.

Take other industries – law, construction, health and transport for example – they all have to move with the times, constant change is an ever present and to those developers who are selling a substandard SEO service I have to say, “SHAME ON YOU & STOP BEING LAZY!

The fast lane is where every forward thinking business should be and quality SEO advice is key to success.

Having faith in your SEO Consultant

Targeted traffic is one of the most important elements of your online business, it’s virtually impossible to achieve any worthwhile results without it. Regardless of how visually stunning your site may be, if nobody is visiting it you need to remind yourself why you created it in the first place!

Ok, there’s a balance,  like everything in life if you ‘overcook’ one area or concentrate too much on it you will come unstuck across the board. Effective SEO is all about consistency and targets all areas of your business, so that you have more than one egg in your online marketing basket.

The businesses that benefit most from an SEO campaign are the ones that don’t panic and have the patience to appreciate steady progression. No, you shouldn’t expect results to happen overnight with SEO, and if they do, be very wary!

If you can’t stay patient until the ‘payoff’ then SEO might not be right for you.

What you need in abundance is FAITH

Like it or not, you will need to have faith in your SEO Consultant. If you don’t believe in them you won’t follow their instructions and you will inevitably fail…

If you find yourself questioning their advice you have clearly lost faith in them.

When your SEO specialist asks you to write articles relating to your business, make sure you comply, if you don’t you will limit your success.

However, assuming you choose the right SEO consultant and have faith in their ability you will be rewarded with long term success and plenty of traffic to your website.

Trusting your SEO Company

In a perfect world all SEO consultants would be ethical, however this industry, more than most, attracts it’s fair share of rogues. Some SEO’s for example wax lyrical about their ‘contracts’ because they offer ‘no results no fee’ – well just look at the small print folks, nobody does something for nothing these days. Would you?

Then you have SEO’s who believe a few minor script changes warrant a six month contract… Hmm, we’ve seen lots of these in our time, yes, it will help you marginally at the start of the SEO process, but it won’t (on it’s own) get you ranking for those high volume search terms.

The simple facts…

Most of the top ten positions on Google will nearly always be taken up by veteran webmasters, those that have served their time and made all the mistakes any ‘newbie’ is likely to make. There is no easy process to achieve high ranking positions for competitive keywords, if you do want to get there then get ready for some hard work…

Unique content is the most powerful online commodity and by adding your own you will be dealing in the best currency. No-one knows your business quite like you and every website should ideally reflect it’s owners personality.

As SEO specialists we understand that every campaign is different, but it’s amazing just how often a successful campaign coincides with a customer who has made the effort to add unique content when instructed.

However, there is a good side to clients who simply don’t have the time to add content themselves…

It’s called a higher fee… That’s when choosing the right SEO Specialist really becomes critical!!

Specialist marketing with SEO

You may be a specialist solicitor or engineer, you may have a brand new patented design or quite simply are a builder who specialises in refurbishing churches.

Whatever you do, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) offers providers of specialist products and services something quite different to conventional marketing. Up until the invention of search engines the only cost effective way to advertise a business or service was generally through the local free ads or the yellow pages. On the other hand expensive advertising campaigns that spoke to the ‘masses’ have always been available to those with deep enough pockets.

Fortunately, times have recently changed. Imagine nowadays, a garage offering a bespoke ‘pimp my ride’ service or a company that sells refurbished turbo engines for Bentley motors. What better way to promote your business than selecting your target keywords, filling your website full of relevant information, and, as a consequence, appearing high on the first page of Google – right in front of prospective customers looking for your products or services?!

There is a high probability that the business will attract the enquiry.

With this in mind wouldn’t you expect to hear a stampede of specialists competing to get on the first page of Google? Yet, it is “Oh, so quiet.”

Ironically, getting to the top of the search engines for specialist search terms is relatively easy and inexpensive compared with the rewards it can bring. It’s definitely food for thought and without doubt a window of opportunity that shouldn’t be missed!

‘SEO Training Norwich’

First Page Result on 18th February 2010 for ‘SEO Training Norwich’ Incredibly this took just 2 days to achieve!!

However, this is NOT what we would deem to be effective SEO as little or no traffic will ever result from it. Yes, it’s good to be targeting all aspects of search terminology relating to your business, but don’t be fooled by those claiming these sort of search terms/results are a great achievement.

‘SEO Training Norwich’ – So, what’s so special about this search term? Well, for one, it happens to be a local search term that Webserve Development haven’t yet targeted!

This article you are now reading, was added on the 16th February 2010 at 15.25 hours, with the intention of seeing how long it would take to rank on the first page of Google for the search term “SEO Training Norwich”. Surely it wouldn’t be that difficult as there are only 12,700 results for SEO Training Norwich and this should be easily obtainable for a local company worth their salt?

As stated in previous Webserve articles it’s not so much about achieving first page results per se but about achieving first page results for relevant, competitive search terms.

There is a lot more to consider of course. For example, is there a call for SEO training in Norwich, or for courses on SEO in the local Norwich area? Is training done in the classroom with theory tests and exams? How much would these courses cost, and how long would they last for?

One thing is for sure though, there are only ten spots available on the first page of Google and only the best will be there…

So, to recap, it took less than 2 days for a true SEO Specialist using a well established, fully optimised website. But remember, it’s those harder to achieve keywords that bare the best fruit. Food for thought!

First page results for SEO Specialist!

We would definitely hire them!!

It’s taken some work to catch up to the pack but we’re very close now to proving our worth regarding serious SEO rankings.

For some time now this site has ranked highly in our local region of Norfolk for search terms relating to SEO.


We’ve had to be patient and we’ve had to work hard to achieve our goal of making the first page on Google for the very competitive term – SEO Specialist. Yes, we do still expect the results to ‘bounce around’ a little until settling down in the rankings but we are extremely confident of improving our position further for this and many other competitive SEO search terms.

As you can no doubt appreciate we face stiff opposition because of the nature of our business with different budgets according to company size. It is imperative also for companies that want to provide a service in the SEO industry to have high rankings so that customers can have confidence in their SEO techniques.


Lessons can be learnt from this, as clients looking for effective SEO will hopefully understand. As SEO professionals we go through the same process as everybody else and get excited to see the fruits of our labours too. Customers should also appreciate that it sometimes takes more work if the competition is fierce, but with patience and sensible goal setting, eventually you are bound to succeed with online marketing through SEO.

The beauty of this website is that it has achieved it’s ranking without needing to insert a strong keyword term within the domain name! This just goes to prove that keyword rich domains aren’t as important as having the right website structure or hiring the best professional for the SEO campaign.

What will we do next?

This is simply another small milestone achieved and as we say the work will continue towards other targeted competitive keywords. Strengthening the site further towards key phrases such as SEO Company ‘SEO services’ and ‘SEO consultant‘ whilst improving further on the achievements made thus far.

The best advice we can give an individual or company undertaking SEO would be to take one step at a time, develop and improve your site -ready for the onslaught of new business coming your way when you get there!

What makes an SEO specialist special?

Well, that’s another article for another day…

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION SPECIALISTS

Seo Specialists - Website Optimisation & Search Engine Optimisation Consultancy.

Thoroughly research relevent keywords specific to your business for effective SEO. The main purpose of organic SEO is to increase relevant or targeted traffic for all those right keywords through search engines. SEO can take up lots of effort plus depending on your industry it can sometimes take up lots of money. You should have a clear idea right from the start as to what keywords you want to target. There are a number of tools available on the Internet, even Google has a free tool for choosing keywords. Seo professionals will also target key phrases as well as those more difficult terms. These have lower volumes of traffic, but if enough of them are targeted the total will add up to a sizeable amount. By their very nature they will also have low levels of completion making it easier and quicker for you to achieve higher search engine rankings and get your SEO campaign of to a good start. Relevant content FOR seo makes your website information-rich, if the site provides meaningful information people will come back to it it will increases your keyword density and it gives your website ULP (unique linking property) this will increase those all important inbound links. Updating your website with new relevant content is a good long term SEO strategy which will drive you up the search engines. Make sure you have unique titles for every page as titles are used by the search engines to both rank and display pages. Leveraging your page titles will also increase your rankings and search engine traffic. Your description Meta tag should describe your page in one or two sentences, and of course include your keywords but also selling the page to the potential searcher. Content at the top of the page is considered more important than the content below, so ensure your SEO keywords are near the top of the page. Use semantic HTML where possible. Ensure you use semantic HTML and that your keywords appear within the header tags. Your website will need to be using search engine friendly URLs. Try not to use dynamically generated URLs, as these are usually lacking in keywords. I am happy to take on SEO in London or any of the other major cities like Manchester as SEO jobs or contracts can be undertaken as i work online. Talking about SEO, We have a new client who are specialist's in Pond Construction Security Norfolk  Letterboxes
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION Our goal is simple: we want to make the Internet a successful addition to your business. That means making websites user friendly and visible to web surfers by promoting the pages in the natural search engine results with the skills and contacts in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that we have, also by using paid advertising methods such as Pay Per Click (PPC). As a Search engine optimisation specialist i can help drive more unique visitors to your website. This is far more complex than simple search engines submissions and to achieve increased volumes of traffic, your website will need to be optimised, if done correctly the site will will then be structured so that all pages are search engine friendly and get indexed. Achieving first page Search Engine listings naturally and effective PPC campaigns will bring regular visitors which your business can receive regular enquiries - The deciding factor then is what you have to offer potential customers. Through extensive research we know what works and what doesn't in SEO, with the key factor of our service being the actual website optimisation and link building. What is Search Engine Optimisation? Search Engine Optimisation is primarily about creating valuable information for the end user. Effectively Website Optimisation ensures that your companies website presents an excellent user experience, therefore growing in value to Search Engines through natural linking. Many think Search Engine Optimisation is only about manipulating placement results which isn't as effective as website Optimisation that is ensuring that your company's website delivers what potential clients want of which the search engines can interpret. Any site that follows these basic principles will find their website will add real value to their organisation, and once Website Optimisation is in place your website will be ready to compete for more competitive keywords. So Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Optimization as the Americans call it, is the practice of modifying a website so that it is considered to be Search Engine Friendly. If a website can be properly read by the search engine spiders, there is an increased probability of achieving desirable results in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). The primary task for any Search Engine Optimisation company is to understand your product and customers and the search terms these people are using to find a product or service related to the website owner. An aspect rarely mentioned is that to be good at SEO the specialist must have had lots of life experience which can only come with age One rule which we constantly preach to our clients is that in Search Engine Optimisation their content must be unique. It's no secret that google filters out websites or pages that contain duplicate content from other websites so its not a good idea to copy!! besides that every company is different so they should be shouting out about their good points and not someone else's. With SEO clients should be fully aware that when optimising websites, organic rankings don't increase overnight and it can take up to six months and even longer for highly competitive keywords. Other factors such as domain age can affect the time it takes also. Even your domain name can have an effect on search engine results. Generally though the more pages you have and the more articles you have, the more search terms related to your business you will rank highly for. One thing for sure after all the process of getting a website tuned and positioned gaining free traffic is that, it's well worth the effort and will bring you a consistent level of new found business of which your website will be responsible for, This is where your company starts to get a return on it's investment. If a jobs worth doing it's worth doing right!! I hope that after reading this you will see I know my job - and i know how to do it well!! A WORD OF WARNING Hiring as bad SEO company can also get your website banned as well as not achieving what you set out to do for the privilege of a fee.

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