Never underestimate the power of the default option when persuading somebody to do something. That’s the message of a controversial new book called ‘Nudge’ which has been influencing politicians and policy makers up and down the country.

It’s a common sense concept but also a very powerful one. When you give someone a choice, and then you suggest an option for them to take, most of the time people will go along with the first choice.

And this is the philosophy that is powering businesses to invest in SEO or ‘Search Engine Optimisation’, the concept of getting your website to the top of the Google rankings. If you are looking for a vacancy in Leeds, chances are the first thing you will do is put the term “jobs Leeds” into Google.

The company at the top of this index will have huge competitive advantage over all the rest, even those in second place. It’s the reason why Google has become the world’s most powerful advertising force.
So how do search engines work, and more importantly, how do you get yourself to those rankings?
Well broadly it operates in two different ways:

Firstly it searches the appearances of keywords. The more a search term appears, the higher it will be up the rankings. A huge sprawling site with more pages is likely to have more occurrences of certain keywords.
However what makes Google clever, and the reason it has become so popular, is that it uses links as a form of recommendation. The more people that link to your page, the higher up the rankings you will be. The theory goes that if someone takes the time to add a link to your website, it must be good.

The search engine has taken the concept further though. If a higher ranked site links to you then it will carry more weight than if a lower ranked place does. In essence the more authoritative the approval, the better you will do.

All of that then can be very depressing if you’re a new company trying to compete against the big boys on the web. Google gives the advantage heavily to larger players in the industry, and naturally offers little to help smaller companies remain competitive. SEO is a concept of essentially trying to beat the system, to get your site higher up the index.

PCD offers clients real solutions to help boost your web traffic and sales.
For more information contact Steve Moncrieff at steve@pcdagency.com