Firstly, something which is not common knowledge and often needs to be explained, is that – it is not easy to be a dominant website in Google.

Just because you:

A.      want to appear at the top of Google, for a specific keyword, and

B.      have a website

…does not mean Google will reward you with a position near the top of it’s rankings.

Additionally, just because you have developed a new website and are very happy with it, it doesn’t mean Google will look at your new website and change it’s rankings immediately or at all. You may not see a difference in your ranking for weeks or months.

Google is smart, cautious and a spurned lover.

Ever since search engines first emerged on the internet, there those who were trying to take advantage of them and their rankings. In the early days search engines were cluttered with irrelevant spammy results which took users to websites which would not help them in their search. These websites would be cluttered with porn, advertisements or simply more links to other pages on the internet. This form of search engine trickery was dubbed “Black Hat”.

To read more about what Google does and doesn’t like, and is therefore considered “Black Hat”, click here.

Google’s algorithm (the fancy word for how it sorts out who should be listed where in it’s search results) has been an ever changing piece of logic which is constantly monitoring millions of websites and their billions of links in order to decide who should reign supreme at the top of their searches.

There are many things the algorithm looks at (far too many to mention here, in fact I just read a 600 page book on the topic) but one thing is for sure; Google doesn’t make changes to it’s results based on a whim. A website which pops up over night will almost never receive much attention from Google, and if it did receive attention it would more likely come in the form of a closer look to see if there were “Black Hat” tactics at play.

If you want your website to be a solid performer in Google search results it takes a lot of time and effort, not to mention a quality website with interesting and worthwhile content. Most websites which are successful in Google have been around for a long time, years not months, and have thousands of links from other websites pointing at them, assuring Google that the site has a lot to offer.

Some clients have complained that they aren’t performing well in Google despite having the ‘magic keywords’ on their page(s). What they are referring to is called Meta Keywords and/or Meta Description. These are blocks of code which tell search engines more about your website pages.

Meta Tags used to be quite important to a website’s performance in search engines, however, now they are only a small ingredient (one of dozens) that goes towards a website’s ranking.

So all this information is great, but what do you do next?

If you have loads of cash and the willingness to spend it then you can employ an SEO company who will optimise your website. Now assuming your website already has all of the bits and pieces it should have for search engines, these SEO companies will direct the bulk of their attention to ‘off-site optimisation”. Which in layman’s terms means;  “getting heaps of other websites and blogs to link to you”.

‘Off-site optimisation’ is probably the biggest factor that will have an impact on your performance in Google. Most SEO companies will do a really good job too, however, their services often come with a price tag that amounts to thousands of dollars per year and if after a number of years you decide to no longer employ their services, then you will lose the benefit of the work they had done for you.

This is their business model, and there is nothing wrong with that.

However, if you don’t want to be beholden to an SEO company what I recommend is to spend a lot of time building your content, and adding to it frequently. Get yourself a good content management system which allows you to update your website whenever you choose and start building content that other people want to read.

Many websites which perform well in Google aren’t there because they have employed SEO companies, rather they are there because they have extremely valuable content which inspires their readers to link to them.

So go out and make your website worth visiting. Don’t just make a brochure with your name and address on it. If you want to sit at the top of Google searches then make sure people aren’t disappointed when they click on the link and visit your website.

Through a combination of experience, feedback and new technologies we have continued to strive for a better product. Something that can offer more to you, the client, but at the same time become easier and more intuitive to use. We have also looked to incorporate new modules and functionality to add to the library of tasks The Admin Site can help you with.

Behind the scenes there have been many changes to help make The Admin Site run faster and smoother than the older version, however, what we’re excited about are some of the great new plug-ins we have available in version 2.0.

Some of the great new features available are…

New Online Store
Spike has developed their own online store which can quickly and easily be customised to your businesses requirements. The store can connect to a variety of payment gateways including the world renowned PayPal or Camtech gateways. Ask us how our store can be tailored to your businesses.

HTML Newsletter Management Version 4
Many of you have a version of the HTML email / newsletter on your system. Each version of the HTML email / newsletter comes with increased filtering options, record keeping and reporting.

Brand New Photos Galleries
Our new photo galleries make use of the funky new jQuery technology which allows your website’s visitors to easily view hundreds of photos at terrific resolution while navigating easily between the photos.

The Admin Site Version 2.0 allows you to easily upload multiple photos, add comments as well as edit, hide or delete individual or groups of images. You are also able to categorise all of your images into albums and galleries.

You can view an example of the galleries at http://au.blueseptember.org/blue_september_photo_albums.php.

Product Image Zoom
This is a terrific little application which allows your clients to easily zoom in on smaller images in order to see the detail of the product. All you need to do is upload a small image and a large image via The Admin Site and the rest is done for you.

You can view an example of the Product Image Zoom at http://www.pca.org.au/results09/sx/awards/Best-of-Show-Award-3.php

New Video Galleries
Many of you have had the need for video on your website over time, now we have a great application which allows you to either upload your own videos, or grab a video from YouTube and put it into you website. You can have as many videos as you like, listed in a play list which is easy for your website’s visitors to click and view.

We’ve made use of this technology in our new video tutorials which many of you would already be using. We can of course ‘skin’ the player and playlist so that it fits perfectly into your website’s look and feel.

Video Tutorials
With the latest version of The Admin Site comes video tutorials. The video tutorials are never longer than five minutes in duration are aimed at showing your how to quickly and easily use The Admin Site. You are also able to request the creation of a video should you require it.

Improved Search Engine Optimisation
With version 2 of The Admin Site comes the ability for you to control even more aspects of your website which effect your performance in search engines such as Google.

On top of these great new additions to The Admin Site, Spike WebDesign has also been doing a lot of work developing software which helps to streamline our clients’ workflow. If you have tasks which are taking up a lot of your time or repeatedly costing you money, talk to us about how we can automate these tasks and free up your time to focus on more important areas of your business.

Tiny Toes Ballet is a Sydney ballet school specialising in Children’s ballet and Dance for Kids. Due to being a children’s dance school and wanting to position themselves in the ‘ballet for kids’ market, Tiny Toes Ballet and MWC Media decided there should be a playful feel to the website. They wanted some moving elements that would make the page interesting without taking away from the main content or making the overall user experience complicated.

Each page of the website features a fading photo gallery depicting shots of children from the school. The photos communicate brilliantly how engaged the children are and are clearly having a terrific time.

The Tiny Toes Ballet website was built using a combination of HTML, Flash, xml, jQuery and tradition JavaScript. You can view the site at http://www.tinytoesballet.com.au/.

Over the last year or two it is a regular occurrence that a client, who we are designing a website for, will come to us saying that they’ve been contacted by a Search Engine Optimisation company who is promising big things. This frequently occurring situation is the instigator for the writing of this article. Hopefully this article will save us (Spike WebDesign) time in phone calls explaining what the SEO companies are really offering, and be informative to the general punter who doesn’t have the expertise or understanding.

Firstly, let me start by saying that there are a number of really great SEO companies around who achieve really solid results. However, I have yet to encounter a SEO company which tells ‘the whole story’. I would like to relay two recent encounters to you.

Not long ago I was asked by a friend, who is the GM of an international company, to sit in on a meeting with a SEO company claiming to be the ‘Nations leading SEO Company”. They were not informed that I was from an outside website design company so I got to see the beast at its best.

The SEO company had definitely achieved some great results for previous clients and that was not in question, however, during their extremely hard sell sales pitch they told many half truths and quoted statistics which they ‘heard’ we true. As the meeting went along there were various ideas put forward as well as ominous warnings of ‘if you don’t use us then you are doomed’ and ‘you can’t afford not to use us’. However there were two questions that had not been answered and I was dying to ask.

The first question was: “How much do you cost?”

The Answer…

“Our fees start at $10,000 per year”.

Wowzers! They start at that? This isn’t building a new website folks. It also isn’t rebranding or any kind of logo work, and that was their starter amount. After I picked myself off the floor and did a quick calculation that I could have created my friend’s entire website for a once off fee, including search engine optimisation, for less than their annual starter rate, I asked my second question.

“So if we were to use your services but after three or four years for some reason could no longer afford to pay you, would there be any lasting effect or infrastructure built that will stand our website in good stead? Or will we just fall off the Google map?” (Smiling sweetly the whole time).

The Answer…

“Well.. you would, uh… you would fall off the map!”

And there it is ladies and gentlemen. The cornerstone of most SEO companies and the major area where SpikeWebDesign differs from them. They make your website totally dependent on their service and just like any drug, when you stop forking out the cash, the high is no longer there and you plummet.

We don’t like to create ‘SEO junkies’ who rely on us, thus we create infrastructure that is lasting and we also teach you how to increase your website’s search engine optimisation yourself.

The second story I’d like to relate occurred when a new client was considering moving to a SEO company because they apparently had lower fees. However, hidden behind unclear wording was the truth. Again my client would have been trapped into a never ending loop of recurring fees, in this case hundreds of dollars in monthly fees. They also believed that they were being offered a deal on domain names, when the truth of the matter was that they were actually being charged nearly three times the going rate.

Our client wasn’t to know any better. SEO companies often use confusing lingo that only those in the website industry can see through. On some occasions these companies even tell blatant untruths such as convincing clients that you can own (read ‘purchase’) specific search terms which will get you listed number one in Google.

The pitch that allows SEO companies to exist and to continue to makes truckloads of money is that they promise to make your money back and then some. Their favourite term is ROI, Return On Investment. What’s wrong with this? Nothing. However, every single business investment you make should be making or saving you money so promoting this fact isn’t an excuse to charge exorbitant rates.

How much should SEO cost? That’s a good question and the answer depends on your website as well as your competition. However, you should not be paying thousands of dollars monthly or annually to companies who are not building you a solid base. You should not enter into an agreement with a company which means you are totally reliant on them and at the mercy of their pricing decisions or company direction.

Find a company like Spike WebDesign who have no on-going fees and who can optimise your website and online profile and then give you the tools to continue the process yourself. Spike WebDesign’s content management system, ‘The Admin Site’, allows you to have complete control over all on-site optimisation on your website, plus has the inbuilt functionality to further your off-site optimisation needs such as link partnering.

My final point before I sign off is an important one. Do not believe anyone who guarantees you that they can get you listed number one in Google. So many companies make those statements but to them I ask:

• Does that guarantee go for any keyword and phrase I choose?
• Does that mean on Google.com as well as Google.com.au
• Are we talking number 1 in Google’s organic results (the ones on the left)?
• Will your SEO process compromise the integrity of the content on my website? (This is an important one, always design your website for your users, not search engines).

There is no magic method of attaining top rankings in Google or other search engines. It primarily comes down to the level of competition within your industry/keywords. For example, if your company made towels and was called ‘Micro Soft Towels’. You would never rank well in Google due to the power and size of Microsoft’s website.

There are far too many smoke and mirrors salesmen in the SEO world who rely on their customers’ lack of knowledge. Do your research, don’t believe everything you are told and get more than one quote.

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