Each and every visitor matters a lot for any website owner and it is not very common for visitors to type in the URL to locate a website unless they are the employee of the company, relative of the website owner or network administrators. People commence their journeys from search engines that are no longer a directory listing but a platform supported by sophisticated algorithms correlating user’s inquiry phrase with the relevancy of the website content.
In view of this and in today’s competitive digital environment; getting better, indeed the best ranking on search engines is (or at least should) of utmost priority for any website owner with any level of a sales or marketing mindset.
First of all, the realisation of the existence of other search engines like Yahoo and Bing could be the first step. Although Google search engine is presently dominating the planet and doing a great job understanding the user’s interest patterns, be it through their Google Account data or Chrome Browser usage, Yahoo and Bing have their own and strong search algorithms that should not be neglected too.
The initial step should be fine-tuning the website in a way that search engines may understand, evaluate and rate better. These efforts do not consist merely stuffing valuable search phrases into articles on the website but involve layout and design of the website, strategical placement of keywords across the website, text links and site maps, back links and finally close observation of often changing search engine rules.
Web sites should serve as their intended purpose. For example, if the visitor is coming to the website to acquire information; information should be presented without getting user look for it. For example, a gigantic image might be welcoming the users with so many sweet icons, call for action buttons, a very nice background. But where is the content? Search engine bots will have difficulties understanding what the website is about. Every single character, that is on the content or coding of the website matters for search engines. Best practice is to employ a disciplined approach and follow the search engine rules, present the content in order, categorise, tag and furnish the content with pristine diligence and patience. This is also one of the effective ways deterring bloated content as this much quality effort does not pay for a cheap piece of work.
Strategically distributing keywords or putting the focus on certain keywords is the key to search engine optimisation. Lack of keywords on the website (worse is their non-existence in the website owner’s mind as well) is as bad as stuffing the website with over-usage. In the early days, there were many case studies of websites returning high search results but hosting no content that was relevant to the intended key phrase. Later it was found that these websites were using “white coloured fonts” that were invisible to human eyes but perfectly readable by search engine bots. The good news is that those days are over and it is nearly impossible to cheat search engines. Content should have a certain percentage of keywords in the content body as well as within inside titles, meta tags. Ideally, it is a good practice to have critical keywords exist in the early paragraph of the content, used in headlines as well as in hyperlinks.
Text links and sitemaps are great instruments getting the website organised properly. For the search bots, these are great tools recognising and positioning the content correctly. Sitemaps illustrate the entire network of internal pages within the website. It is like timetable of an airline which is extremely easy to use, efficient and organised. Creating navigational menus using text links are like road signs guiding the visitors, as well as bots where the content is found. In brief, efforts spent on page optimisation is at least as important as off page optimisation. Period. And this last sentence is the summary of the entire article here.
Other websites’ referral to the concerned website is also a useful validation tool for search engines. This proves that content hosted on the website is credible, reliable and probably unique that other websites refer their users to the concerned website with a certain level of trust. Of course, it is not easy to catch the attention of first pager websites very easily and requires some time to build up.
As search engines’ priority is to match the inquirer’s search phrase with most relevant, best quality and reliable content, often changes in rules for better is inevitable. Some are major, fundamental (i.e. detecting white coloured fonts that are serving the purpose of cheating) and some are minor changes. For anyone who immerses himself into the logical world of search engine optimisation will in no time capture the flow and align his preparations accordingly. Certain forums, blogs and search engines’ very own portals have plenty of information about these and luckily these are published way in advance of implementations which gives ample time for the website to calibrate its side.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) can be complex but following simple principles and employing a certain degree of discipline is more than enough to succeed.
WAHO DIGITAL offers introductory and preparatory training modules for Search engine optimisation (SEO) that makes it easier for marketing staff, content producer or business owners to comprehend the basics. Contact us now to find out more.
