Search Engine Optimisation(SEO)
This area of Internet-marketing is fraught with myths and half-truths.
In essence, the whole point of SEO is to try and make your website as
‘attractive’ as possible to search engines – in the
hope that they will look favourably upon your website and give you a
good listing – NEAR THE TOP!!! Naturally – they have to
be aware of the site in the first place – which is the site should
be SUBMITTED to the search engines AFTER it has been optimised as best
as possible.
There are various technical considerations associated with SEO –
which are beyond the scope of this text. Also – search engine
algorithms change constantly and are kept secret! It is a constant game
of ‘cat and mouse’ between SEO engineers and the search
engines themselves. Suffice to say that good SEO and keeping the site
up to date will pay dividends – as Internet visitors are much
more inclined to choose sites from a search engines ‘natural’
listings rather than paid for listings.
Half of the battle(actually more than half) with SEO is choosing the
right ‘key-phrases’ that your potential visitors will be
looking for. Remember – they are looking for information through
their eyes! By which I mean that they may well be using terminology
other than which you are used to.
There are software tools available (e.g. WordTracker)
which show word popularity. This includes common spelling mistakes –
just as an example.
This research is ESSENTIAL.
Therefore, by reverse engineering what people are looking for –
you can ensure that your site is optimised as is best possible to ensure
that you have as much chance of being found in the search engines for
these given key phrases.
The Process :
1) Keyword Analysis. We use specialised software to
determine the best key phrases to use, i.e. the actual phrases that
your target market are looking for!
2) The site is then OPTIMISED! This involves a range
of processes :
Changing Page Titles. Adding Meta-tags Adding ALT Tags Adding relevant
text. Adding text links between pages. Removing un-helpful page objects
– such as FLASH, frames, redundant code & scripts etc. Ensuring
fonts and text links are ‘acceptable’. Externalising certain
codes e.g. CSS and Javascript. Changing header tags if necessary.Adding
pages if required.
Creating text Site-Map(if required).
3) The site is then submitted MANUALLY to the relevant
search engines and directories
Please note that each site is different and that techniques vary and
are constantly changing.
The benefits of ‘Search Engine Optimisation’
include:
• MORE VISITORS!!! If your website is well indexed
as a result of SEO then you will see a CONSIDERABLE leap in traffic
as a result.
• Lower Overheads. 85% of website traffic comes
from search engines and therefore if you have a good position within
the major search engines – you can save a fortune on other means
of marketing the website – e.g. Pay per click campaigns.