 Search Engine Optimisation
You can have a beautiful site, conforming to the latest in W3C and accesibility recommendations, but if nobody can find your site, it has all been for nothing. Of course you can promote your web site in the real world, and we highly recommend that you do this. But there's nothing like a steady stream of free traffic from Google or Yahoo. So how do you go about getting it?
Unfortunately there is no magic formula and no guarantees in SEO. What works for one web site may not work for another. And a lot depends on the competition for the same keywords. But all is not lost. With some careful planning and targeting, you can maximise your chances of being listed highly in Google, and with continued effort you can improve your ranking over time.
There are three stages onvolved in Search Engine marketing: Research, Optimisation and Promotion
Research
Your developer will choose a search phrase that users might use to search for you. They will then use your phrase to examine is your competition on the search engines. Are there a lot of people agressively targeting your keyword phrase? They will check for variations on your keyphrase, and try to find a phrase that is popularly searched but not targeted by your competition.
The developer will likely narrow down one select phrase that accurately depicts your business, your location if applicable, is searched for by punters and neglected by SEO so far. This gives your site the best chance of being found for that phrase. |
Optimisation
Having chosen a keyphrase, your developer then takes measures to embed the phrase in the web page so that it gives the highest level of relevance to the search engine spiders. This is done by weighting certain page elements with the phrase. If an optimal level of keyword density is reached across the whole site, then it is likely to be listed higher in the results.
Writing valid W3C and accessible code also improves the effectiveness of the spider.
Promotion
Once your site is published, another element comes into play: Pagerank. Pagerank is Google's measure of how important your page is. This is largely based on how many times your web page link is listed on other web sites and directories. The next stage for the developer is therefore to list the web site in the major directories, and submit the site to the major search engines.
From here it becomes the webmaster's job to continue this trend. The website owner must continue looking for relevant directories to list the web site. Perhaps based on location, or sector, or industry. It is also important to try to convince other web masters to link to your site. If you have a relevant service or product this can be quite easy. You may need to reciprocate the link.
As links to your site build up, so will the popularity of your web site according to Pagerank, and your web site listing should go up in the search engines listing. So be vigilant, keep an eye on things, and ask your developer any questions. |
