Website Optimisation 1: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly(Published Article EzineArticles.com) Can there be a more confusing subject than Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)? The Internet is an amazing place to display information and it has the potential to reach an audience of billions worldwide. The search engines, such as Google, will advertise snippets of your information on their results pages without charge. For those with commercial interests it all sounds so incredibly attractive. On the negative side, if your webpages are not on the top search engine results page for your targeted keywords (search terms) they are unlikely to be found by more than a few of your anticipated audience. Everyone with a website wants to find that magic bullet that will shoot their pages to the top of Google as this is the key to success. For those new to website promotion it quickly becomes apparent that search engine optimisation is required. At first the research looks encouraging as there is a 'googol' of information and everyone claims to have answers. A few 'guaranteed' improvements are enthusiastically made to your website. You relax, sit back and wait for your bank manager to call you asking if you have won the lottery: Invariably nothing happens - no call - no busloads of visitors or clients and no sign of that life of luxury. Depending on your resilience, a further series of 'fail-proof' recommendations and programs are implemented but, sooner or later, realisation sets in: Evidence of efficacy of the advice received or any software utilised is virtually impossible to find. Missed Website Opportunities Sadly, search engine optimisation has acquired a bad press. There are no regulations and anyone can claim expertise. Understandably, many website owners become totally disillusioned with website optimisation and settle for a web presence only. Their website becomes an online brochure with little more than a few contact details. They publicise their business and website by older methods of marketing including advertising and networking: These are relatively expensive when compared to even high quality SEO. The cost of a couple of hours SEO is likely to be more than offset by two or three additional new clients. I more than sympathise with website owners who take a negative view to all things SEO. The fact is that for the majority of small and medium sized business websites, the internet will not bring about a change in lifestyle. However, in terms of return on investment, SEO with guidance from a genuine optimiser is likely to outperform other marketing strategies. Most web designers have wonderful artistic skills but only a minority understand SEO beyond the absolute basics. SEO is a science rather than an art. A beautiful website that has not been adequately optimised will fail to deliver. SEO - The Good and the Bad How can you differentiate a genuine SEO expert from a charlatan or a program that is effective from one that is a waste of precious resources? Anyone with a passion for SEO will have written extensively about it and should have the ability to broadcast widely on the web: A true expert will have numerous articles and blog comments published on the Internet. Google their name or their company and you will quickly establish who is genuine. Testimonials about a person, company or program are meaningless unless they appear on other people's websites: Anyone can write a brilliant testimonial about themselves and put it on their own website. A search for 'link:theirwebsiteaddress' will list all the links that others have made to the company's website. It is advisable to do this with Yahoo as Google hides most of the links. Beware of optimisers or programs that make promises that sound too good to be true. Anyone with SEO experience will know that it is simply impossible to achieve top positioning for whatever keywords you choose. Keep your distance from anything that sounds like cheating. For example, links to your website are beneficial to the positioning of your webpages provided they have been acquired by natural means. Websites that try to cheat their way to the top by the use of unethical link acquisitions may find that at best they are counter-productive. The search engines have increasingly sophisticated means to pick up malpractice. The recent Google Panda update is the latest example. SEO - The Ugly The first ugly truth about website optimisation is that there is no magic bullet or quick fix. The second is that for the majority of websites most of the desirable keywords will be out of range for top positioning. There is no point throwing resources at the unachievable. As a very rough guide, tens of thousands of incoming links are likely to be required for most short-tail keywords (one or two words). Few small or medium sized business websites will have more than one or two thousand. Greater sophistication on achievability is provided by understanding HomePage PageRank and HomePage PageRank keyword difficulty (HPR-KD). Good website optimisation. Website optimisation is best regarded as an on-going task in website development. You cannot expect to shoot to the top and stay there. HomePage PageRank determines the keywords that are currently in range and it is the top factor used by Google to determine positioning. There are other user signals that modify positioning. If the majority of searchers clicking on a link to a webpage do not return quickly to Google for another recommendation it will be seen as a positive signal and the page may improve its positioning. The reverse is also true. Quality of content and excellence of presentation are crucial. You have less than 10 seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your webpage. A good optimiser will start with the basics. This will include checking:
Poor visual presentation, spelling mistakes and text that is difficult to follow will result in visitors leaving before they even consider your 'call-to-action.' Recently, I was invited to look at the optimisation of a major institution's expensive content management system (CMS) website. The website looked attractive enough but it could not be found on some of the search engines. The Page title of the HomePage of a website is its most precious real-estate. The HomePage page title was 'Home'. All that was required was a minor adjustment to the CMS program which brought the website to the top of all the major search engine results pages. SEO is not a technique that can be applied once and will bring life-long benefit. Matt Cutts, the lead in Google's anti-spam unit and a regular spokesman explains SEO as requiring the Katamari philosophy. Katamari is a Japanese game where you start with a tiny object and gradually roll up larger and larger objects so that the ball gradually grows. If you want to achieve anything worthwhile in life you need to team up with an expert who will provide guidance according to your aspirations and abilities. Original Publication - http://ezinearticles.com/?Website-Optimisation-1:-The-Good,-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly&id=6610824 |
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