What are SEO, SEM, and Web Development?

SEO is a set of skills applied to your website that will help your website appear as close to the top as possible in relevant key word and key phrase searches. It's a complex mix of on-page and off-page implementation, and involves more than just adding key words to your site. And it isn't just about quantity - increasing hits; it's about quality - increasing conversions.

Effective SEO involves a thorough understanding of your business. This is where our personalised attention to your needs is beneficial. We will take the time to help you analyse your business and marketing strategy in order to help improve your web presence and ROI. Having a web page, even a professionally designed site, is not enough. SEO is crucial in increasing SERP's, reaching your target market, and selling your product or service.

Search engine optimisation, or optimization, (SEO) is crucial in higher search engine results page (SERP) listings. In the old days, getting a high SERP was relatively easy; however, this often resulted in low quality and irrelevant sites popping up in searches. Nowadays, SEO is much more sophisticated, and has led to the emergence of search engine marketing (SEM) as a standard business practice for many companies.

SEO comprises two basic components: on-page and off-page methods.

On-page SEO involves more than just adding keywords. The most important element is rich content. These are some questions you should ask when considering what content to add to your site. Does your site offer detailed information relevant to the website topic? Is the information useful to the reader? What does your site offer that similar sites don't? Is your website updated regularly, giving visitors a reason to come back?

On-page SEO also involves correct coding, or markup, that follows current web standards as recommended by the W3C. The markup should have logical semantic layout and should use CSS, or cascading style sheets for styling.

Off-page SEO is basically about getting the word out about your site to as many corners of the internet as possible. Having a site that stands alone is useless. Off-page search engine optimization can take on many forms, but currently one of the most effective ways to do this is through social media. This means using websites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, etc, and blogs to share information about your business and attract internet users to your website.

For off-page SEO, it's also important to make connections with other websites related to yours. Backlinking is the primary means of doing this.

Web development encompasses all aspects of web design, SEO, and SEM. It's about what it says on the tin: developing your website to its fullest potential, from professional web design of the site itself to providing rich content and marketing it online to attract as many visitors as possible who want what you have to offer. Finally it's about making conversions from visits to purchases.