Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the phrase used to describe the process of increasing and improving the quality of online traffic to a particular website. Simply put, the core aim of SEO is to drive the visibility of your website on the internet by ensuring it’s easily found through search engine results.

Sounds like a relatively simple feat? Yet in a highly competitive online market, with millions of websites vying for top places in search engine result lists, successful SEO is a fine-tuned skill. The basic component to maximise Search Engine Optimisation success is to include relevant key words, or key phrases, within content that’s regularly updated and user friendly. These key words – or key phrases – are filtered by search engines, leading to placements in result lists. High placements in the result lists consistently lead to sites receiving an increase in web traffic.

How search works

Most web traffic is driven by Google, Yahoo and MSN – with Google attracting approximately 60 per cent of worldwide searches.

In simple terms, search engines perform indexing activities, commonly known as ‘web crawlers’ or ‘spiders’. These are mechanical programmes that examine website pages and gather information to create an index of data. The websites are then added to the search engine’s index log and are included in the page ranking procedure.

Relevancy while sorting through millions of web pages is determined by general rules. One of these is the location and Frequency of Keywords in Web Pages, though high volumes of keywords is more often discouraged and regarded as spam. These indexes logs are updated regularly and the stored web pages are checked for information changes. Websites where information has not been updated are more likely to fall lower down the result lists.

Therefore a vital element of website optimisation is editing the site’s HTML coding and content to increase relevance to specific key words.

SEO first steps

Successful search engine optimisation is a wide-ranging skill, which calls for a fair understanding of copywriting, web design and development and marketing. These attributes are essential when planning an SEO project or specific campaign.

There’s no quick and easy method to adapt to your website to increase Search Engine Optimisation, but there’s several tips which will help you along the way. Website optimisation is not a guaranteed science, but here are a few basic pointers to get started:

1. Keywords – define the words and phrases that describe what your website is about – the products you’re selling, or the content you want to share. Note what key words are relevant to your site.
2. Content – write content that’s relevant to your website. It should include the key words you’ve noted. Keep the content updated an easy for visitors to read. Make sure it’s well-written, useful and user friendly.
3. Page titles – make it easier for search engines to decipher what your website’s about by constructing simple, relevant Page Titles.
4. Easily read URLs – rather try to use easy-to-read URLs, known as ‘static’ URLs, as opposed to ‘dynamic’ URLs. Static URLs are more reader-friendly to the consumer.

Related posts:

1. What is search engine optimisation?
2. Start Winning with Search Engine Optimisation
3. SEO and web analytics
4. What to look for when commissioning an SEO expert
5. Good keywords make for a successful SEO campaign

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 9:33 am and is filed under About SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.