By Jon Roberts
www.jnkservices.co.uk

I hear this question all the time, right along with I got a website…

This argument is given by people who tell me that there website is performing well in the search engines, when asked for what keywords they often have a blank expression on their faces and reply, “if you type the URL of my website in Google, it is No1!”

OK, this isn’t a trade secret – your website should be No1 if you type the URL of the website, in fact it should also be No1, on most occassions, if you type the name of your business into the search engines.  Unless of course, you are trading as Marks and Spencer (assuming you are not THE Marks and Spencer of course!)

Another common argument against SEO (search engine optimisation) is that, if every website used SEO techniques then we would all be back at square one.  The logic behind this is that (well there isn’t any real logic, but I will explain this in a moment) every site using SEO techniques would line up one after the other behind the website who takes top-spot in the search engines and would just be placed in a huge list of well optimised websites.

Firstly, SEO is just a tool (one of many) used by website marketeers to ensure that your website is fully optimised, It is not a guarantee of a number 1 ranking, or even a high ranking in the search engines!

Secondly yes, I believe SEO is necessary and should be considered as part of your investment when you purchase your website.  Here is why, SEO is about ensuring that your website is complient with standards set out by the search engines and by the W3 Consortium and helps to ensure that your website is fully accessible.  This should be one of your major goals when setting up, or purchasing a website.  Accessibilty should be very high on your agenda, as it ensures that the maximum number of people will be able to visit and enjoy your website, without accessibily being foremost, websites become difficult to use at best and impossible to use at worst.

By complying with the search engines standards and rules, you also ensure that there are no obsticles to your website ranking high.  Good SEO is about ensuring useability within your webiste, ensuring that the navigation system is easy to use and there is nothing misleading in your website, focusing on the visitors needs and not the search engines.

With the advent of personalised search, good SEO is going to become more and more important – ensuring that your website’s visitors enjoy their experience, improving the chances considerably that they will repeat visit and become regular visitors/customers.

So is SEO necessary?  Yes it is!  In fact SEO is vital to ensuring that your website has great content and is easy to use.  it is vital to attracting and keeping visitors and turning them into customers.