Why a good search engine optimisation strategy can pay dividends
For many web sites having good search engine visibility can be a major factor in the site's traffic and success. This is particularly important for companies that do not have a widely known brand, or operate in a comparatively specialist market.
Second to the inclusion of the web site address on all marketing materials, search engine optimisation is the most cost effective and broadest means of reaching interested consumers. It is therefore important that a web site is developed with a view to gaining high rankings on the most popular search engines.
In order to do this, the first step is to understand the key phrases that consumers would enter into a search engine to find a provider of the products or services of the company. Although it is important to rank highly for the company name, this is nowhere near as important as ranking highly for a description of the company's offerings.
In the past there were many ways to trick search engines into giving a web site a high ranking, nowadays all of the search engine have effective ways of blocking these techniques. The best way to achieve high rankings is to have key phrase rich copy with individual pages targeting a particular area of interest and to gain links to the web site from other high quality sites.
There are only threee search engines worth targeting as each of these provides results for many other search services: Google, AllTheWeb and Teoma. The current most important search engine is Google, as it is both one of the most popular with web users, and provides results to a large number of other sites.
It is important to aim for key phrases not key words, particularly in markets where there exist a large number of providers or web sites. Variations of key words within a phrase should also be considered.
Inbound links (links from other web sites) are also important for two reasons. Firstly, most search engines consider inbound links to be a vote of quality from the originating site, as this can therefore increase a sites search engine rankings. A good set of high quality links can make a distinct difference in search engine rankings.
Secondly, inbound links are a great way to get consumers to visit a site. Many specialist directories exist which can often be a first port of call for a consumer researching a product. Getting listed in these brings three benefits: an increase in traffic as consumers are more likely to find you; a 'vote of confidence' from the site linking to you; and where search terms are highly competitive, directories will often be prevalent in the search results.
experience engine offers a range of search engine optimisation services. To find out more about search engine optimisation and marketing, call 01992 500990 or e-mail us.
