Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimisation (Optimization if you're Stateside) or SEO is a process by which internal and external aspects of a web site are adjusted to gain high search engine returns on key word and key phrase searches. Search returns are sometimes referred to as organic or natural.

The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google attracts approximately 60% of worldwide searches at 37 billion, with Yahoo (8.5 billion) and Microsoft (2.2 billion). A number of country-specific search engine companies have also become prominent in their own territories; for example Baidu in China, Guruji in India, Yandex in Russia.

High placements invariably lead to sites receiving an increase in traffic. 78% of users abandoning their search if the first 3 pages don't provide an answer to their question high search engine placements are essential. 28% don't even consider scrolling past the 2nd page of results. High traffic can be converted to revenue through sales, advertising revenue, referrals, votes or whatever call to action is invoked on landing pages. Smart, professional Search Engine Optimisation yielding high organic returns (70% of search engine users prefer organic search returns to sponsored links or PPC) can deliver extremely powerful results.

Keywords and phrases are entirely dependent on business objectives and need to be researched thoroughly to determine which words and phrases best represent the crossover of what you as an organisation which to offer (the reasons for your online marketing) and what terms your ideal audience for these services or products are using to search on.

As well as defining your semantic space it's important that the site is prepared for the search engines on a technical level. A thorough site analysis will reveal unfriendly URLs, obstacles to search engine spiders and inappropriate Search Engine Optimization damaging code.

They say "content is king". In the case of Search Engine Optimisation there are many who would agree. Search engines don't look for images, video, audio or Flash - they search for text content. Good copy can go a long way. Whilst it is possible to achieve top rankings for specific keywords almost immediately based on "relevance", some Search Engine Optimization 'specialists' try to be too relevant.

In addition to content, search engines respect structure and they like to know what's important about your organization. Sites ideally should have the most semantically relevant information higher up in the site hierarchy and each page should use structural elements - heading, paragraph and other HTML tags - to prioritise importance.

Link Analysis is another critical aspect of search engine's ranking, in fact a large part of website optimisation happens off the page with Google and the other search engines determining sites importance by the links from external sites. Global Link Popularity is arguably the most important Search Engine Optimization criteria. Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines love to see sites that havequality incoming links from other relevant sites. Sources might include current associates, online directories, press releases and blogs. 

Contact SEO Consult to discuss your Search Engine Optimization requirements now.