SEO Simplified

Search Engine Optimisation takes into account the factors used by Google, Bing etc. when they position websites in their natural listings. When we search for anything, up come the natural search lists. They are not to be confused with the Pay per Click entries. In a typical Google or Bing search, you can see the paid listings in the right column and in the yellow box at the top. Whilst the other free ads have been listed by the SE’s. The order of each site is determined by its ‘importance’ and relevance to the keyword.

We want to be right up there where we can be seen. We’re unlikely to get noticed if we’re number 8 on the tenth page! It’s impossible to know about all the SE’s rank determining factors. This is to prevent an outsider controlling the system.

Nevertheless, an entire industry has evolved around Search Engine listings. We have Search Engines constantly developing new technology on the one hand. Causing much mystification about their methods! On the other hand, there’s Search Engine Optimisation. Optimisation specialists test, quantify and evaluate a myriad of indicators that affect a site’s ratings.

SEO looks at two different aspects – one is Off Page and the other is On Page. In addition there are geographic and demographic factors, but SEO cannot control these. To understand factors relating to off-page, please see our additional editorial.

ON PAGE SEO Explained

On-Page SEO is all about changes you can make directly to a site to make it more Search Engine ‘friendly’. This is actually a fairly clear-cut process. It involves such factors as – Internal-linking, using H1 & H2 header tags, seeding keywords at the correct density (and in appropriate places,) and to some lesser degree, using meta-tags.

That might sound like gobbledy-gook, but don’t be alarmed! On-Page optimisation is now known to have the smallest affect on your page rank. In truth, many argue its relevance has disappeared altogether! In the past it was easy to affect Search Engines with on-page SEO. Not any longer though.

Having said that, if the website benefits from off page optimisation, then on page work should be looked at. When that’s happened, on-page factors can be optimised.

Things To Consider… A phrase that shows vast numbers of results should not be your first SEO target. ‘Car Insurance’ is a term to stay away from – unless you want to compete with 70,000,000 others! It’s not rocket science to realise that competing in this area wouldn’t be productive.

But… If I typed in “Southampton Car Insurance”, then there are only around 300,000 results. (Presuming that was my market). A big number still it seems – but actually quite a small number when it comes to web searches.

Now my chances are significantly improved. In actual fact, it takes very deep pockets to get a premier listing for a term like ‘car insurance’. I would actually be competing with the insurance conglomerates! Which is really not a good idea.

A precise description is much more valuable to us. These ‘long tail’ phrases might contain a number of specific keywords. If your market’s very competitive, you could be selecting seven word phrases. Usually, a long-tail phrase is three or four words.

In our opinion, phrases returning fewer than five hundred thousand results are a good start. (If the sites on the front page haven’t used SEO techniques, then we might go with bigger yields). As time goes on, we’ll benefit from an automatic improvement on the bigger terms as well. With some effort, it will be possible to have a stab at the big ones within a year. A line of attack like this makes business sense. We basically go after the high-converting phrases with ‘commercial intent’ – i.e. customers who are looking to purchase!

Your home page isn’t the only place for back-links. Spread them liberally around your website. This is known as deep linking. Product Group pages are a good place for back links. They very frequently link up to a range of sub-pages, so driving appropriate terms to them can be very worthwhile. So don’t limit the back links to one page. Bing, Yahoo and Google are all paying more attention to the way a website’s pages are managed and listed.

Copyright Scott Edwards 2009. Pop to Click HERE or Jason Kendall.

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