equusDIGITAL SEO Philosophy

SEO (search engine optimisation) is not a process that can be undertaken in isolation, like a car service. It really is about the design of the car, or the digital design, in the first place. Although it is better to incorporate the SEO in the original design, equusDIGITAL will always do the best that it can with your existing site to ensure the best search placement possible.

About SEO

SEO is an unfortunate term that has been bandied around the internet over the last few years as the next great way to get customers. "Get us to SEO your website, and you'll be on page one tomorrow!!" Unfortunately, it's all promises with no substance. SEO is entirely about matching the content and intent of your website with the search requirements of the client. To do this, Google, and the other search giants (although Google is still the preferred option for more than 86% of searchers) run the words typed into the search box through a complex algorithm to help it to find the best matches from available information, including websites. No SEO specialist has any input into this process, or any control over its outcome. Additionally, the Google algorithm is one of its most closely guarded trade secrets, and its matching routines are never revealed.

This algorithm places all the available information in a sort order, based on best match, and these are displayed to the searcher. The magic is that you get 1000's of results in seconds; the mystery is how any of them are relevant in the first place. And that is where SEO comes in. Many SEO specialists still beleive thaht they can convince the algorithm that their clients website is the best match for a particular search term. They will then try to be the best match for multiple search terms, and then for everything. Google has made it clear what it is looking for - relevant content, and authority.

However, we have all been frustrated by search results that don't give us the results we were looking for, and have then changed the search term to try to get a diferent set of results. Google knows this as well, and constantly strives to return the perfect result for a given search term. To do this, they make changes constantly to the way that the algorithm sorts through its information. One of the key factors has always been to match the content of a website with the search term entered - e.g. smiths hardware: should bring up pages from businesses called smiths hardware, or possible items of hardware from persons called smith. The frustration lies when that search term brings up completely unrelated items, or endless auctions that have finished, none of which seem to have either term in them.

Late in 2013, Google realised something huge - as the largest search engine in the world, they were in the unique position to actually work out what websites people actually went to following a search. It was a breakthrough. And it meant that the new version of the algorithm, Hummingbird, had something in it that had not been obvious before - the ability to track how far down the search results the searchers went before they opened a site, and then how long they stayed on that site. Google monitored 'bounce' rates through its Adwords campaign and had a very good idea about how long you stayed on a site if it was relevant. By adding these processes together, Google could watch how long it took the searcher to actually identify a suitable page and stay on the page, and that page would be rewarded by progressing up the rankings. In addition, every page above that was NOT opened, would be penalised. Easy? Not a chance!! But, that is what the algorithm does on every search.

Behind the scenes ...

So what does that mean for your SEO? In short, your page needs to be relevant to searchers, and worth visiting. equusDIGITAL can help you to do that. You need content that makes you unique, and information that sets you apart. equusDIGITAL can help you with that. You need content that changes, or tells a story, or evolves, or develops. You need a reason for your customers to want to go back to you. equusDIGITAL, you and your customer - that is the true secret of SEO.