Tuesday, 2 August 2011

Search Engine Optimisation That Always Works

Business managers are becoming increasingly aware of the role that search engine optimization plays in the success of their business. Search engine optimization, referred to as SEO for short, focuses on increasing the presence of your website in the search engines, which results in more traffic and more customers. The main search engines are Google, Bing and Yahoo which is why the majority of people focus on these 3 players when implementing an SEO strategy.

When somebody does a search on Google (or any other search engine) it ranks every single website that relates to that particular phrase, in order of most important to least mportant. These 'rankings' are based on a complex algorithm, which weighs up a large number of factors, all of which aren't disclosed to the public, and the weight of which are constantly changing.

Because of this, you may think it's impossible to get your site ranked well? This is not the case as their are a number of solid SEO tehcniques that have remained constant over the years and will remain important in the future. The importance of these may change slightly as the algorithm is modified, but if you implement the following strategies you will lay a good framework for long term high rankings.

1. Title. The title tags are found at the top of your website code and displayed above the URL at the top of your website browser. It notifies the search engines the theme of your website, and thus should include the most important keywords and phrases. Don't waste this space with keyword-poor phrases or your company name.

2. Description. This tag is not shown on the site but comes up on the search results on Google or the other engines. Again it should use your main keywords but also be well written and enticing as it will influence whether people click on your site once it does show up in the listings.

3. Header tags. The H1 and H2 tags are the primary content on your site. In essence they reflect what the page is about and as such should again contain your main keywords.

4. Content. The information on your website is the key to a good ongoing SEO campaign. Even without search engine optimisation Melbourne
in mind, the content is intended to make potential customers become actual customers. So having good quality content is paramount. Furthermore, the longer someone spends on your website, the more important it is deemed by the search engine. So provide informative, helpful and enticing content, with smart use of your important key phrases, and you're well on your way!

SEO can be broken up into two areas. On-page optimisation, which tells the search engines what you do, and off-page optimisation, which tells them how important you are. The above strategies are all on-page optimisation and while important, are only part of the puzzle. Next time, I will talk a bout the off-page techniques to get your website shooting up the rankings.

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