Search Engine Optimisation Broken Down SEO (search engine optimisation) is the method of improving the quality or amount of traffic to a website through unpaid means as opposed to paid advertising such as Google AdWords and is much easier to learn than it sounds! Many people think that you need to have a marketing background or be able to read HTML to succeed in the SEO world - this isn't true.
SEO is not a dark art or a complicated skill.
Once you break it down there is just one important rule to remember - relevance.
Search engine optimisation is often divided into two parts - on page and off page.
On page SEO is things that you can change and manipulate on your website, and off page SEO is things you can do the same to away from your website.
I don't think that either is more important than the other but both are necessary to start creeping up the rankings.
Let's look at on page SEO first.
For me, this is the 'bread and butter' part of SEO.
This is where relevance is at its most important.
Imagine looking at a website of a company you had never heard of before, but only being able to see the text that appears on it.
You can replicate this.
Google 'Google view website' and go to the first results.
You can enter your companies website here and it will show you how Google views your website.
Because of this, Google can only know what you tell it.
Your on page SEO needs to tell the search engines about your website and what you sell or offer.
Your keywords should appear on your website several times, in the page title, description and header tags - but remember not to keyword stuff, keep the user in mind.
If lots of people find your website but all of them are put off by poor copy and design, there will be no one left to buy your product or service.
As for off page SEO; it is the part that shouts your website out to the world.
Off page SEO is mostly concerned with building backlinks to your website.
Backlinks are like votes, the more you get, the more your website is considered to be good or important.
It is not just quantity that determines your website rankings however, but quality as well.
Backlinks from sites that search engines consider to be important are more valuable.
How do you tell which are more important? Download the Google Toolbar which gives you a Google Page Rank Tool.
Google ranks each page it indexes out of 10; 10 being the most important.
The Google Page Rank tool shows you the Page Rank (PR) of the page you are looking at, enabling you to see which pages are deemed to be more important.
The best backlinks to get are those that are from relevant blogs, websites and forums - places where potential customers are likely to look.
So not only will your website be deemed more important by Google but relevant users will find you as well.
On page and off page SEO together, make sure that your website is relevant to the search terms you want to be found under, and then get the relevant people hearing about it.
There are of course many more ways of optimising your website, but these things I have touched upon are the basics.
Once these are sorted, the rest becomes much easier.
SEO is not a dark art or a complicated skill.
Once you break it down there is just one important rule to remember - relevance.
Search engine optimisation is often divided into two parts - on page and off page.
On page SEO is things that you can change and manipulate on your website, and off page SEO is things you can do the same to away from your website.
I don't think that either is more important than the other but both are necessary to start creeping up the rankings.
Let's look at on page SEO first.
For me, this is the 'bread and butter' part of SEO.
This is where relevance is at its most important.
Imagine looking at a website of a company you had never heard of before, but only being able to see the text that appears on it.
You can replicate this.
Google 'Google view website' and go to the first results.
You can enter your companies website here and it will show you how Google views your website.
Because of this, Google can only know what you tell it.
Your on page SEO needs to tell the search engines about your website and what you sell or offer.
Your keywords should appear on your website several times, in the page title, description and header tags - but remember not to keyword stuff, keep the user in mind.
If lots of people find your website but all of them are put off by poor copy and design, there will be no one left to buy your product or service.
As for off page SEO; it is the part that shouts your website out to the world.
Off page SEO is mostly concerned with building backlinks to your website.
Backlinks are like votes, the more you get, the more your website is considered to be good or important.
It is not just quantity that determines your website rankings however, but quality as well.
Backlinks from sites that search engines consider to be important are more valuable.
How do you tell which are more important? Download the Google Toolbar which gives you a Google Page Rank Tool.
Google ranks each page it indexes out of 10; 10 being the most important.
The Google Page Rank tool shows you the Page Rank (PR) of the page you are looking at, enabling you to see which pages are deemed to be more important.
The best backlinks to get are those that are from relevant blogs, websites and forums - places where potential customers are likely to look.
So not only will your website be deemed more important by Google but relevant users will find you as well.
On page and off page SEO together, make sure that your website is relevant to the search terms you want to be found under, and then get the relevant people hearing about it.
There are of course many more ways of optimising your website, but these things I have touched upon are the basics.
Once these are sorted, the rest becomes much easier.
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