FAQ #6 - Can you SEO my Website?

Dec 1st, 2010 6:12 pm

I hope everyone had a safe and delicious Thanksgiving this past weekend. Our offices were closed on Thursday and Friday last week, so of course I neglected my blog. Oops!

I had a fantastic idea for a blog yesterday, but I didn't write it down. Another oops. So this week I will answer another Frequently Asked Question.

Can you SEO my existing website?

Here at Avallo, we take great pride in the websites we develop. We keep up with current web standards, are well versed in browser compatibility, and focus on all aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). That being said, Search Engine Optimization is often thought of as smoke in mirrors. A SEO company can "wave a magic wand," and you will appear as the top search result on Google. This simply isn't the case. We get a lot of comments from people asking why we give away all of the industry's secrets. Here's the biggest one: there are no industry secrets. Any information that you'd ever want to learn about SEO is out there, and you don't have to pay money to get it. In fact, Google even has an entire section of its site dedicated to developers with tools to help with SEO.

So the answer to the question is this: Yes and No. Optimizing a website for search engines is a process that must be started at the foundation. You cannot simply add a few keywords and be #1. Your site is being evaluated for quality of content as well as the quality of code. If the foundation of your website is built on poorly written code, getting the results many people expect from an SEO company is near impossible.

Every website we build is designed to be optimized for search engines before we even begin to program it. That way, when your website is launched, you won't have to worry about optimizing it: it already is!

Here's an example for you. Highlight Printing Minneapolis spent a small fortune with an SEO company trying to rank higher in the search engines. They couldn't get higher than page 16. Within hours of launching their new website, they skyrocketed to page 6. By following our advice and with some elbow grease, Highlight Printing now appears as #1.

So, if you have a website that is not getting the results you want, instead of spending thousands of dollars with an SEO company, do some research yourself. Find out what your website is lacking and what can be done. Or, contact Avallo for a free consultation. We can help you figure out your options without breaking your budget.