SEO Consulting Fact or Fiction?

Have you ever wondered about the role of an SEO consultant and what value they really offer to your business? If so, here’s a look at some of the various functions that an SEO consultant would perform to optimize your website. The process involves a thorough analysis of the components that make up your website, including a comprehensive checklist that covers everything from your server and hosting environment to the words used on your pages to describe an offer. All of which can affect your search engine rankings.

Ranking increases or decreases are generally not affected by any aspect of development, web design, or hosting, rather it is how they interact holistically that determines placement, apart from competition and other outside factors. of the page. Since search engine algorithms are constantly changing, changes are required to adjust them to ensure that your pages adhere to the guidelines set by each respective search engine.

During a diagnosis, these and other elements would be observed under the scrutiny of an SEO consultant.

(1) where the website is hosted.

(2) whether the IP address is clean or has been used in the past to host spam-related websites or sites known to use deviant practices.

(3) does the server show trace errors when trying to access the data in the headers?

(4) what links does the site have internally, is there a sitemap or a privacy policy. It is accessible?

(5) Keywords used in the header, title, meta tags, and in the page content affect search engine placement.

(6) Are your forward or back links going in or out of the website? If so, are all the links optimized?

Each industry has its own unique requirements for optimization. There is no one size fits all in SEO, ranking and relevance revolve around updates to search engine algorithms and the engineers who program them. What works great on one website may have little or no effect on another. It’s about finding the right solution for specific problems to repair or improve a potential problem, or prevent one for starters. The role of the SEO consultant is to dissect the components, look for flaws in structure, function or usability, prepare and put the website back in perfect condition by making logical adjustments to optimize its performance.

Although certain familiar fundamentals remain stable as they are structured in logic, one constant that resonates across the web is that the algorithm that encompasses the vast library of content displayed in search engine queries is in a constant state of flux. An SEO consultant must think as an engineer and as an end user to obtain valuable information for each project. By doing so, they can develop a ranking strategy and make adjustments to a website until they achieve the desired result. SEO consulting involves more than educated guesswork, it is a process of constant trial and error, research, and modification.

Here are some more considerations that an SEO query can evaluate.

keyword research – Determining the relevance of keywords is of paramount importance. Choosing to use the word food instead of food, for example, can mean the difference between zero traffic and a flashy keyword. A word used in the wrong place or a variable that is out of sync with your website’s holistic message can affect rankings. Keyword research involves finding the most descriptive communication format to increase usability for your customers, while serving the dual purpose of building relevance and authority for your website. Sure, anyone can do keyword research, but the outcome of a campaign could make or break it based on this critical step.

Web Design and On-Page Optimization – Validation and compliance with W3C standards is ideal, have text links instead of java scripts, make sure the java script is offline and saved to an external file like a spreadsheet styling can help spiders access the content of your pages. Sites should not use frames if they want to rank well as well as adhere to certain principles when using dynamic loading pages like ASP, PHP and the like.

Structure Analysis of Internal Links and Backlinks – Links are the essence of the web, without them we could not navigate, find other sites or move from one page to another. Link optimization, both internal and external that point to your site, outside of your site, and links that allow your site to function internally, can be used to maximize your search engine rankings.

SEO writing – Effectiveness of the content in relation to the desired keywords. The content on the page can make the difference between simply showing up with your business name in search engines or getting a top 10 position. Content is the basis of authority, and authority dictates relevance. Does your content speak to visitors in a way that compels them to take action, are unnecessary words taking away from the core message? This is by far the number one reason why websites rank or accumulate online. Although it stands to reason that a few paragraphs can sum up a point. Sometimes it is better to have a little more information on each page so that the search engine spiders can have something valuable to report to the search engine. For this reason, having 750-1000 words on a topic and using clearly defined heading tags (H1, H2, H3) can do wonders for website rankings.

Server Side IP Address, DNS and Hosting – Checking the hosting environment of your websites and making sure your content is accessible is an important component of SEO consulting. There are several tools that allow diagnostics to determine compliance. It’s not always the things that are easy to spot that can affect search engine placement. But rather it is the observation and optimization of the components as a whole that can put your website in the spotlight.

Anyone can learn the basics of search engine optimization, topics related to the subject are scattered all over the web. However, the application of all the elements with efficiency should be left in the hands of certified SEO consultants. This way, if something breaks, they can easily diagnose the problem and get their ranking back on track.