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Search Engine Optimisation |
 In basic terms; Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the architecture of your website so that you can improve the volume and quality of users that visit your site from search engines. SEO will help search engines improve the ranking/indexing of your site so that it can climb the search engine ranks. Proper SEO is a combination of web design principles and online marketing and promotional skills.
There are 2 main factors that determine your search engine rank:
- Site Optimisation
- Link Popularity
Site Optimisation
"On" site optimisation is mainly done during the design and implementation stage of a website build. The website architecture needs to be right from the start (see below for my top ten - on site optimisation tips). "Off" site optimisation is a continuous process that doesn’t allow for any short cuts. It requires hard work and perseverance to update your site and search out people/sites that would want to link to your site (see below for my top ten – off site optimisation tips).
Link Popularity
The higher the number of people that link to your page the higher your page rank becomes. The higher the number of "quality links", the better still. "Quality links" are links that come from a more established a source. If there was a link to your site from the BT homepage then this is of "higher quality" than being linked to by a friend's personal homepage. Through investment in a series of efficient marketing/advertising campaigns, the traffic on your site will increase. Google analytics is an easy tool to track how many hits a site is getting. "Google Campaigns" can be used to track how well your advertising or marketing schemes is running.
On Site Optimisation - 10 Easy SEO Tricks
- Good content (original and spell checked)
- Make sure all pages have descriptive and unique page title and Meta tags
- Use real headings (<h1> <h2> etc)
- Use search friendly URLs
- Pick your sites' keywords carefully
- Get linked to from other sites
- Submit your site carefully
- Add keywords to URL pages helps (www.3bweb.com/SEO.html)
- Avoid duplicate data
- Link baiting (highlighting text you want people to click)
Off Site Optimisation - 6 Easy SEO Tricks
- Start by getting your website linked from the two biggest web directories (Yahoo and Google) – Search for "Web Directory" and list your site there.
- Use forums. They will bring traffic to your site if what you write is original/relevant/informative.
- Create first rate content which is of significant value, only found in one place and that is regularly updated.
- Look for websites and ask them to link to you (link back – this helps both of your page ranks).
- Write regular articles/press releases and update/publish then on your site.
- Call people – mention that linking to/from a site helps their rating as well as yours.
Bad for SEO
- In general Flash websites are terrible when it comes to SEO. Flash makes it hard because text in images cannot be found and so will not be picked up by search engines.
- Just “whacking” in some “Keywords” in Meta Tags is useless.
- Applying to Google is a thing of the past.
- Links from frames/javascript are not searchable
- Having really long pages and/or short pages are not optimal.
- Dynamic URLS are equally bad.
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