Back in the earlier part of the year we were approached by the owners of Haven Direct to run our critical eye across their home furnishings site and look at what Fresh Egg could do to improve things.It was a case of where do we start? – There were some inherit problems on the site with the main issue being the site was not ranked at all for any of its major KeyPhrases.

So how are the search engine optimisation team at Fresh Egg going to turn this around?

The first thought when dealing with a project such as this is to start at a grass-roots level. When conducting our audit, we found the site to have issues with its breadcrumb trail and its central navigation.

For both Search Engines and Human Users this was presenting problems, how can you expect to gain the trust of the likes of Google and potential buyers if links are not functioning correctly?

Excessive code was being used to output the site content, where possible we have simplified this via the use of CSS. At the same time we have tidied up the CSS mark-up.

Our team has also removed excessive white space in coding from many of the pages; is white space in code a cardinal sin? In our mind it certainly doesn’t help matters and any clean-up of code is advantageous.

A major problem for the site was the fact that each page required custom META Data to be written. Given the site holds in excess of 2,000 products this is never going to happen. Dynamic data can be utilised really effectively, we expect both Search Engines and Human Visitors alike to embrace the new dynamic META data that we have implemented.

From a development point of view the site was not the easiest to update. To facilitate our ideas we have incorporated include files and globalise them; this will allow us to apply updates to the site in a far quicker timeline to the client and dramatically cut-down on development time in the future.

Product linking now incorporates a URL Rewrite; the previous system of extended querystring was certainly not helping the site compete against more established online brands – The use of the URL Rewrite will assist the product pages in becoming more competitive.

In short the site was not in a good way and the team have had to work hard to get it to an acceptable level; We have so many prospects that want us to take their sites to the same level as our current client list. Typically we can, but it does depend on what flexibility we are allowed. Haven Direct have committed to Fresh Egg and as a result our web development team, our web design team and our search engine optimisation team have all combined to produce the best overall effect for the client.

From a project perspective, I do feel a client will get greater rewards when dealing with an experienced team that can take a site from its planning stages to being a money-making business asset with top rakings in the major search engines. Some would say that it is dangerous to have all ones eggs in one basket.

Our latest Search Engine Optimisation team member will tell you that Fresh Egg work in a very different way to his previous employers Spannerworks. Spannerworks are extensively a Search Engine Optimisation company.

At Fresh Egg if we see a change is required we can react within minutes, we do not have to liaise with 3rd party developers, we do not have to run it past head of design.

This is a major element as to why clients who are with Fresh Egg enjoy a very different Search Engine experience, this is the experience that Home Furnishing and Home Accessory specialists Haven Direct have come to know in such a short space of time when working with us.

Our clients trust us to make the right decisions on their behalf, they are decisions we get right.