Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation is extremely important as most people using search engines only look at the top 10 or 20 results. If you're not in the top 20 then traffic to your site will be limited simply because people won't be able to find your site. It's not always easy to get a high position in a results page, especially with a competitive subject but there are certain things you can do to help your ranking. Be aware that this is a brief guide to search engine optimisation, following these guidelines is not a guarantee of a good ranking. Often the best ranked sites are those which have good content and don't try to trick the search engines into ranking their site well.

Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is essential in successful search engine optimisation. Search engines use keywords to determine what your site is about and where it should be ranked. When thinking about which keywords to use on your pages, think about keyword phrases rather than single keywords. If you use very specific phrases for your site you will have less competition and more highly targeted visitors. For example, rather than using the keyword 'tennis' you might use 'women's tennis shoes'.

Think about which keywords your visitors will use when searching for your pages. If you're not sure, look at your competition and see what keywords they are using. Develop a list of keyword phrases for each of your pages and use these to optimise each page to the best of your ability.

Page Titles

The title of your page is one of the most important factors when optimising your pages. Make sure you name all of your pages and include your most relevant keyword at or near the beginning of the title. Keep your titles brief and relevant to the text on the page.

Page Content

Page content is another very important factor in good search engine optimisation. Try to have good relevant content on all of your pages. Use as many keyword phrases as possible in your text but be sure to keep it relevant and easy to read. Having at least five hundred words per page can really help to optimise your site but again, make sure your text is appropriate.

Meta Tags

Meta tags are less important in search engine optimisation than they used to be, however, they are still a factor and should be included in each of your pages. The most important tags are the description and keyword tags. Make sure the keywords you use are relevant and found in the text on your page.

Links To Your Site

The more quality sites linking to your web site, the better your site will rank. Try to get non-reciprocal links from sites which have high traffic and which are relevant to the content in your site. These are high quality links. Reciprocal links are less important for search engine rankings but are still worthwhile as people seeing these links may click on them, thus increasing your site traffic. Avoid 'link farms' as these will have a negative effect in your search engine ranking.

Images

Always try to include 'alt' text for your images. This text is displayed if the image can't be displayed or when your mouse hovers over the image. This may only be used by some search engines when ranking your site but it's good practice anyway. Make sure the 'alt' text describes the image and is not just a list of keywords.

What Not To Do

It's important not to try to 'trick' the search engines with certain techniques such as listing keywords anywhere other than meta tags. For example, listing keywords using the same font colour as your web page colour (making it seem invisible) is considered 'spamming' by the search engines and may get your site dropped completely.

Other things to avoid include using more than one title tag per page and listing keywords in your meta tags which aren't included in the text of your page. These are just a few examples, remember the best way to get a good result is with good content. After all, this is what your visitors are looking for and is what will get them to return.

More Information

For more information on seo we recommend you read webmaster forums such as Web Master World and Digital Point. Another excellent resource is the ProBlogger blog which focuses on making money online with blogs but also covers search engine optimisation.