Search Engine Optimisation

What is search engine optimisation?

In a nutshell this is creating a website that is ranked highly by the major search engines (in other words appears in the top 20 of a search list). At the moment Google dominates the search engine market, others being Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Bing… Most developers focus first and foremost on getting to page one in Google.

How can I get my website on page one?

Unfortunately the search engines keep their search criteria under steel encased wraps and website developers spend a lot of time trying to work out this holy grail of mysteries.

I can recommend this blog about search engine optimisation. It sums up nicely what I have read elsewhere. http://blog.tn38.net/archives/2004/10/search_engine_o.html

A summary of my top ten search engine tips.

1. Keep the website simple, avoid flash, frames and javascript.
2. Think of one or two keywords that are most relevant to your website audience. Keywords are usually two or three word phrases. These words in different combinations need to reflect what your visitors are likely to type in the search box to find your website.
3. Have a look at how your competitors are doing it. If you type in your chosen keywords which website is in the number one slot? Have a look at their website, what are they doing right?
4. Include the keywords at all times when writing text especially in the 'title' tags and headings. Include the keywords and their variations in the main body of the text. I read somewhere that 'text is king'. Keep this thought when writing content. Search engines will change their criteria but the visible text is always going to be of high importance. Remember that from a visitor's point of view the text needs to be straight forward and provide relevant information; be careful not to overstuff keywords so that paragraphs become hard work to follow.
5. Add cross links in the website so that pages link to each other and if you are selling products have links from the products to elsewhere on the site and visa versa.
6. Get quality incoming links - from highly relevant websites. You are better to have a handful of links from very relevant websites than a load of reciprocal links for the sake of it.
7. Think about how you can keep a visitor on your site. Your work on the keywords may pull in the visitors but if they bounce right out your ranking will drop. You could add an information page (like this one!) to encourage visitors to stay and read.
8. A site can take two weeks to be re-indexed so if you have only just made some changes you will have to wait at least two weeks for them to take affect.
9. The honest truth is that search engine optimisation never stops. You need to be checking your ranking in the major search engines and making adjustments on a fairly regular basis. Keep you website fresh, alive and attractive to visitors.
10. Don't give up! If other people can get in the top 10 or 20 then so can you!