Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) gives us the ability to get websites found for many different keywords phrases on the natural (or organic) search engine results pages. Google, Yahoo! & Bing prioritise websites based on what they see, and SEO allows us to help the search engines to give our websites better rankings in their search results.

Why create an SEO strategy?

Like anything, if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen! Strategy is about aligning everything that we do towards a common goal and this philosophy has never been more relevant. We only have a finite amount of time and resource for SEO, therefore it’s essential that we’re clear about what we want to achieve and how we are going to achieve it.

It’s simply not realistic to want to be number 1 in Google for highly competitive keywords quickly, so initially we look for long tail keyword phrases that include the top performing keywords. By being realistic we are much more likely to generate traffic and revenues quicker, as we work towards achieving top search engine results for the best performing keyword phrases.

Steps to an SEO strategy

1. Keyword Discovery and Research

This involves finding and understanding the keywords and phrases that potential customers are using to find your product or service. Viewing competitor websites and understanding the keywords that they are trying to be found for is a good start.

2. Keyword Priority

Now that we have a list of keywords and phrases, we need to prioritise and categorise them. We now need to assess, commercially, which keywords and phrases are most important to be found for. This should be based on the competencies and overall objectives of your business.

3. Long Tail Phrase Development

Once we have prioritised the list, we can start to assess the competition for each term and increase the focus by adding related keywords. This may be by geographical location or by a more specific description of the product or service.

4. Website Development

Before starting any SEO strategy we need to answer some technical questions about the website. Can the web pages be found and indexed by the search engines? Is the website easy to search? Is the website tuned for your SEO priorities? Does the navigation reflect the keywords that you want the website to be found for?

5. Optimising Website Content

Now that we are focussed on the keywords and phrases that we want the website to be found for, we can write textual content that targets the keywords and phrases. Content includes the on-page text that visitors and search engines can read, and also the web page Title Tags and Meta Tags which are crucial for SEO. In most cases, the text in the Title Tags and Meta Tags is displayed in the search engine results. In other words, we control what people read in the search engines, so we can influence people to visit “our” website.

6. Link Building

Google wants to be assured that your website is more relevant than all the others for the keywords that are being searched for. One way Google does this is to measure the relevance of the external links that are pointing to the website / web pages. The best quality links are from related-content websites, authority websites and respected blogs and social media sites. Whilst the best things in life are free, the best quality links aren’t!

Internal website links are often overlooked but are important as they help search engines to easily find other pages on the website.

7. Reviewing

We need to take a snap shot on a regular basis to ensure that we are following the original strategy, or that we are consciously making decisions to change it based on the ever moving feast. There are a host of useful tools including Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to help with this. Setting key performance indicators (kpi’s) really drives our understanding of the market and our position within it.

If you’d like to know more about developing successful SEO strategies for your business website, please call the SEO consultants at Pixel8 in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 / 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail.

Our web design and development team recently designed, built and broadcast an e-mail marketing campaign for Lifestyle Blinds.

Using our HTML email broadcasting system we designed a compelling email campaign, send it to the client as a PDF for approval, build the HTML version, and then distributed the campaign to an email list that was supplied as a CSV file.

Immediately after the email campaign was launched, the client was also able to view detailed statistics such as the number of emails sent, received, bounced and read over time and the number of clicks into the website.

The Pixel8 graphic design and web design agency in Manchester have recently carried out a successful logo design and corporate branding development exercises for a new venture called Company Right Move.

The new website which will launch in early 2010 to help businesses to re-locate by providing an online directory of economic development agencies.

This month sees the start of a new Pixel8 in-house marketing campaign and website redesign.

The new website will show our expanded range of design and marketing services as we continue to help companies beat the credit crunch with a little more ‘WOMGE for your wonga’; WOMGE being Web Design, Online Marketing, Multimedia, Graphic Design and Exhibition Design.

In the current economic climate, we know that to survive the credit crunch your company has to turn heads, and we can help you to maintain a high profile and stand out from the crowd both online and in print advertising.

Give us a call today on 0161 228 6489 or 0845 230 1336 to see how we can help your business tackle market difficulties head on.

We released our  email marketing campaign for Christmas, wishing our clients, suppliers and friends a fun filled festive season.

Savouring the chance to celebrate and enjoy the festivities, we thought it only appropriate that we use the theme of the 12 days of christmas to illustrate our message.

We’d also like to wish you a very happy chriestmas too.

Leighmans have commissioned monthly email marketing campaigns detailing offers of the month and drawing attention to specific products on their website.

Pixel8 were tasked with coming up with an email marketing design template for the special offers, using the look and feel that Pixel8 had previously developed for their corporate branding and website design.

Coinciding with a truly diverse sporting weekend hosting the UCI World Track Cup and the 1st BTCB British International Taekwondo Open, Manchester Sport and Leisure Trust officially launched its new brand design and new website design that were both developed by the Pixel8 design and marketing agency in Manchester.

The new website brings together 19 indoor sport and leisure facilities on behalf of Manchester City Council and is one of the most significant collections of sporting venues in the UK, including Sportcity; the largest concentration of sporting venues in Europe and a permanent legacy from the Manchester XVII Commonwealth Games 2002.

Leighmans, the UK’s second largest online supplier of promotional products and printed corporate gifts have appointed the Pixel8 design and marketing agency in Manchester to create a new brand identity and a website redesign.

After understanding the clients ambitions, we set about tweaking the existing logo to better reflect Leighmans future vision. Our graphic designers have now applied the dynamic logo across the new website design and the monthly email newsletter to ensure that visitors to the website are only one click away from what they want.

Telecom solutions provider of IP telephony, broadband and managed networks to some of the UK’s best known retailers Vodat International has tasked Pixel8 with the challenge of redesigning their website, their corporate branding, and new designs for sales leaflets and brochures that illustrate the innovative cost saving and added value services offered by Vodat.

The corporate rebranding work is complete and the new website design is online at www.vodat-int.com

The Pixel8 design and marketing agency in Manchester continues to provide a wide range of services for 3i. The agency is currently sending email marketing invites to events worldwide on their behalf.

One advantage of using Pixel8’s email marketing campaigns is that they provide real time feedback (RSVP’s) and they enable recipients to receive instant reminders via SMS and repeat emails.

To see examples of the graphic design and email campaign design work that Pixel8 has provided for 3i, please see our 3i graphic design portfolio.

This month our client Manchester United is using our e-mail marketing services for the first time.