Odd one outA new report by SEO specialists Clickscene has revealed that 40 per cent of commercial businesses in the UK are ignored by search engines. Further to this, 91 per cent are not using pay per click services and a third don’t get any traffic from search engines.

The study looked at 10,000 UK websites and suggests a certain degree of naivity from the commercial sector – however these stats should be taken with a spoon or two of salt, given that Clickscene’s report is completely self-serving.

What does this mean for freelancers and their websites? Well, it depends on what you want from your website.

For the most part freelancers use their website as a landing page for current and potential clients. Many freelancers maintain a blog, either for fun or in an attempt to further promote their expertise to a wider public. Often it’s a combination of the two. Depending on how seriously you’re taking it, you might want to better optimise your website for the purposes of search engine rankings.

Simple steps you can take

1) Ascertain your target market, the expertise you wish to sell or the service you wish to provide.

2) Think about what key words underpin the purpose – the kind of search terms people will use on Google to look for the kind of service you provide. Google’s Keyword Tool can help with this.

3) Use these words fairly liberally on your website (but not at the risk of undermining the quality of your website content). For example, on Freelance Advisor we could mention the terms ‘freelance’, ‘freelancer’ or ‘freelance advice’ in every paragraph. Or use them consecutively within the same sentence. But we wouldn’t want to alienate the ‘UK freelance workforce’, so we don’t do it. Other helpful terms you might want to include are “Britney Spears”, “Nude Photos” or “Free Money”. See where we’re going here?

4) Get links to your site – but only in ways you would be comfortable explaining to your children. If you find yourself thinking “Could this get me in trouble?”, you’ve gone too far.

For those whose businesses rely heavily on high levels of web traffic from search engines, paying for keyword (Google Adwords) advertising is well worth thinking about – however keep the ASA’s new regulations in mind before diving in.

Photo by Matthew Griffiths – CC