Ever wondered why you're not reaching the dizzy heights of the first page of Google?

You can develop the most stunning and attractive business website of all your competitors. You can employ the best usability experts, professional photographers and web developers money can buy. However, if you're business isn’t on the first or second page of Google, then really you may as well go into hiding!

Unfortunately, consumers and business peoples attention span is zero these days. Expectancy is for immediate, quick and relevant results. If people can't get what they want within a few minutes of looking, mainly because we're too busy or lazy to keep going, they simply go elsewhere. It's not that search engine users don't value what your website has to offer, it's just that if you're not on the first or second page of Google, then users can't be bothered to delve any deeper.


Nearly 53% of us change our search terms, and/or search engine after not finding our prefered result on the first page and only aorund 10% of us actually bother going past the third page.

So you need to think about your website as your shop-window to your business. Like any shop-window you want to have the most attractive on the high-street. Your aim is to catch the eye of passing visitors and entice them into your store. It's the same principal with any website, you need to get yourself noticed ahead of your competitors on the Web.

Get thinking about how you can create that attraction. With the help of some good search engine optimisation (SEO), you can start to embellish your shop-window to enhance your visibility in search engines.

Some things you can start looking at are:

• Keyword Research - keyword research and competitor review analysis - think about how will people find your website?
• Content Optimisation - review your web website content. Does it include the words people will include in a search?
• Current Ranking - benchmark your website to view your current search engine position.
• Website Compliance - does your website comply with accessibility and coding standards?
• Search Engine Submissions - create major search engine accounts and manually submit your website, including a site map and robots.txt file.

But these are just for starters and that's why we include all of the above methods in our Oxford Web SEO 3-month SEO Starter Package.  We recommend this to anyone who is actively seeking better search engine ranking results for their website. 

Our SEO starter package is a good foundation for getting better search engine results for your website. Although there’s no secret formula to getting your site on the first page of Google, we aim to improve the quality of your website through a variety of SEO services.


You need to begin polishing your shop-window now if you want to get ahead of your competitiors and start appearing on that first page of Google.

What purpose does your website currently serve?

SEO is all about making your website visibility strong in the major search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. However, the key point to remember is that in order for search engine optimisation to work and benefit your website, it has to have a direction and a strategy.

So, what role does your website currently play in your organisation's marketing strategy? Is its aim to sell your products and services online; or is it there for brand and corporate awareness? Attracting more visitors to your website is all about knowing your intended market and you can only optimise your website once you know what is.

Try out some initial benchmarking to see where your website currently sits in search engine rankings. You need to measure and monitor your website visibility in order to continue to improve it.

Similarly, you can't target your website at people, if you don't know what they may be looking or searching for. You need to research the keywords and phrases that your your potential customers and clients will use to find your organisations services.

You also need to stay ahead of your competition and find out what they're up to. Check their search engine ranking listings in Google and Bing - take a look around their websites.

You don't have to do all of this alone. If you'd like our advice on how to optimise your current website, or want to learn more for yourself, then visit us at Oxford Web SEO to take a look at our SEO services and training courses.

'.co.uk' vs '.com' Domain Names

Many people ask if it's more advantagious having a '.com' domain name over a '.co.uk'. Many see the '.com' domain as a way of appearing as an 'international', or 'worldwide' organisation. However, you need to consider where geographically most of your services or products are provided and if it's the UK, then a '.com' could put you at a disadvantage in search engine rankings results such as Google.

It is worth noting that people in the UK tend to click on '.co.uk' website extensions more than any other website. Research carried out by Nominet showed that 77% of UK searchers are more likely to favour 'co.uk' domains rather than '.com', which actually means that if you register a '.com' website and manage to get a first page Google ranking, then you are more likely NOT to get any clicks from people searching in the UK.

If you do not have a geography-specific domain such as '.co.uk' for the UK and instead you opt for a '.org', '.net', or '.com', then Google will use the geographical location of your hosting centre as the method for determining which local index your results should be found in. So thinking about where your website is hosted is equally as important.

For example, if you were to search Google for UK results only, and your '.com' site was hosted by a UK hosting supplier, but in a German datacentre, then you would never appear in the search results. Of course, you would appear in the 'google.de' search results, but obviously not many German Google users are looking for websites and businesses in English or relevant only to a UK audience.

Careful consideration is needed in getting the right domain name. Make sure that you stick to promoting one single, consistent domain name across all your communications, such as 'http://www.oxfordwebseo.co.uk/'.

It is worth noting that Google has now changed its ranking algorithm in order to display more results from the same website, when there is strong interest in content from a particular domain. So consistent advertising of one single domain name for your organisation is even more important.

Oxford Web SEO Launches New Blog

Hey there... We're Oxford Web SEO - a division of The Big Oxford Computer Co. Ltd. Welcome to our new blog...

We're going to be updating you with all of the latest SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) news and views on a regular basis. Giving you hints and tips on how to stay ahead in organic SEO and how to keep your website search engine visible in Google, Bing and Yahoo.

For starters, why not read this article from SEO Chat about 'Google Search Engine Optimization Tips'. Do you ever wish you had an SEO checklist of tips from Google on what you should and should not be doing with your website? This three part series covers the SEO Site Review given at Google I/O 2010 in May 2010.

You'll be amazed at some of the things you can simply do to your website to help improve your search results ranking. You don't need a huge budget to get the basics right, just time and patience; as well as an eye for detail and the knowledge of your organisation.

Give us a call on 01865 717770 if you'd like to have a chat about Oxford Web SEO and how we can improve your website rankings naturally.