What really matters in search engine optimisation? Part 1

Before we look at what really matters in search engine optimisation (SEO), it's probably worth asking ourselves if we should be concerned about it. For some of us search engine optimisation simply isn't that important, while some of us depend on it as a source of traffic – and revenue – for our website.

SEO is a complex subject so I've broken it down into two parts. We'll return to SEO in our May newsletter but if you have any questions in the meantime, please call 01608 737653 or email kate.barlow@branchout-internetmarketing.com.

Does search engine optimisation matter to you?

1. Do people look for your company by name on search engines?
2. Do people try to find you or key members of your team using search engines?
3. Do you have a product or service which your ideal customer will be looking for online?

Typically, businesses with a 'complex' or 'consultative' sales approach, such as consultants or professionals, will answer 'yes' to the first 2 questions. They don’t always answer 'yes' to the third one. If this describes your situation, your SEO goals are probably to improve your rankings for your own name and your company's name.

If you sell products online or you know that your target market research their future purchases using the Internet, you will probably answer 'yes' to question 3. You might not answer 'yes' to questions 1 and 2. In this situation, you are likely to want to optimise for keywords and phrases which relate to your products or services, as well as trying to push your company name up the search rankings.

Once you have an idea of how search engines help people to find you, you will be in a better position to decide what strategy to follow. You will probably also be able to set appropriate budgets more easily too.

Set realistic expectations
Like anything in life, the more competition there is, the harder it is to get to the top. The search engine marketer's dream is to find a keyword which your target market uses to search online but which none of your competitors have spotted. Needless to say, these rarely exist!

It will take you probably six months to a year of steady work to get top rankings for competitive keywords. This work typically consists of weaving the keywords into the right places on your website and gathering appropriate inbound links. The other thing that will be happening over the year is that your site will be getting older and search engines favour well established websites.

For less competitive search terms, SEO can deliver good rankings in as little as 6 weeks. To support their search engine optimisation, many people choose to use pay-per-click advertising to make sure that their website starts appearing in the search engines straightaway. Click the link to review last month's newsletter on pay-per-click advertising.

The technical side of things
Making a success of your search engine optimisation is significantly easier if you get the technical fundamentals right. There are lots of different organisations giving different advice on this topic. I have taken the following from Planet Ocean, who are considered to be a reliable, expert source in e-marketing:

1. Avoid using Flash or Frames in your website (and exercise caution with JavaScript as it can make optimisation more tricky);
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2. Use well-formed HTML to write the website;
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3. Choose simple URLs (website addresses);
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4. Employ as flat a directory structure as possible (so your content isn't hidden away deeply in subdirectories);
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5. Include a site map, with a link from the homepage;
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6. Make effective use of your robots.txt file. Contrary to popular belief, their real value is in telling spiders which pages not to index, e.g. shopping carts or pages with sensitive company information.

Although Planet Ocean describe the ideal situation, or a variety of reasons, many of us have sites which do not fit this model. What works for search engines often works well for real people – but not always. Putting on a marketing hat, rather than an SEO hat, I would make a few comments:

1. If your target market is young, has fast web connections (broadband), browses in their leisure time or expects a particular type of image, you might need to use Flash or JavaScript to make your website appealing to your visitors. Equally, some functional areas of a website require Frames to make them usable;
   .
2. HTML (hypertext mark-up language) is an extremely useful, well-established programming language which search engines find very easy to read. Unfortunately, it isn't always easy to create whizzy looking websites using just HTML. However, using HTML for your navigation links and site map might be a good compromise;
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3. Simple URLs are easy for people to remember and, if you can include your company name or a keyword or two, can work well as an SEO tool and a marketing device;
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4. Not hiding information away in subdirectories makes sense for users but, if your site is large and has lots of information, you might have to use directories and then rely on a site map or search function to help visitors get to the information they require;
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5. Users and search engines like sitemaps. If you can create this page using HTML, even if the rest of the site is written in another language, it makes it more powerful as an SEO tool;
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6. The robots.txt file cannot be used to encourage search engines to spider your website. Most importantly, make sure that your robots.txt file does not contain the following:
   “User-agent: *
   Disallow: /”
   as this will stop all the major search engines from indexing your website

I hope this shows that there may be good reasons to set up a website which doesn't fit the ideal described by Planet Ocean. And, if your website doesn't fit with the ideal, it's not the end of the SEO world but you will find that it makes it harder to achieve top rankings in the search engines.

Next month we will look at choosing the keywords which will get your SEO off to the best possible start.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about search engine optimisation or would like some independent strategic advice on your e-marketing plans, please call Kate or Liz on 01608 737653 or email liz@branchout-internetmarketing.com or kate.barlow@branchout-internetmarketing.com for free, confidential and independent advice.

Kind regards,

Kate Barlow

You may copy or distribute this newsletter as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author are attached. The author is: Kate Barlow of Branch Out Internet Marketing, The Old Co-Op, High Street, Hook Norton, OX15 5NF, UK. Contact kate.barlow@branchout-internetmarketing.com or Tel: 01608 737653, Fax: 01608 737653.

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