Search engine optimisation basics.

As your website evolves, it pays to stop and analyse the site’s optimisation and whether or not it has slipped.

It’s a good strategy to apply fundamental optimisation techniques that work with most search engines.

Lets quickly cover the essentials:

1. Title tag.
Begin your Title tag with the keyword you are optimising and keep this tag short and meaningful.

2. Meta Description.
This is very similar to the Title tag but the description can be a little lengthier and more descriptive.

3. Meta Keywords.
Include the keywords that you are targeting. Remember though, you should not fill this tag with too many keywords nor should you write similar keywords one beside the other.

4. Keyword Phrase.
Make sure you use the keyword phrase as the first heading in a H1 tag on your main page.

Follow this by to writing down well drafted keyword-rich content on the page in the Body of  the document.
The first few lines (approximately 50-150 words) are all important as this content is frequently used instead of the Meta Description tag that some search engines have stopped using.

5. Content is still king.
Create good original content of with at least 250-300 words per page.

6. Links.
Link to the internal pages of your website from all other pages with the keywords used as the link text.

Start exchanging links with other websites that fall within the same theme or category.
Again use your keyword phrase in those links that other webmasters will have on their websites.

Keywords. Spiders and Crawlers.
So how do you achieve ranking on the internet?
The answer to this is spiders and crawlers.
Basically you are throwing yourself on the web to allow these little software critters to crawl your site.

The objective of search engines is to deliver to their customers, those searching for a product or service, a quality result.

These results ideally, would be websites that are relevant and have good content.
These sites have not been viewed or ranked by a person at the search engine company and instead have been indexed and listed after being ‘crawled’ by what we call a spider.

This spider is a piece of software which after finding your site, crawls through each page, following links.
Then according to an algorithm built in to the spider, it ranks your site in its importance.

The reason for this is that there are so many sites it is impossible to physically review each one, let alone review each site on a regular basis.
However, search spiders or meta-crawlers can do this job automatically.

Your ranking dictates where your listing will appear when people search for your primary keyword or term.

Ideally you need to be on the first page of results.

So how do you achieve a good ranking?
The very first part of this step is determining how people search for your product or service.

With search engines this is based upon what people type into the search query.

This is called a keyword or keyword phrase.
Therefore the next step in the journey is determining what are your keyword and keyword phrases.
We will then describe how to use these to rank your site.

Keyword Selection.
When you select a keyword, it is pointless picking keywords where you have to compete with larger players.

For example, if you pick a keyword in the music industry that the likes of Sony and other large players use, you will not be able to match their link popularity.

Therefore, regardless of the effort you put into your optimisation, all these companies will rank ahead of you.

One way to determine the competitiveness of a key word is to use a tool that evaluates how much companies are actually paying a PPC (Pay Per Click) for a visitor.

When you search the internet through a search engine you use a word, or combination of words to find what you want.

We refer to these as key words and key word phrases and terms.

One of the most important assessments a spider makes is the amount of times specific phrases and words appear on your pages.

This is what we call keyword density.

Naturally some terms are searched for more than others.
It is pointless having a word or term that no one searches for.

As always, have a good look at your competitors and look at the key words and phrases they focus on.

1. Include your key word and phrase in your page title.

2. Include your key word and phrase in your description.

3. Have a H1 heading at the top of the page that includes the key words and phrase.

4. Include your key word and phrase several times throughout the body text.

5. If possible link keywords to a relevant page.

Choose keywords wisely.
The keywords you think might be perfect for your site may not be what people are actually searching for.

Write at least 200 - 250 words of visible text copy based on your chosen keywords.
This is a crucial component of high rankings and a successful website.

The search engines need to "read" keyword rich copy on your pages so they can successfully classify your site.

Use each keyword phrase numerous times within your copy for best results. B&BD