We take a look at the ins and outs of SEO and what it means for local businesses in and around Kendal.

Search Engine Optimisation has become a bit of a dirty term over the last few years, thanks in main to the rather questionable sales tactics of several large SEO companies when targeting small and medium-sized businesses with limited budgets.  Having been on the receiving end of a great many of these calls it’s fair to say that these companies prefer to scare potential customers into signing up, rather than explain how they work or understand the customer’s needs.

So, what is this 'SEO'?

In its simplest form SEO is the practice of making a web site stand out to search engines in order to attract more traffic and ultimately – in the majority of cases – more sales.

To develop that answer further, it is the process of understanding exactly what it is that a business does or offers and identifying a particular set of terms or keywords associated with it, prior to building these into a web site through writing the right copy, code and producing quality links.

It is not – as some companies would have you believe – a secret world of technical dark arts. Granted, there are many elements to SEO which require technical knowledge and frequent revision to ensure that the best practices are being met, however, the core elements remain largely the same and until Google (other search engines are available) decides otherwise, content will remain king.

Good SEO can be applied across many aspects of a business, and an understanding of the fundamentals can be useful to people across different departments. For example, it’s all worthwhile the E-commerce Manager or Web Master knowing about it, but if a Stock Manager, Editor or even the Admin Assistant doesn’t ‘get it’, then that business is missing a trick. Knowledge is power!

Why Should I Care?

It’s a common scenario: you or your business have just invested thousands of pounds in a new all-singing, all-dancing, feature-rich website with all the bells and whistles. It looks fantastic and is a vast improvement over the old one, but crucially no-one is visiting it. Traffic has remained at the same level as on the old site – or worse it has dropped – and you can’t understand why. Similarly, you may have launched a new product or service and want to quickly get the maximum amount of exposure online without paying for expensive ad campaigns. In any case it’s worth knowing how to do this without missing out on the obvious means of exposure, or worse, being penalised for dealing in ‘black hat SEO‘.

There are plenty of web sites out there with little or no SEO strategy in place, which are functioning perfectly well and still take orders – it really can depend on the industry and market they’re in. However, we all know that given the opportunity to improve sales any business person would consider investing.

Who And Where?

Based in Kendal, Swann Digital provides web design, SEO, copywriting and training services for customers throughout Cumbria and the Lake District. Our emphasis on training ensures that customers can continue to work and learn at a rate which suits them without having to rely on paying huge monthly maintenance fees.

Swann Digital helps businesses from a range of different industries to improve their online search potential and copywriting – helping them to pinpoint exactly what it is about their particular brand that stands them out from the rest before applying changes and converting those changes into an increase in online traffic.

To find out more about our SEO, copywriting, training and web design services please contact us for a chat and a brew.