Search Engine Optimisation – The Current Situation

The ever developing skill of learning how Search Engines position sites on their organic search listings is known as Search Engine Optimisation. These lists are the main results that are shown when you do a search. They’re in addition to the PPC lists. The paid listings are typically in a yellow section at the top of the page, and in a column down the right hand side. All the rest have naturally been put into position. Algorithms are used to determine the position of a web site in a Search Engine directory.

Of course, we would like to be as high as possible on page one. If we’re the 7th listing on page 9 then we’re hardly going to get prospects beating our door down! We can’t know for sure about all the criteria Google and the like use to rank us. It isn’t something they publicise to the rest of us!

Nevertheless, an entire industry has evolved around Search Engine listings. So there are the Search Engines busily working on new systems on one side. Leading to great mystique over their ratings methodology. On the other side you have an SEO industry. Optimisation specialists test, quantify and evaluate a myriad of indicators that affect a site’s ratings.

There are two sides to SEO: ‘On-Page’ factors & ‘Off-Page’ factors. Additionally, demographics have an influence, but SEO doesn’t cover off-web factors. (We will cover off page optimisation in a separate article.)

ON PAGE SEO Explained

Making changes directly to website pages to make them more Search Engine friendly is what On-Page SEO is all about. It’s not too complex – it just requires setting your website up the right way. The following summarises what’s required – Using internal links, keywords, header tags and meta tags.

If all that is complete double-dutch to you, then don’t worry – you’re not alone! For the most part, although this work isn’t complicated, its effects are minimal. In truth, many argue its relevance has disappeared altogether! There was a time when SE’s were ‘duped’ by On-Page optimisation. That’s not how it is now though.

There’s only one reason today for on page optimisation, and that’s to maximise in-bound back-links. Then it’s worthwhile to manipulate your web pages and have some internal links.

A Few Handy Pointers… Do not START to SEO with phrases that yield millions of results. For instance, if you typed into a Search Engine the term Car insurance, seventy million results would be listed for the UK alone. It’s not rocket science to realise that competing in this area wouldn’t be productive.

But… A much smaller list (300k) comes up when I enter ‘Southampton car insurance’. (Which could be useful if I sold car insurance in Southampton!) This still seems quite a large amount, but it’s actually not in search terms.

I’ve a much better chance in the rankings having added the word ‘Southampton’. In point of fact, a phrase like Car insurance would massively set me back. I would actually be competing with the insurance conglomerates! Not a wise choice at all – and actually not the best way to go about things either.

In fact, what we really need are terms that more specifically reflect our product or service. We call them Long-tail phrases, as they’re made up of a few particularly chosen keywords. Phrases can be as many as seven words, depending on your competition. Most are about 3 – 4 keywords.

We like to start Search Engine Optimisation using terms that yield less than 500K. (If the sites on the front page haven’t used SEO techniques, then we might go with bigger yields). We’ll automatically move up the ratings for the more popular search terms as we gain more back-links. If we put in enough effort, we can go after those big phrases in 3-12 months time. A line of attack like this makes business sense. We’re after the people who are really looking to buy, so we go for phrases that convert well.

You should also build back links to various different pages – and not just your website’s homepage. This is known as deep linking. For example, build links to the pages that group products. That’s because pages like this generally have links to several individual pages. Don’t just create back-links to your home-page. Google and the other SE’s are looking more and more at how individual pages on your site are listed and treated.

Copyright Scott Edwards 2009. Hop over to SEM Consultants or Click HERE.