FREE SEO GUIDE

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process concerned with configuring a website to reach it's highest possible position when a search is carried out through a search engine. Every web site owner's dream is to achieve position number one for keywords relating to their particular website.

At the time of writing Google is unquestionably the most commonly used search engine on the internet and therefore it is critical that your website conforms to their guidelines if you want to maximise your website's search engine performance.

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK?

Prior to formulating your SEO strategy it is important to understand how search engines find, index and then rank web pages. Search engines use an algorithm to 'trawl' websites, these algorithms are known as search engine 'spiders' that are directed to a particular website usually following your submission or sometimes following a link from another website.

TEXT

It is easy for any web designer to become too focused on making sure that a website has beautiful graphics and flash technology to make an impact on anyone who visits. While search engines are able to read images, by far the most important content factor for SEO on a webpage is text. So when initially designing a web page create the text first and then build the images and flash around your text.

DYNAMIC PAGES

Avoid building websites using dynamic pages unless absolutely necessary as they can be detrimental to your SEO strategy. Although search engines are able to pick these pages up as long as they have inbound links, they prefer static pages.

FALSE PROMISES

There are many good SEO companies on the internet that can help you optimise your website, however be very wary of companies that promise 'a guaranteed listing' with a particular search engine because they may or may not claim that they have a special relationship with them. This is impossible as none of the top search engines forge such relationships with any SEO companies.

If you are looking for a company to perform SEO for you then the answer is simple; type "SEO" or a related phrase into Google and select one of the companies near the top, if they are able to get their own website to the top then they obviously have some idea of what they are doing. Avoid websites listed under the "Sponsored Links" section as they have had to pay to be there!

DIRECTORIES

Directories provide a list of websites much like a search engine, but rather than being sorted by rank they are organised into categories which vary dependant on the individual directory. It is important to bear in mind that directories vary dramatically in terms of quality and search engine recognition, and it is not always a certainty to obtain a listing once submitted. To maximise the use of time in your SEO strategy take the time to read the submission guidelines for each directory before you make a submission.

PAGERANK

You will here a lot of people talking about PageRank as a measure of how well a website has been optimised. It is true with Google a high PageRank rating is an indication as to how important the website is viewed as being, however having a good PageRank does not guarantee good SEO and vice versa.