Just a bit about search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimisation takes into account the factors used by Google, Bing etc. when they position web sites in their natural listings.

When we search for anything, up come the natural search lists. These do not include the paid listings. Generally, the paid advertising is on the right of the screen. A box at the top of the page will also contain paid ads. All the others are ‘naturally’ listed from the Search Engine’s index. Search Engines use algorithms to determine a website’s relevancy and importance. This is how they decide on which order to place them in.

We want to be right up there where we can be seen. No-one’s going to find us if we’re listed on page seven. It’s impossible to know about all the SE’s rank determining factors. The SE’s really don’t want anyone to know – so you can’t manipulate or ‘game’ their system.

But there is now a skilled sector entirely devoted to benefiting from high rankings. On the one side you have SE’s like Google deliberately filing technology patents in many different areas. Causing much mystification about their methods! On the other hand, there’s Search Engine Optimisation. This uses empirical testing and measuring of various factors to determine which ones are the most important.

Search Engine Optimisation deals with both on-page and off-page issues. There are also ‘off-web’ factors such as demographic and geographic information – but we have no control over this area. For a full discussion of Off-Page factors, please refer to our other article on this subject.

‘On-Page’ SEO

This involves making your web pages ‘friendlier’ to the Search Engines. It involves ‘correctly’ configuring your web site. For instance: The correct use and density of keywords and internal linking; H1 and H2 header tags and meta tags.

That might sound like gobbledy-gook, but don’t be alarmed!

It’s very easy to control on-page factors. But to be quite honest, they have the least relevance to your ranking these days. To be blunt, some would say it hardly has any effect at all. It used to be possible to ‘trick’ the Search Engines with on-page factors several years ago. That hasn’t been possible for a long time though.

If, however, off-page has been optimised, (and there are many inbound back-links), then on-page continues to be important. If that’s the case, internal linking and a certain amount of on-page fine-tuning can reap rewards.

Things To Consider…

Don’t try hugely listed phrases and keywords in your early attempts at Search Engine Optimisation. The phrase ‘car insurance’ yields 70,000,000 results in the United Kingdom alone! It’s not rocket science to realise that competing in this area wouldn’t be productive.

On the other hand… The phrase ‘Southampton Car Insurance’ only brings in three hundred thousand. (Assuming I was a car insurance provider in Southampton.) This still seems quite a large amount, but it’s actually not in search terms.

I could expect to get ranked far more easily for the longer phrase. In actual fact, it takes very deep pockets to get a premier listing for a term like ‘car insurance’. I’d be up against massive multi-nationals! Not a sensible option for anyone.

In fact, what we really need are terms that more specifically reflect our product or service. These ‘long tail’ phrases might contain a number of specific keywords. It depends on your competition, but long-tail searches can be up to 6 or 7 words. Typically they will be 3 or 4 words long.

In general, our recommendation is to begin SEO’ing with keyword phrases that reveal fewer than 500,000 results. (There are occasions when we might accept a higher yield figure at the start – when the top entries are not well optimised.) Then, as we build back-links, we’ll automatically start to gain some ground on the bigger search phrases. If we’ve worked well, we can start hitting the bigger terms in a few months time. It’s a much more targeted strategy. Frankly, we’re only interested in the customers who are looking specifically for what we offer. There’s much more chance these people will buy!

Don’t just limit building back links to your website’s home page – link them up to various sub pages as well. Google and the other Search Engines like this ‘deep linking’. Category or Product Group pages are a good example. They often have links to several other sub-pages about individual products. Do not simply build links to your web site’s home page. The SE’s are becoming increasingly interested in how a site’s individual pages are listed.