search engine optimisation: are the right people finding your web site?

It is a well known fact that for most web sites the majority of first time visitors arrive by following a link from a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. It doesn't take new web site owners long to realise that the higher their site appears in search engine listings the more visitors they are going to attract.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of fine tuning web pages so that they will appear as high up the list of search results as possible. Most users don't look beyond the third page of results so your pages have to be in the top 30 and ideally in the top 10 results for your targeted keywords.

The important thing to remember here is that you are aiming to get high rankings for relevant and popular phrases - ones that relate specifically to your site and are being searched on by a significant number of people. There is no point in having a top 10 ranking for a phrase that no-one ever searches on.

How do search engines rank web pages?

Search providers, such as Google, scour the web collecting the visible text from web pages as well as some of the behind-the-scenes code and using it to build their databases. When someone carries out a search they are presented with a list of pages collated from this database, ranked in order of how well they match the search terms. Search providers are very cagey about exactly how they rank pages - they don't want to make it too easy for unscrupulous web site owners to cheat their way to the top of the lists. However, experience and common sense enable SEO professionals to be fairly sure of the main factors.

These include:

• 'On the page' elements including how search terms appear in the page title, headings and body text.
• 'Off the page' factors such as link popularity which suggest how highly third party sites rate the page.
• Hosting features such as the domain name and server reliability.

How does search engine optimisation work?

The SEO process begins with Keyword research to identify the most appropriate keywords for your pages.

This is followed with a review of the site leading to recommendations for improvements that will help the pages rank more highly for those keywords.

Search engines treat each page individually so each page in your site can (and should) be optimised for different keywords.

The aim is to make sure that relevant keywords appear in the places that matter most to search engines. For example, if a page is all about a holiday cottage in North Wales and 'North Wales holiday cottage' is a popular search term then it makes sense to use those words in the main heading, ideally in that exact sequence. If that phrase also appears in the body text and in other places on the page, then that all sends signals to the search engines that this page is definitely relevant to that particular search. The page is also more likely to attract human visitors if they see their own words reflected in the copy.

SEO goes beyond merely tweaking existing pages, but also includes looking at ways of developing the content and improving page structure and navigation. It covers technical issues such as whether potentially indexable text has been 'locked up' within images, animations or scripts.

In an ideal world the 'on the page' features would be tackled as an integral part of the site design and development. Although in reality, many people don't appreciate the value of SEO until after their site has been online for a while - when they discover that it isn't attracting the number of visitors they had hoped for.

When a site is 'live' the 'off the page' factors such as link popularity can be worked on to build up external 'votes of confidence' in the web pages.

SEO is an ongoing process - after some changes have been made you should step back and monitor your site for a while to measure the effects. It can take several weeks for changes to filter through to the various search engine databases. Use your visitor logs to identify which pages are attracting more traffic and which need more work.

The risks of search engine optimisation

The main risk in SEO is that you could overdo it. If a page starts to become obviously optimised - for example with the same phrase appearing too often, then it will trigger alarm bells with the search engines. The result can be that your pages get penalised and actually drop in the rankings, or, at worst, some techniques could get your pages banned altogether.

A well optimised page should read naturally to human visitors. If your text has become awkward to read or obviously repetitive then it is showing signs of over-optimisation.

SEO is not a substitute for having a great web site

Don't underestimate the importance of having plenty of valuable content in your web site. At the end of the day, the search engines want to offer their users high quality sites that are rich in relevant, up to date information. SEO is not a short-cut or a way of somehow 'tricking' your way to a top ten ranking without actually having to build a site that deserves to be there. Unfortunately, there are people who see it that way, but I'll save that for a different article.

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last updated: 17/08/05