Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the higher a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors will click on the link to the site through the search engine. SEO gives a website a presence on the world wide web.

As an internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimising a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

LIT Creations offer our clients packages to assist with SEO. Please find this information outlined below. Please note that the "SE relevance / importance" is our own interpretation of the ranking of importance of a particular item and not necessary an industry standard. This field is 0-10 and assumes that 0 is least important and 10 is the most important for a website's ranking.

It should be noted that the term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe website designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimised for the purpose of search engine exposure.


The following services are already included in all new website pages designed for our clients:

Element	SE relevance / importance	Notes
Inclusion of META tags (keywords and description) in all pages of site.	2	All pages will have the same META tags (ie. keywords and descriptions will not differ from page to page on the site)
Title tag of all pages will include keywords as well	2	All pages will have the same title.
"Include files" to be placed on all pages, so that actual searchable content appears closer to the top of all pages.	6
Alternative text navigation at the bottom of all pages	7
Specific submission to 3 major search engines	7
Specific submission to search directories, specifically dmoz.org	10
Bulk submission to over 300 search engines	2

Please contact us for a quote (once-off fee) based on the following SEO services we can provide to you:

Element	SE relevance / importance	Notes
Inclusion of DIFFERENT META tags (keywords and description) in all the pages of the site, based on a particular page's content.	9	Our team will evaluate the content of each page and determine what keywords and description to place in each page of the site. Note that this is a once-off service based on the content of the page at the time of evaluation.
Title tag on all pages will be different and based on the page content	9	Note that this is a once-off service based on the content of the page at the time of evaluation.
A robot.txt file will be generated and loaded to the site to block folders that may be unnecessarily listed.	2
An XML sitemap will be generated and loaded for search engines to index the site more easily.	8
Inclusion of ALT or NAME tags on template images	7	This service includes naming of up to 10 images per page. This service does not include naming of images in gallery types of pages, although costing can be calculated upon request for these types of pages.
Creation of Google account	Google relevance only
Inclusion of Google Analytics on all pages of the site	5	Not only useful for SEO, but will also give you, the client, more information on the stats of visitations for each page on your site.
Inclusion of Links page	4	A Links page will give you the opportunity to reciprocate links with other companies. An admin facility will be provided, so that you, the client, can update your links page whenever you wish yourself. It should be noted that getting sites to ONLY link to your site ensures a good ranking, but reciprocating the link lowers your ranking.
Inclusion of Articles page	7	An Articles page will allow you to add articles relevant to your website. The 7 ranking afforded to this service is only effective if the articles are updated on a regular basis (ie. at least weekly), and if the articles are of relevance to the other content in your website. You will get an admin facility which will allow you to add / delete articles from the site yourself whenever you wish.
Copy writing	9	Allow our inhouse copy writer to write the copy for your website, using her knowledge of search engines to best optimize the text in your site. Search engines place emphasis on bolded or underlined words and our copy writer will know how to emphasize certain keywords / phrases. Client needs to provide preliminary content.

Although copy is important for a website, it should be noted that search engines are rather clever. One has to know what to do in order to get highest possible ranking, without making a search engine feel like its being duped. This kind of technique, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices. Copy for a site therefore needs to be carefully compiled to ensure optimum ranking.

If you try to use too many keywords or links in your site to try and get a higher ranking, the search engine will pick this up and will not list your site at all.

OTHER MEANS / TECHNIQUES TO GET A BETTER RANKING FOR YOUR WEBSITE:

1. A good way to get your site ranked higher on search engines would be to invest in pay-per-click advertising (eg Google Adwords / Google Adsense). This is not something we specialize in, but please CLICK HERE to find more information on how to sign yourself up for this service directly with search engines.
2. Get other websites to link to your website. Send them your link and get them to put it on their sites. The more other websites link to your site, the better your ranking will be.
3. Change your site content on a regular basis. The more your site is updated, the more search engines will see that the content is always new and fresh and will rank you higher. You can contact us to incorporate a content management system (CMS) into your site, to enable you to update the information on your site in an easy to use manner.
4. Domain names can be registered which better suit your keywords. For example if you have a wedding photography business called ABC Photography, then it's a good idea to get www.abcphotography.co.za AS WELL AS www.weddingphotography.co.za and point both domains to the same website (based on availability of domain names, of course). We can help you with the registration of other domain names.

Note that LIT Creations does not guarantee placement or ranking of any website on any search engine.