SEO of websites developed from BT templates

[TRC]

I was told by L<edited> | BT Web Consultant  that hiring SEO professionals to optimise sites developed from BT templates is not worth it...This is due to the fact that the templates are very restrictive in nature and as such are not favoured by search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc.

I have developed ‘a plain’ site (according to the BT web consultant)  from BT templates using Easy wizard pro. At a time of purchasing BT’s webhosting package it was not mentioned anywhere about the ‘restrictive nature’ of the templates. I feel that from the onset there was no chance of succeeding  by ourselves ... Unless the advice by the web consultant is not exactly correct as she was trying to suggest using their (rather very costly) services to develop a new site for us from scratch... Please share your thought and experience on this...

[Sogo7 · Accepted solution]

SEO in a nutshell

rule 1: Google is not stupid

rule 2: If in doubt see rule one

rule 3: Interesting, Relevent & Unique content , these are what they want to find.

rule 4: Search engines have no eyes

As of December 2010 Google made an annoucement via the 'blogsphere' that it was returning to it's original practice of indexing and ranking sites by the  actual written content see rule four rather than the site merely having been crafted to make it googlebot friendly.

The second bombshell was that Google would be increasing the percentage of search results that would be personalised according to the users previous search habits. So any two persons using the same search terms could end up seeing different sets of results. This was the tolling of the death bell for many SEO 'experts' as the much hyped 'we can get you the number one ranking slot' sales pitch just went poof overnight. 

The templates are probably a little dated, design-wise tastes change and  nothing stays still for long on the Internet. Several new HTML tags are now in use that specifically relate to making content easier for search engines to identify such as <article>, <aside> & <audio> to name but a few that did not exist when the site builder software was written. These could be added in manually via the page html editor and you can learn more about them at W3schools.com

Site builders and CMS packages like WordPress or Joomla  though terrific for novice webmasters to get up and running quickly are only capable of doing so much for you. It's a bit like riding a bicycle.. at some point the training wheels have to come off and this can be both an exhilarating and painful process.

As for search engines not liking them... following the changes in December 2010 there were howls of dismay as some long established websites found themselves kicked off the coveted top slot by stock Wordpress sites that had more relevent content than they did. So I'll let you make you're own mind up on that one..

BT are almost certainly going to be encouraging people who want more advanced features or a unique look  to use their design service but it's worth bearing in mind that all the tools and tutorials needed to do it yourself are available for free on the Internet.

Tools such as 'BlueFish' html editor and 'GIMP' graphics are completely free and legal without restrictions of features or time limits (these are OpenSource projects not hacked or cracked). As for tutorials and help forums just Google it because somebody will of asked the same question before.. several times, failing that there are more  Web Designers than you can shake a stick at who  offer a level of service that BT does not do so at this time.

Inside the ranking system.. nobody knows exactly how it  works except Google  (anybody that claims otherwise is B*ll Shi**ing) but by experimentation some basic rules have been gleaned.

The number and type of backlinks to a website is still a factor in the ranking process but Google is taking an ever closer look at where they come from and when they appeared. Very often you will see SEO adverts saying 200 links for $20 and they do deliver, but see rule one. That many inbound links suddenly appearing without a corresponding surge in visitors prior to their appearence looks suspect and your site could be moved down the listings.

Page loading times are also known to be important to Google and let's face it any website vistor, because we are an impatient bunch and really do like a web page to appear in under a second or we start getting bored waiting. So go easy on the plugins or javascript functions, especially on the home page.

Traffic statistics, having Google analytics installed on the site lets them know how popular your website really is with web users (Google adsense also performs the same function)

[TRC]

What an amazing insightful response!!! So many thanks for helping to arrive to the right conclusion and saving us money... The figure quotes for design services was nearly £4,000 (!!)

[Sogo7]

A one off bespoke (made especially for you never to be re-used for another client) will set you back hard coinage depending upon how much artwork, graphics and even photostock has to be created or copyrights aquired.

**Clients are often surprised that they have to pay to use certain images on a business site.

If you don't want a site quite that expensive or unique many web designers will use a pre-existing template these can be tweeked to suit your particualr needs quicker than creating one from scratch. Making the time to 'live' and online ready for visitors that much quicker.. and cheaper. Again you can get these yourself for free if you Google for them.

Of course then there's the coding behind the screen that makes it all work, this can be simple but if you start adding shopping carts, Paypal Intergration, Restricted members, Chat rooms, Streaming video and a content management system  and so on it all starts adding up. Start simple , remember you can allways add to the site if needed at a later date.