Research Topic. Outline in no
more than 150 words what your project is going to explore. Is your
topic concerning an issue, concept, processes or application that you
want to acquire deeper knowledge and understanding in? Is it an area
that you have not been able to fully explore?
Looking
specifically at search engine optimization I wish to explore and
understand the processes and techniques needed to give a website a
high ranking in search results. One of the main search engines,
Google, is constantly changing search algorithms so what practices
must be maintained by a company or individual to keep them above
their competitors.
This is not an
area of web design that has been explored in my course but I feel it
is essential so I am keen to learn as much as I can about SEO through
my own research.
Your Background: Outline in
no more than 150 words how familiar you are already with this topic?
Does it build on personal interest? Have you done any formal or
informal investigation of this project already?
In my second year of university I was
given a few tips in the use of page titles, meta descriptions and
page headings from my lessons with Giselle Leeb but I did not yet
fully understand how this impacted a website's ranking. In the same
year I also began researching Google services and made use of
Google's Webmaster Tools and Analytics in my client projects. In May
2013 I redesigned my portfolio website with the intention of starting
freelance design work; I began looking into ways of paying Google to
appear higher in search results but I soon realised that this was not
financially viable for me. In the summer I did a ten week placement
with a SEO company called Easy Internet Services (see
http://www.easy-internet.co.uk/
); this gave me a deeper insight into organic SEO and really sparked
my interest in this topic.
Research sources. In week 2
of your final year you will be doing a presentation. At that
presentation you will be asked for a number of specific research
sources that are already aware of that will help you during the
initial stages of the project. List as many of them now. They might
be films, magazines, interviews, websites, You Tube links, etc.
Here are a few of
the SEO articles I have read online:
Here is an
interesting video about sponsored vs organic search results:
Here is a very
useful video about SEO techniques for a new website:
I
have signed up to an email newsletter from http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/
which is an internet marketing company referred to me by my tutor.
I am currently
looking into finding books and papers on the topic of SEO; these will
be included in my presentation.
Goals: In no more than 50
words outline what do you want to achieve as a result of working on
this topic.
I wish to
further my understanding of SEO to the point that I can offer this as
one of my services as a web designer.
Problems: What initial
problems can you see?
- Search engines
can take weeks to fully index a website and build an accurate picture
of it's ranking so it will be difficult to see immediate results when
creating my artefacts. I will take this into consideration when
planning a schedule for my research.
- There are
methods of SEO known as black hat which can be harmful and
ineffective in long term website ranking; I need to recognise these
methods exist early in my research so I can avoid using them in my
work. I wish to use reputable white hat methods of SEO which will
help both me and my clients.
Summer break: list the
things you can be doing over the summer break to help you prepare.
My summer
break was mainly focused on the work placement I mentioned before
which helped me practice web design and start to understand the
practical application of SEO. I have started to read about my chosen
topic and used newly learned techniques in my freelance work.
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