Techniques
We reveal the basics of search engine optimizing
Search engine optimization can seem complicated. This is partly because many optimization companies have a vested interest in keeping it that way, and partly because, well, some of it is quite complicated.
However, while it takes years to learn everything, the basics are simple to grasp. Read on to find out how search engines rank websites, and to get some practical SEO tips explaining how to influence them.
What counts
Search engines guard their ranking methods closely. Nobody (except the people who work for them) knows exactly how they decide where to rank a website for a particular search term. However, our experience and knowledge gives us a good idea of what counts.
In total there are hundreds of things which have an effect. But a few of them are very important. If your website gets these wrong then you can forget all about ever achieving a top result.
Be targeted
Your site can never be in the top results for every search term. To succeed, you need to focus on some specific, relevant search phrases and optimize the site for those.
This means picking terms which you think people will actually enter into search engines like Google and Yahoo. Ideally you want to find phrases which lots of people type in, but which not many sites rank highly for.
Site text
Search engines will look for key phrases on your website. So make sure you have worked them into your website text.
Search engines generally give more weight to phrases which appear in titles and close to the top of the page.
They look for words that are related to key phrases too, so when you write about a subject, use a wide vocabulary to include the terms you think are important.
Links
Search engines regard links pointing to your site like votes for it. So you should encourage as many other websites as possible to link to you.
For the links to carry even more weight, the text that is linked should contain the phrases you are targeting.
Text you can’t see
Every web page contains some information which is not displayed directly on the screen. This is called metadata and includes a description of what’s on the page. Make sure all your metadata contains relevant terms.
Being careful
Be warned: plenty of people have tried to fool search engines into ranking their sites highly. Common strategies include creating links by building a network of fake sites, or filling page text with keywords.
These methods sometimes work for a short time, but they never deliver long-term results. The only way to guarantee a good ranking over time is to look carefully at how your site is built and which other sites link to it.
This is why you might want to consider our search engine optimization techniques. Our team of experts knows exactly what they’re doing and can help achieve top results for your site.
How we can help
The basics of search engine optimizing come down to keywords and links. Get them right to give your site a solid start in SEO.
The next step is to tweak everything. There are hundreds of other variables and we can help you tune them all. Every small improvement counts, and they all add up to have a huge impact on your site’s ranking.
One last thing…
Never forget that people will read your website too. Although SEO is important, the key is to hit the top results without sacrificing the readability of your site.