Search Engine Optimisation - The Options

By Jason Kendall

Search Engine Optimisation takes into account the factors used by Google, Bing etc. when they position websites in their natural listings. The natural listings form the main body of a Search Engine's pages. Paid listings are separate to natural listings. In a typical Google or Bing search, you can see the paid listings in the right column and in the yellow box at the top. The 'natural' listings are straight from the main index. Algorithms are used to determine the position of a web site in a Search Engine directory.

Plainly our aim is to get our site up with the top ones. We're unlikely to get noticed if we're number 8 on the tenth page! Only those in the Search Engine's 'inner circle' know all the factors used to position sites. It's not in the SE's interest to tell people everything they do.

So as time has gone on, a sophisticated industry has evolved to get the most from the listings. On the one side you have SE's like Google deliberately filing technology patents in many different areas. This makes determining their ratings methods more complex. And then you have an industry built around SEO. This uses empirical testing and measuring of various factors to determine which ones are the most important.

The objective is to maximise both 'on-page' and 'off-page' optimisation. There are also 'off-web' factors such as demographic and geographic information - but we have no control over this area. (We've covered 'Off Page' factors in a separate article, as there wasn't enough room here.)

'On-Page' SEO

On-Page SEO is all about changes you can make directly to a site to make it more Search Engine 'friendly'. This website configuration is fairly simple. The following summarises what's required - Internal-linking, using H1 & H2 header tags, seeding keywords at the correct density (and in appropriate places,) and to some lesser degree, using meta-tags.

That might sound like gobbledy-gook, but don't be alarmed! Actually, though on page work is straightforward it probably accounts for little. Indeed, it could be said to basically not have much influence at all. Many years ago, you used to be able to dupe the SE's with lots of on-page factors. However, those days are long gone.

The only time that 'on-page' becomes important is when you have taken care of 'off-page' and have a lot of inbound 'back-links'. If that's the case, internal linking and a certain amount of on-page fine-tuning can reap rewards.

Take Counsel - Avoid doing SEO on keywords that have millions of listings. Take car insurance for instance. In Britain alone you'd get seventy million sites listed. When you're just getting going, it's not a great idea to face such huge competition!

Nevertheless - Extend the phrase to Southampton car insurance and it's under a third of a million. (Presuming that was my market). So a much more realistic target.

I've a much better chance in the rankings having added the word 'Southampton'. In actual fact, it takes very deep pockets to get a premier listing for a term like 'car insurance'. I would actually be competing with the insurance conglomerates! Not the best way to do things at all!

Therefore, we're looking for phrases that yield less overall results - but quite accurately sum up what we do or what we offer. These 'long tail' phrases might contain a number of specific keywords. They could be anything from two to seven words in length. Generally we use 3 to 4 words.

We like to start Search Engine Optimisation using terms that yield less than 500K. However, if the websites at the top of the listings aren't well optimised, we may stretch to a higher count. In time our back links will grow. Then we'll get a better rating on some of the bigger yielding phrases. With some effort, it will be possible to have a stab at the big ones within a year. This is a nicely targeted approach. We're after the people who are really looking to buy, so we go for phrases that convert well.

You should also build back links to various different pages - and not just your website's homepage. The SE's respond well to this. Product Group pages are a good place for back links. It's worth driving specific search terms to these pages - they often have links to lots of other product pages. Don't just create back-links to your home-page. Bing, Yahoo and Google are all paying more attention to the way a website's pages are managed and listed.