Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation is one of the top forms of marketing at the moment, and rightly so. High search engine rankings can make the difference between online success and failure.

As well as optimising your site with standard techniques, you should also consider a search engine audit and link building campaign.

What does search engine optimisation involve?

I keep on-page factors and off-page factors separate when performing search engine optimisation. More information about off-page factors can be found on the link building page.

On-page factors help a search engine determine what your site is about, and whether it is relevant for a particular key word or phrase. Some elements of your page are more important than others. By improving the way search engine see your pages, I can improve the relevancy of your pages, and increase the chances of your site getting found on the search engine results.

Each page within your site should focus on one key word or phrase. The key word or phrase used should reflect the content already in the page.

Elements to consider are:

page title
The title of a page is what you can see in the blue 'title bar' at the top of a web page. Your targetted key phrase should be visible here.
page headings
The main page heading, in <h1> HTML tags, should contain your keywords. If you use subheadings, <h2> <h3> HTML tags, these should also contain a variant of your keywords. For example, a page about green widgets would have <h1>green widgets</h1>, <h2>about green widgets</h2> and <h2>buy green widgets</h2>
link text for internal links
The link you use in your navigation to point to the green widgets page should contain the text green widgets. eg, <a href="green-widgets.html">green widgets</a>
page names
The file names of your pages should contain your key words, separated with hyphens, eg green-widgets.html.
site structure
If search engines can't find your pages, they can't display them in the search results.
keyword density
The number of times the keywords are mentioned on a page in relation to the content of the page.
code / content density
The less code the search engines have to read to find your content, the easier it is for them to list your pages.

Techniques to avoid

Some search engine companies use, what are known as, 'black hat techniques'. Whilst these techniques work in the short term, in the long term they could result in a search engine ban, making it almost impossible to market your site to the search engines in the long term

If a company you're considering use any of the following, or give guaranteed top results in 7 days, please use caution.

Techniques which don't work

Whilst these techniques won't work, they're unlikely to do your website any long term damage. If a company you're using are advocating these techniques, bear in mind, you could be paying for a service you don't need.

alt tag stuffing
Moving your mouse over an image sould show a descriptive box. The content of this box is used by visitors whose browsers do not display images and screen readers for the blind. At one time, the search engines counted these descriptions as content, now they just ignore it. If you see a huge list of keywords when mousing over images, that's keyword stuffing.
search engine submissions
I'm regularly asked why I don't offer search engine submissions as a service. My reply is always the same, "there's no point". A search engine will find you if you have links pointing to your site. If you don't have links pointing to your site, it will be seen as worthless and won't get listed under the relevant key words and phrases anyway. Search engine submissions are a futile exercise, my time and your money can be better spent elsewhere. If your search engine optimisation company offer search engine submissions as part of their package, they're either a) incompetent and don't know what they're doing, or b) ripping you off