Search Engine Optimisation
The adoption of search engines has become widespread by users browsing the ever-expanding World Wide Web. A Search engines prime objective is to find sites that are most relevant to your search criteria, broadly speaking it does this based on the content of the site and it’s popularity on the web. Search engines are actively working to make sure these results are accurate. Getting your site ranked well in search engines is the process of Search Engine Optimisation.
Optimising your site for higher rankings
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be loosely broken down into four areas:
- Code optimisation; for engine robots (also called spiders or crawlers)
- Content optimisation; for relevant keywords
- Search engine submission; for site crawling
- Link popularity; how popular your site is with other web sites and directories
- Search engine marketing; web based and traditional marketing strategies.
Code optimisation
For search engines to ‘crawl’ your website effectively, the site code needs to be structured in a way that highlights relevant keywords. A surprisingly large number of websites actually hinder search engines in the way their code is structured.
Messagepac™ delivers code that is highly optimised for search engines. This includes:
- Search engine friendly URLs
- Correct use of HTML formatting tags in site content
- Support for metadata keyword and description tags
- Accessible site alternative pages
- Individual page titles based on Content
- ‘Clean code’ minimal use of Java script etc.
With Messagepac’s optimised code structure content authors can add content without worrying about the underlying code at all.
Note: A 3rd party optimisation service will look at optimising code on your site as part of the service. This is not required with Messagepac based sites so make sure it is excluded in the price quoted
Content optimisation
Content optimisation is the process of defining keywords for your market and can be separated into:
- Tag content
- Actual content
Tag content includes Meta tags (tags that describe data) such as title, keywords and description Meta tags and also ‘alt’ tags which are used as the text alternative for image on the site. Messagepac provides support for all the tags through the graphic user interface in the administrative section of the site. The tag content can be input directly by the author when adding new content.
Note: Selection of well performing keywords can be an ongoing and sophisticated task, ‘Key word analysis’ is an Optimisation task that takes into account the performance of keywords, competitor’s use of keywords, keyword submission to search engines and cross-site links.
Actual content optimisation is, broadly speaking, the use of keywords in the title and body content of the site. Chosen keywords should be used in the title of an article and the actual article itself to increase keyword proliferation throughout the site.
Search engine submission
Search engine crawlers can often find sites simply by following links from other sites, with varying success - often depending on the rank of the originating site, however you can also submit your site to search engines for inclusion. There are many search engines to submit to, over 300 engines have a large enough user base to be worth considering. Many of these use central results producing by the major engines, so using an experience SEO professional can be beneficial in getting better results. It is also worth bearing in mind that many of the software applications that automatically submit your site can also get you de-listed if they conflict with the search engines often changing criteria for submission!
Note: Whilst once off submission is beneficial in getting your site initially crawled, ongoing carefully timed submissions and keyword selection can improve search engine results.
Link popularity
Most search engines base their results on a variety of ranking methods. The number and the rank of sites linking to your site can have an impact on your list position. So the general rule is to try and get as many sites to link to you as possible. This will increase ‘organic’ traffic (through the links) and potentially your search engine position. Search engines do have sophisticated algorithms to access popularity based on links, so for optimum results it is worth consulting a search engine marketing specialist for additional advice.
Search engine marketing
Search engine results can be affected by online marketing activities including Pay per click advertising, banner advertising and pay for directories. This is an ongoing marketing activity that can normally be provided by Search engine specialists. Again there are a number of factors that will impact the effectiveness of these campaigns in relation to the search engine positions, including keywords, ad placements, advertising budget etc.
Search Engine Optimisation services
We can provide a complete, ongoing Search engine optimisation and marketing service for Messagepac customers. Please contact us for more details.
© Copyright 2005 Digital Forest Interactive Solutions ltd.
Article Date: 14th September 2006 |
