Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation now involves two basic challenges - attracting visitors and links from other sites. High quality sites providing valuable content are almost inevitably gravitating towards the top of most search results tables.

Search engine position is an important element of online marketing. Obviously your company is at a significant advantage if you come top of a search for 'cheese' (assuming you are a cheesemonger that is - if you aren't you have a problem). Not only will this drive traffic to the site, but this traffic is also highly targeted, being people who have already expressed an interest in your product or service.

Given that this is the case, a whole industry has developed around 'optimising' a site's position on these search rankings. In the past, most search engines have referred to the HTML itself in order to judge how relevant a site is to any particular search. So our hypothetical cheesemonger would be advised to include the word 'cheese' in the Title, meta tags, content and header of his or her homepage, whilst avoiding elements such as frames and splash pages which may confuse the automatic 'spiders' which collect this information.

A New Challenge

Most search engine optimisation programmes still run along these lines. Unfortunately, search engines increasingly do not. Instead, some of the more popular engines, such as Google, now look more closely at measures of popularity and 'peer review', such as actual traffic figures and particularly the number of links to the site from elsewhere on the web. The latter in particular is held to indicate how valuable and authoritative any given site may be.

These engines are particularly popular, precisely because they provide the user with the types of sites they are likely to be interested in. As an interesting aside, their success is also due to a total focus on performing one task well, without distractions and with a minimum of advertising.

Given this new model, search engine optimisation now involves two basic challenges - attracting visitors and links from other sites. And this in turn points to the central, unavoidable fact of modern search engine placement - high quality sites providing valuable content are almost inevitably gravitating towards the top of most search results tables. The reasons are obvious:

• Unless your site provides high-quality, regularly updated content, visitors will not return on a regular basis and are less likely to recommend the site to others. Ultimately, long-term traffic levels will rely on providing content that your target audience requires, presented in a usable format.
• Sites that provide extensive resources are always more likely to attract more links from elsewhere on the web. Although 'link exchange' programmes can have some effect, they rely on giving something away in return for a link to your site. Good content generates links simply because other webmasters link to your site as a service to their readers

However, whilst good quality content is a necessary condition for successful search engine placement, traditional techniques for search engine optimisation still have a place in any sensible companies strategy. In a way, the innate quality of a site determines how high it can be positioned, whilst the correct use of meta tags, titles and so on will ensure that it does fulfil this potential on as many engines as possible. But it must be remembered that these techniques alone are no substitute for great content.

Making the most of quality content

Content is ultimately what drives traffic and creates links to your site, but it is equally important that it is presented in a way that makes using the site an enjoyable experience. This, after all, will determine how frequently users return. With this in mind, sites that focus on meeting user needs as effectively and efficiently as possible are likely to begin to enjoy success in terms of search engine placement.

In terms of link generation, although you are relying on the goodwill of those adding the links to their own sites, it helps to keep people posted about what is available on your site. Try searching using the sort of keywords that you would imagine your audience would use, look at the top ten sites or resources, and try to make these sites aware of your efforts. You will typically find that many of the most popular sites in any given area will be 'portals' - which are usually more than happy to add useful links for their readers.

By following these techniques and putting well-targeted content first, any site can, over time, begin to climb the search engine rankings.