BEST PRACTICE & MALPRACTICE IN SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

The list of the best optimisers (i.e. those who can keep themselves in Google's top ten - why would you want to use one who couldn't?) has scarcely changed in years. They number a handful out of tens of thousands, and they are not companies who have accidentally stumbled across success with a single search phrase. They are companies who, time and again, know how to beat the millions of pages indexed for any number of specific searches in a field where no two websites are identical - companies like Divadani Design, Scopula and Where On Earth Group who never fail to appear in the Google top ten when you type in search engine optimisers!

We use our own techniques, honed over a decade and not published on the Internet where amateurs can plunder them! As secretive as we are, however, we are also frank: we will tell you (a) if your website can in fact be optimised and if so (b) what you can realistically expect to achieve.

If your site was bought cheaply and not customised to your particular requirements your expectations should not be high - something your original designer could and should in fact have told you.

Our search engine optimisation techniques can remedy some defects in other people's work. They are not able to remedy defective generic databases that search engines cannot access or that make no sense to the algorithm. Rather than let you throw good money after bad, we will advise you to scrap the site and start again from scratch.

There is no universal formula that any optimiser can learn and apply. SEO procedure is continuously in flux and advice regularly becomes obsolete. This does not deter cowboys and pirates, however. Happily for us, catastrophic outcomes where website owners have attempted their own SEO - or where website designers have rushed in where angels fear to tread - mean business for Divadani and its partner companies. However, in these circumstances our job becomes more difficult - and more expensive.

Because of the complexity of SEO, there are companies who end up spamming sites with keywords, de-listing original pages and actually reducing traffic levels. The consequences of poor practice can be serious. You can be blacklisted and even, under certain circumstances, find you have broken the laws relating to spamming - and this kind of spamming is easily traceable.

If any of the above contradicts what you had previously believed about SEO, we recommend that you read on for information on two common misconceptions.