IMO: Get the geekery right - nice URLs, H1's and bookmarkable urls (esp for objects/searches - **take note, collections management systems vendors, you know who you are… **.
Then: like wot everyone else said: content and more content.
Also recommended is the Google SEO Starter Guide. It's old, but good:
http://goo.gl/BTmaf
We always recommend to clients to get everything else right first and then (only then) think about an agency / adwords if you've got a _specific_ campaign you want to drive traffic to.
ta
Mike
_____________________________
Mike Ellis
We do nice web stuff: http://thirty8.co.uk
* My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk *
On 8 Nov 2012, at 15:55, Tim Trent <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I want to pick up Graham's line about promotion. Many of us used to work on the "Build it and they will come" Field of Dreams principle. And it sort of half works, a bit, sometimes, if the wind is in the east and there isn't a Y in the day
>
> What would be useful is to brainstorm promotion techniques for a website, here, if folk are willing to join in and share?
>
> I'm happy to start, and I may not be right!
>
> * Social media is vital provided it is used generously, that is not always "me, me, me, me" but used to develop conversations and relationships. In due course it will drive folk through your door, but it will drive them to your site anyway
>
> * Wikipedia, while it loathes and detests spam and will kill it on sight, and hates conflicts of interest with a passion, is a great place to place relevant links that give information about the articles concerned. You might wish to use one of your web pages as a citation for a Wikipedia fact, for example.
>
> * Online trade directories, have a use. Beware those that charge a fee because there are enough who do not
>
> * Blog. Yes this could be under social media, but I see it as different. If you can't run your own blog, comment on other people's blogs with your site linked
>
> * Issue an RSS/Atom feed IF you have content that changes regularly, and get it listed in newsfeed directories, again using free services only
>
> * Online advertising requires a budget. Rifle target it and it can work. If it didn't work folk would stop quickly. But it is quite a science to get it right
>
> Is that enough to kick this off with? This is all SEO stuff as well as promotional stuff, except the online advertising, that is.
>
>
>
> On 8 Nov 2012, at 12:11, Graham Walden wrote:
>
>> On 8 Nov 2012, at 12:02, Tim Trent <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Just having excellent content is the very best SEO you can ever do.
>>
>> I'd certainly say that the content is critical. we took on a client once whi said " we are a world leader in the preservation of x but dont come up in a search for it" looking at their site they never mentioned it, so fairly easy to optimise that ( if only it was all so simple) a fairly extreme example but you get the drift.
>>
>> A lot of seo is smoke and mirrors, and very easy to spend a lot of money.The tricks tend not to work for long and often penalise you in the long term.
>>
>> Content, structure and promotion are the key.
>>
>> You also need to define what your goals are. Pure hits don't really mean much. You want to know what people are looking at and where they are going etc. on pure commercial sites the metrics are generally easier as the key metric is sales. On heritage and not for profit organisations its sometimes harder to measure.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Graham
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> Tim Trent - Consultant
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