Our Services - How We Can Help With Search Engines

The Issues and Goals
Client: www.IrokoHouse.com - Raheen Limerick.
Goal: Achieve good search results for chosen 'Search Phrases'.

This business is located one mile from the Raheen Industrial Estate - a huge complex of international businesses based in Raheen, Limerick. Being only one mile from this complex, they wanted to tap into visiting business accommodation market. We designed this website with this in mind.

We designed IrokoHouse's website in early 2004. When developing the site we took paid special attention to ensure that the website (design, coding & content) could perform well in search engines. After the inital wait to get out of the 'Google Sandbox' (an explaination of 'Google Sandbox) The website was achieving pretty good results, bordering around page two & three of search results for chosen key 'Search Phrases' ('Search Phrases' are possible terms that a user may use to locate anything when searching online).

Because the Industrial Estate had been in existance for quite a while, there were hundreds of websites with thousands of pages all offering information about 'Raheen' and its general area. It was quite a challange to achieve good result for our chosen 'Search Phrases'. The following key search phrases were deemed important. 'Bed & Breakfast Raheen', 'B&B Raheen', 'Raheen Limerick' and 'Accommodation Raheen'. IrokoHouse also have a Taxi service. If possible they hoped to appear in search results for Taxis to & from Shannon Airport in the hope that they could 'capture' incoming guests at the airport and bring the business home to their B&B. Obtaining good search result for the following search phrases 'taxi from shannon airport' & 'shannon airport taxi' were also hoped for.

In early 2004 we proceeded with a monthly website 'search engine optimisation' program until we got the results we wanted for our chosen 'search phrases'.

Our Methodology (Search Engine Friendy Coding & Great Design)
The coding methods (& content) used to develop a website are immeasurably important! These will determine whether or not it will be found in search engines. It is easy for a good graphic designer to produce a visually attractive web page, but unless it is properly constructed, you may as well print it out, frame it and place it on your wall - as you are going to be the only one who ever sees it!

This does not have to be the case, insist on having the best of both worlds, great web design and a properly constructed website!

First we purchased an domain name for our client and hosted it on on Irish server - hosting locally is vitally important. We then designed their website, producing an eye catching, memorable and extremely user friendly interface, then we built the website using 'search engine friendly' coding techniques.

After producing a great website we placed it online and waited - remember what we said previously? If it is a new website you've got an 6 to 12 month wait to achieve good rankings (while you wait we have other techniques to get you noticed!).

Next we chose a set of 'Search Phrases' (i.e 'Bed & Breakfast Raheen') that we wanted to achieve good search rankings for. We then wove our magic and proceeded with a monthly 'search engine optimisation' program until we got the results we wanted for our chosen 'search phrases'.

For this client the important key 'search phrases' were deemed to be:

1. 'Bed & Breakfast Raheen'
2. 'Accommodation Raheen'
3. 'Raheen Limerick'
4. 'taxi from shannon airport'
5. 'shannon airport taxi'

The Results Achieved!!!
As of February 2005 - these are the results we achieved with our website design & optimisation of www.IrokoHouse.com all of these appear on the first page of search results!

Targeted search phrases

1. 'Bed & Breakfast Raheen'
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 1st position in Google.com
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 1st position in Yahoo.co.uk
   
2. 'Accommodation Raheen'
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 7th position in Google.com
   
3. 'Raheen Limerick'
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 2nd position in Google.com
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 3rd position in Yahoo.co.uk
   
4. 'taxi from shannon airport'
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 2nd position in Google.com
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 2nd position in Yahoo.co.uk
   
5. 'shannon airport taxi'
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 3rd position in Google.com
   Result as of Feb 2005 - 5th position in Yahoo.co.uk
   

This business had over 1100 individual visitors to its website in March 2005 - for a small business that a lot of virtual knocks on the door! The majority of these visits were from search engines - these are targeted visitors (not random passers-by), they were looking specifically for this type of service, in this area - therefore they were much more likely to engage with the business!

We can apply the same techniques to promote your products or services online, contact us to find out how we can help you get visitors to your website!

A website should be more than an extension of your business card, it should be an asset that gives you a 'return on investment' (ROI) through good 'search engine rankings' and the visitors they bring to your website - contact us to find out how we can help you get visitors to your website!

Notes: Obtaining these results is not instantaneous, it takes time and unfortunately money. For a new website it can take up to a year to get where you want to be in search results (anyone who tells you otherwise is ill informed). Also search engine optimisation (SEO) is not a science, the search engines preciously guard the details of how their algorithms work, as a result SEO is more of a black art - guided by knowledge & experience.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to getting good search engine results. Some like the quality of your website you can control, other factors are outside reasonable influence. For example: it would be unreasonable to expect to get on the first page of Google results for a search on 'Microsoft Products' or 'books about cars' etc. But 'Microsoft Limerick' that's possible!