Get the SEO Basics right first

When people start out with search engine optimization they have two choices, they can either pick up an SEO book and do it themselves or they can hire an SEO agency such as ourselves. Which ever option you may choose getting the basics of  SEO right first before you start to think about more advanced SEO options is just as important as any other SEO decision you might make in the future.

What is the first step of  basic SEO?

For most web site owners search engine optimization is an after thought when their website is built but as mentioned today by Brett Yount, the program manager at Bing Webmaster Center:

“Clean code can help quite a bit in indexing on all the Search Engines. If you are just starting out, I suggest finding a W3C compliant template.”

Basically what Brett is saying here is that even if you are following SEO best practices you’ll still be fighting an uphill battle if your website is not W3C compliant. So when you’re selecting a web design firm make sure you specify that your finished site must be W3C compliant.

Some clients come to us utterly frustrated with the lack of progress their site is making in the search engine rankings. So before you start to invest time in an SEO campaign that is built on poor foundations check to see if you have the basics right first!

The easiest way to check if your website is W3C compliant is to go to http://validator.w3.org/ enter your site name and see what result is returned. Ideally you should get something back like this, webscience W3C. If your site returns errors than this may be an answer as why your site hasn’t been performing as you expected.