Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the art of designing a website so as to gain a good ranking with online search engines. The goal is to enable those who would be interested in the site’s content to easily find it. Whether you are selling a product, promoting a message, or simply sharing information, a website that is effectively optimised can attract more visitors, thereby making the site more successful.
SEO has evolved considerably since its advent. Originally, SEO included such tactics as placing hidden text on the page, making use of deceptive redirects, and repeating keywords multiple times (known as “keyword stuffing”) both within the text and the HTML code. Today, such practices are discouraged. In fact, employing them can potentially lead to penalties if not a complete ban from selected search engines.
Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing regularly update their search algorithms. This requires website designers and owners to be diligent if they hope to achieve and maintain a good position in the search engine results pages, or SERPs. Search engines may prioritise different factors, adjusting them over time. Rarely do all the considerations become public knowledge. Currently, though, SEO appears to be focused primarily on these seven elements:
1. User-friendly web design
The design of your site will determine how satisfied your visitors are. Is your site designed in such a way that users can find what they are seeking quickly and easily, or do they have to sort through a multitude of ads and links before they stumble upon anything of value? If the content sought can be easily found, visitors will typically remain on your site for a longer period of time. If they become frustrated, however, they will “bounce” back out as quickly as they arrived. Search engines consider how long visitors remain on your site, so it would be worth the effort to make sure they want to stick around.
2. Strategic use of keywords
Although keyword stuffing is to be avoided, keywords used correctly are invaluable to SEO. By using keywords (or keyword phrases) in context on each page of your site, you can let search engines know the primary subject of each page. Keywords are also effective when used within the coded descriptions of images, page titles, and URLs. By optimising your site with keywords, you can enable search engines to let the appropriate searchers discover your site.
3. High quality content
A user-friendly web design and strategically used keywords will mean nothing if your site does not contain quality content. Gauging the length of time visitors spend on your site and the number of return visitors your site receives can indicate whether or not your content is worthy of gaining a prominent position on the SERPs. Also, as search engines become more sophisticated, they are better able to detect errors in spelling and grammar. Providing excellent content that is error-free will result in search engines taking your site more seriously.
4. Regular updates
Adding new content to your site on a regular basis will accomplish a couple of purposes. First, it will draw users to revisit your site frequently. Second, it will signal to search engines that your site is active, not dormant. Dormant sites will inevitably sink in the SERPs while active sites will rise to the top. Regular updates will also help you battle against content scrappers that may attempt to steal content from you site to post elsewhere, thus diminishing the uniqueness and performance of your site.
5. Sitemaps
By including a sitemap in the root directory of your website, you can inform search engine web crawlers about all the pages on your site. This can greatly increase the chances of all your pages being indexed, potentially rewarding you with a higher search ranking. If your website is fairly extensive, you may want to have two sitemaps: one for the web crawlers (named “sitemap.xml”) and another that can be used by visitors for navigation.
6. Functional links
Dead links annoy website visitors and they also annoy web crawlers. Check the links-both internal and external on your site to make sure they are active. Additionally, create a custom 404 “not found” error message to be displayed in the event that a link becomes inactive sometime in the future.
7. Links directed to your website
The number of links from other websites to your site indicates to search engines how others feel about your content. The more links, the more weight your site will be given. Submitting your URL to relevant directories and including it within your signature on message boards and in blog comments can help. Be aware, however, that buying links from link farms and exchanging links with disreputable sites can adversely affect your website’s performance in the SERPs.
Pay attention to these SEO related factors and you will give your website its best chance of gaining prominence in search results. To continue performing well on the SERPs, stay informed about the latest trends and SEO practices. If you do, you can consistently draw in new visitors while keeping the regulars coming back, experiencing a new level of success as a result.
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