|
 What is Search Engine Optimisation? How can it boost your business? Read our introduction to SEO and make your business's website a success.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is a form of online marketing. It is the process of making your website and its content more visible to search engines, such as Google, with the result that your website will appear higher up in the search results for relevant keywords and more people will visit your website, generating more business.
How do search engines work?
A search engine spider or web bot is a program that crawls the internet gathering information about websites which is then stored in the search engine's index. Once a website has been crawled by a spider and is stored, we say that it is indexed, which means that your website will appear in the search engine results. That is the first step. However, although your website may appear in the results, it might be stuck on page 20,000, which won't really help you.
The part of the search engine that decides where your site appears in the results is the algorithm, in other words, the rules the search engine uses for deciding where your website appears in the search results. The main thing to bear in mind is that nobody really know anything about them and they change very frequently.
Tips for optimising your website
Once you've got the search engines looking at your website, your next step is to ensure that they can navigate through it easily. Just like a human, a spider will not continue looking through a website that is difficult to navigate.
Frames
Using frames within your website causes problems for the search engine spider as it will not be able to navigate easily though the website. In many cases it will not be able to navigate at all, meaning that your website will not be indexed. Frames are to be avoided if at all possible.
Javascript navigation
Javascript is a programming language that is often used in drop-down menus. It's important to understand that, as that the vast majority of search engine spiders don't understand Javascript, so if your menu is built in Javascript, chances are that a spider will not be able to navigate your website. If in doubt, always use an HTML menu.
Rich content
Images and Flash animation are collectively referred to as ‘rich content'. It is important to use these elements carefully, as web spiders cannot read them. It should be used to complement text, not to replace it. Avoid Flash-only websites, as spiders cannot read them.
The importance of content
The content on your website lets search engines know what your website is about and it is the key element of your website. This is where you should be spending your time and effort.
Update your website regularly
Keeping your content fresh is very important as every time you add new content, the spiders will return to your website. As search engines like websites that are frequently updated with relevant information, keeping your content fresh will help to keep your website indexed and will improve your standing in the search results.
Avoid spamming
SEO techniques have moved away from mindlessly repeating key words in your content. In fact, it is now so frowned upon that your website could be banned from search engines for spamming.
Backlinks
Search engines now commonly judge how important a website is, among other things, by looking at how many other websites link to the website. These are called backlinks. You can check how many backlinks your website has by going to Yahoo.com and typing in the following search (replace yourwebsite.com with the name of your website):
linkdomain:yourwebsite.com –site:yourwebsite.com
Generating backlinks
Apart from generating links the natural way i.e. people linking to your website because they like it, there are a number of other ways to generate links. These include getting listed in directories, posting in forums, blogs and article directories. Some people even go as far as purchasing backlinks, but practices such as this are generally frowned upon.
The key thing is to have quality back links, that is links which look natural because the website linking to you has relevant content. Having links from completely unrelated websites will not fool the search engines!
| Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly: |
| This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service | |
