Its one thing to have a site, it's far more important for your customers to find it and because 85% of the people on the Internet use a Search engine to find the information & services they require - You need to be as high up the listings as possible. Most of them won't even look beyond the first 10 results, sometimes two or even three pages.

Search engines such as Google, Ananzi, Yahoo and MSN all use computer programs called "Robots" which crawl the internet from website to website, reading and indexing web pages. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process which makes your website visible to robots. The more a robot understands your website, the better your ranking in search engines will be.

Have you ever seen a flashy websites designed completely in FLASH? They look great but, they are largely invisible to search engines. Remember, it's impossible for a robot to "SEE" text contained in graphics or FLASH animations. Therefore they will not know what the website is about, and will therefore not be able to rank the page correctly.

Certain "SEO" companies try and trick Google, by repeating certain words often throughout the website, or making the text the same colour as the websites background colour. This will result in your website being banned and is known as keyword spamming. SEO is a very complex topic.

Although we tailor the design, structure and content to work well with the search engines – by using engine friendly URL's (SEF), on-page optimization, keyword research and link placement – an ongoing campaign using Google adwords (fixed monthly cost) could provide effective advertising, enabling you to:

Quote from Google –

‘No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit\" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google.(http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291)

The best plan to increase hits and ranks is to write VERY GOOD relevant content and to have links from other RELEVANT websites. Dummy referral sites and links from link farms can get you delisted from Google (they just move you to the last page). Referrals and links from close IPs (websites on the same server) are also ignored.

Google is well aware of the tricks hosting companies get up to and Landmark Designs follows Google’s Webmasters guidelines for better page ranking. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 .

We are a “white hat” SEO business. We do not use gimmicks or unscrupulous (black hat) search engine techniques. While Black Hat SEO may sometimes achieve results, they will often be short lived and could get your site removed and "blacklisted" from search engines. Rather we adhere to search engine\'s best practices and perform legitimate code optimization, optimized copy writing and editing that meets search engine rules and makes for top search engine positioning that lasts and continues to perform well for months and, in many cases, years.

It is imperative to research all your suppliers, customers, peers etc and request them to link from their websites to yours. Search google for as many relevant websites as possible and ask them to link to you. Swopping links is good but single links are more valuable as Google scores them higher.

The maintenance of the site is crucial, as web sites have to change on a regular basis to properly reflect a company’s growth and product offerings. Search Engines also rank updated websites higher than those that remain static. Having your staff regularly maintain the website will increase your ranking on the search engines, without high costs or slow turn-around times.