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Search Engine Optimisation part 1

Search engine optimisation part 1

Everyone wants their website to be easy to find on Google and other search engines. Because all your competitors want this too, its not going to be easy. Here are some of the most important things to get right.

1. Content
Search engines will only index pages with content. Rich and up to date content will not only provide keywords for visitors to find you, but give them useful information when they arrive.

2. Keyword research
Spend some time finding out the most important keywords in your field. Do some real research - one way is to run a google adwords campaign and see which keywords get most traffic and clicks. Try a wide variety because you might be surprise which keywords turn out most important.

Group your keywords into themes and then focus each major section of your website on one theme.

3. Add meta tags
By far the most important meta tag is the title - make sure this includes your most important keywords (but also makes sense to visitors). If necessary achieve this by not including your business name - if people know your business name already they will find you!

4. Get other websites to link to you
This is probably the most important single step. Swap links with website which are relevant to you but not competitors. Get the google toolbar and pay attention to the PageRank scale - the higher the page rank, the more valuable the link to you.

5. Use keywords in page titles and filenames
When you choose the page title, think about keywords. The same applies for the page's file name (eg www.weftweb.net/search-engines1.html).

6. Provide a site-map and no-frames content if you use frames
Make it easy for search engines to find your pages. Search engines do not read flash pages, nor do most of them enter frames.

7. Keep working on your content and inbound links
Patience and hard work is normally needed. As you expand and improve your content, more sites will link to you and your profile on the search engines will gradually improve.

8. If you've got a good ranking, don't relax
New competitors keep arriving, and search engines keep changing how they rank pages. A good position today guarantees nothing for the future.

Where to next? This article is titled "part 1" because there are many, many more factors to consider. There are some very useful online information resources - I like www.searchguild.com, or you can contact me for advice and services tailored to your specific needs.