What is a Natural Search Manager? Why would I need one? What do they do? These are the questions I would have asked as this Summer. I am now able to demystify the situation a little as I have a Natural Search Manager advising me on my new website.
When my current website was designed and developed six years ago, I regarded it as an expensive but essential online listing. If you like, it was replacing my listing in Yellow Pages but amplifying it thanks to photography, design and information, spread over many pages.
Moving from a listing in a vast hard copy directory like Yellow Pages to having my own discrete and digital listing on the worldwide web seemed like a huge transformation. With the benefit of hindsight, I see that this wasn’t one transformation but the start of one huge ongoing transformation. Each lurch forward has been equally awe-inspiring.
My fabulous new website in 2010 very quickly went out of date for technical reasons. The world was increasingly moving to mobile phones and tablets which meant websites needed to be responsive. Apparently, 2013 was the Year of Mobile Technology. (There is an explanation of responsive web design here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design ) This facility was added in to my website by my developer, John Bowling, in 2014.
I had no idea that Google was going to become the dominant search engine. In response, getting a high ranking in a Google search became more challenging and sophisticated too. I realised that I wanted a blog to help the optimisation of my site and this too was added in.
The next thing that needed to change was the platform. My website was built by John to a bespoke design and it’s worked very well. But just as the world went mobile in terms of communication, so WordPress has become the popular format for websites. It’s time to move to a new platform which means it’s time for a new site.
This is where I am now and why I am talking to a Natural Search Manager. It’s her job to lead the migration of the site, making sure that all the Google goodness that has been built in over time is garnered as we move to the new platform.
Although I feel I understand a lot more than I did, when she tells me about wireframes and redirect mapping, I am still, truth to tell, a little mystified. But having a Natural Search Manager on my side is definitely to be savoured and a great start to the seasonal festivities in 2016.
If you have any comments on my site and what works for you and what doesn’t, please email me: admin@londonligualbraces.com
