Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Still number one

Image: Google - still number one in the search world.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is sometimes described as a black art but this is not a fair analysis.

Search engines and the Internet itself are still quite young and there remains much to be learned.

Some websites are made to benefit from traffic (visitors) coming from search engines. Other sites are made to serve specific communities or companies and are not made for high volumes of traffic from search engines.

Search Engine Optimisation - some Basics

Effective optimisation requires several factors to be balanced.

When you post a new website onto the Internet and submit it to the search engines you can expect to wait 3 to 6 months before it is properly indexed.

In search engine optimisation it is considered best practice to make each and every website search engine friendly from the start. This can be established in the initial site development discussions by agreeing that the site will be optimised for search engines.

The 'top three' primary factors in page optimisation;

FACTOR 1 - The CONTENT itself.
This can be tailored to include specific keywords and phrases that the site owner wants to be found under by search engines.

FACTOR 2 - The page TITLE.
Each page title is the text which appears in the top left corner of the browser (above the File menu on the coloured bar).

FACTOR 3 - The hidden META TAGS.
These are the hidden tags that most search engines use to evaluate websites. In order to be effective meta tags should reflect the content on the page.

And then...

Once you have optimised your pages you can then promote them and seek the holy grail of search engine marketing which is to have other people and other reputable and relevant websites linking back to your site.

Search Engine Optimisation - Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the most important principle in search engine optimisation?

A. The key principle is surely RELEVANCE of content to the subject.

If your text is relevant to the subject in the page title and contains the right keywords and keyphrases it is more likely to rank highly for your chosen keywords.

Q. Is there any importance to the number of words on the page?

A. It depends...

There are different recommendations for how many words per page and how many times the keywords should appear per 100 words.

A general guide is to create between 200 and 500 words of text per page that you want to be indexed and recognised by the search engines.

Keywords and key phrases can be researched before you develop new content.

Q. How do I keep the search engines (and my visitors) coming back and moving my site up the ranking?

A. Add new content.

Constantly / regularly adding new content is an effective way of communicating to the search engine spiders that there is something happening on your site.

This also applies to your visitors who will be pleased when you keep adding relevant material to the site.

You may want to make adding new keyword targeted pages to your site as part of your site development strategy.

Q. Should I target specific search engines or are they all the same?

A. The search engines are different to each other. So targeting specific search engines can be an effective method of improving your search engine position and getting higher volumes of traffic.

Yahoo is an example of a popular search engine where an investment/payment is required in order to gain priority consideration for listing.

Google lists you for free but you can also invest in their Adwords system where you identify keyphrases and pay only when a user clicks through to your website from a search results page.

Consistently, for several years now the top 'insiders' website to be listed on is the Open Source Directory where all the entries are regulated by real people (in real time of course).

Q. Should I go for Pay per Click web marketing straight away?

A. Using Pay per Click can be effective and powerful if used against measurable returns on investment. In other words - you must be sure that when people click through to your site a decent percentage of them will proceed to make a purchase from you.

Your 'conversion rate' of clicks that you sponsor to the number of sales you make needs to be constantly monitored to make sure you are making effective use of your pay per click pounds and dollars.

A wise strategy is to set a test budget for a limited period and monitor that before committing larger amounts of resources.

The ideal situation in the eyes of the consumer is to see your website name at the top of both advertised and listed links (according to some research - source unknown but it makes sense).

Q. I've heard that exchanging links is really important in improving the ranking of my pages is this true?

A. Link exchanges are famously a sure method of improving your site ranking with most search engines.

Link exchanges are particularly valuable when they are between sites that have some relevance to each other. Also if you link your sites to other ranked sites and get links from higher ranked sites your own ranking will improve.

Q. Does time make any difference?

A. Longevity, the amount of time a site is online can have a strong influence on page ranking. This is particularly true if the page in question performs a definitive role for the subject in question.

The principle here is that its better to get your site up sooner rather than later so you have staked your claim on your piece of cyber-space. Then keep adding to it over the course of time and you will see it get noticed.

Contact Tusler-Design today and we'll see if we can help make your site stand out.

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