Search Engine Optimisation - An Article, Some Advice

by Tim Ireland

Introduction

If you’re reading this article, then chances are that you want to know about the basics of search engine optimisation. And perhaps a few secrets. So here they are...

To succeed in search engines, you need to make Google your priority. Make a clean website that sticks to the basic rules below and you’ll not only perform well in Google, but also in other less popular search engines.

Indexability - Is your website registered with the main search engines? If so, how many pages are visible?

Relevance - Is your site relevant (in terms of keyword placement)? How much of this relevance is visible?

Link Popularity - Is your site popular? Is this popularity visible?

There you go; now you know everything there is to know. You close this browser window and get straight to work.

Incidentally, the secret to flying is jumping off a cliff and flapping your arms really, really fast. And if you want to save time and effort, you can simply turn your house into an aeroplane by nailing a propeller to the front door....

What Is Search Engine Optimisation?

No doubt you've been offered this service about a zillion times, with attention-getting techniques ranging from bulk emails (spam) to unsolicited 'free reports' showing how poorly your site is performing in search engines (sorry, this is still spam).

I should make it clear here that not all SEO engineers are cowboys, but you really should take the time to familiarise yourself with the basics so that you can spot one from a mile off. You also shouldn't put any kind of promotional task in the hands of someone who doesn't understand that spam is wrong.

I can't possibly educate you thoroughly in one page of information, but I can outline the basic principles you should understand (and the pitfalls that you should look out for) when selecting an SEO provider.

Why You Need Search Engine Optimisation

Current research shows that, on average, anything from 60-80% of site traffic originates from search engines and directories (Source: NUA Internet Surveys). You also have to consider that, for much of the web's history, not only has 'hotmail' been one of the top search queries, but so has 'www.hotmail.com'. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and yes, it means exactly what you think it means. A large number of web users still aren't confident/adept enough to type a simple URL into the address bar, and instead will find a URL via a search engine. This means that, even with the most expensive and sophisticated offline ad campaign, you cannot guarantee that the URL you provide will be found unless you have at least a basic search engine optimisation strategy, which brings us to...

Companies That Offer 'Top Results'

'We guarantee top results' they will say. Sound too good to be true? It is. Often when this claim is made, they are referring to a top result for a search for your individual brand name. Hardly a big challenge, especially if your name is so individual that there is very little saturation.

What Is 'Saturation'?

'Saturation' is a term that describes the amount of competition for a certain search query (or a group of them related to a particular market sector). Take the search query 'sex', for example. While a very popular search query, this can be described as having extremely high saturation, as literally millions of other websites are all vying for the top spot for this query. Getting the top (or indeed, single) result for 'kwj3eugflie3a', on the other hand would be a breeze. But who the heck is searching for 'kwj3eugflie3a'? Nobody, that's who.

What Are They Searching For?

There are many techniques that can be used to judge the most likely search query for your site. Some require simple research. Others require a certain level of judgement. A successful mix of the two should provide you not only with a list of the most likely search queries (words that web users are likely to use when looking for you or your type of business) but also place them in a clear order of priority. These likely search queries are referred to as 'keywords'.

Restraint should be used when drafting your keyword list. The more words and phrases you include, the more you dilute the effect of those you wish to give a higher priority. Also, there is a finite number of times you can repeat certain words, even if they're in different phrases, before some search engines will penalise you for an offence known as 'over-optimisation'. Again, it comes down to judgement.

Building From The Foundation Up

Different search engines place a varying amount of importance on where/how these keywords are placed. While sometimes it pays to cater to each of the top search engines individually (creating what are known as 'multiple entry points'), often a site can perform well across the board simply by using these keywords as the very foundation of the site. In other words, building a web presence composed almost entirely of your most likely search queries. If your site is already built, you need to be aware that a comprehensive Search Engine Optimisation treatment will involve a significant overhaul (unless yours is a dynamic site running on 2-3 central templates, the changing of which costs very little in terms of development).

Your keywords should be used as the basis for composing/naming most, if not all, of the following aspects of your site:
- Brand/product names (an extreme measure, but effective as you'll soon learn)
- Domain name (this is an optional measure depending on the strength/importance of your existing brand)
- File names (including folders, jpeg/gif names, html page names etc.)
- ALT text (the alternative text name of graphics on your site)
- Page Titles
- META Tags (including the 'description' and 'keywords' META Tags)
- No-frames text (only if you frames - which you really shouldn't be doing anyway)
- Page text (i.e. - your content, or 'copy')

What you have to be aware of, especially with descriptions and page titles, is that you are now entrusting whoever is in charge of your Search Engine Optimisation with the same level of trust you would place in your copywriter.

Those descriptions will be the first thing web users see when they encounter your site via a search engine. They not only have to include your most important keywords, preferably in order of their priority, but also be a concise and motivating statement as to the purpose of your site and/or the benefits a visitor to that site will enjoy. Once they arrive at the site, the copy really comes into play. Again, high ranking will depend on placement of your keywords within this copy in order of priority. Doing this kind of thing elegantly is one of the greatest challenges in Search Engine Optimisation, but once all of this is in place, your site is finally at a stage where is it 'armed'. From here, the next step is submission.

Submission: A Whole New Set Of Headaches

OK, you've got your head around most of that. Now we get down to some serious business. Search Engines, or, to be more accurate, 'search databases'.

There are four major types of search database:

Search Engines
Search engines are huge databases of web sites that have been submitted to them. They rely heavily on automated systems both to catalogue the listings, and rank them when a user searches their database. The methods they use to do this vary.

Directories
Directories use 'people power' to catalogue and arrange web sites submitted to their database into categories. Each site submitted is viewed by a real person, who writes or amends the submitted page description and places it live in the appropriate category only if they consider the site relevant and worthwhile.

Hybrids
A lot of the major search engines, in addition to their primary database, also have an edited directory of their own. Sites that have been reviewed in such a section usually get listed first in any given set of search results. Many of the 'Hybrids', rather than going to the expense of hiring and editorial team, now import their directories from the volunteer-driven Open Directory Project, making a listing here vital to overall success.

Metas
Meta-searchers hunt through a collection of other existing databases. A good result here mostly involves excellent performance in multiple search engines, directories and hybrids.

To effectively submit a site, you need to understand the interconnected nature of these four major kinds of databases, and the particular and individual technical requirements of each. You also need to understand the important role that culture plays.

Take for instance the common directory listing. In a directory, the keywords on/in your site count for close to nothing, as directories present search results according to keywords relating to the category you're listed in, as well as the page title and description that you submit. Here it pays to go back to your list of prioritised keywords and carefully craft a submission that includes these keywords wherever possible. You don't want to overdo it, of course. Your submission is going to be edited by a real human being with an IQ over 100, so he/she is sure to penalise you if you are clearly guilty of an offence known as 'keyword weighting'

Are We Back To That 'Judgement' Thing Again?

Yes, we are. A successful directory submission not only involves finding the appropriate category for your site, but carefully researching what the editor of that category deems to be acceptable/ideal in terms of the length and accuracy of edited Descriptions. Doing so will allow you to carefully craft a description with some major keywords in place and minimise the risk of having these edited out. It also helps if the Description is genuinely descriptive (it seems obvious, but you'd be surprised) and to have this correspond to the Description hosted at your site. If you've done your homework, this should more or less correspond already.

You're unlikely to get a keyword into the Page Title, of course - unless you were forward-thinking enough to include vital keywords in your brand/product/domain name. See? It's all starting to come together.

Directories Done: Onto The Search Engines

While there are a number of very good multiple submission tools on the market, some search engines block such automated submissions. It often pays to do high-priority (if not all) submissions manually. For the most part, success in the top 5 search engines will represent the bulk of your traffic. Offers to submit your site to 'hundreds of search engines and directories' are often little more than window dressing and - contrary to popular belief - listings with such directories are unlikely to improve your link popularity.

Link Popularity?

Link popularity is the newest and most powerful weapon in the search engine's ranking arsenal. Basically, if more sites link to yours than your competitors, you are judged to be more relevant for any competitive search queries.

It's not just how many people link to you, either. What also counts is who links to you. If that site has significant link popularity in its own right, then their link to you counts for more. If the sites that link to you are mostly part of an automated link network such as those 'hundreds of search engines and directories' mentioned earlier) these links will count for very little.

What also counts in some search engines is the words comprising the link or immediately adjacent to it (but - again - there is such a thing as overdoing it, and any copy-paste/automated approach is likely to be discounted or get you penalised. This is why getting carefully crafted listings in the right directories is so important. These are your big guns in the link popularity war.

Keeping It Up

Even the most successful SEO strategy is prone to decay. The best way to combat this is to regularly generate new content on your site and/or new inbound links. The most intelligent approach here involves the use of viral marketing and/or weblogs (i.e. the generation of new content that's specifically designed to attract links).

The Final Piece Of The Puzzle: Tracking

Whoever is in charge of Search Engine Optimisation will need to be aware of which search queries and listings are working, and which aren't. Most of this information comes from your referral statistics, which are included in most of the better tracking packages available.

This information allows you to tweak your settings and placement where possible to improve your results. Finally, this kind of report (unlike one that confidently tells you that you score top result for 'kwj3eugflie3a' in the Lesser Mongolian Web Directory) will tell you exactly how many web users you are actually attracting.

More sophisticated packages will even allow you to track visitor movement within the site, so you can follow them from their initial search query through to their experience at the site and, hopefully, to that glorious moment of monetary closure. You've spent all of this time and money optimising your site, and you want to see a return on it.

Click here to go back to the Search Engine Optimisation section.

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