What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search engines, such as Google, MSN and Yahoo, provide a way for Internet users to find what they want from the hundreds of millions of web pages that make up the World Wide Web. Just being discovered on your own is almost impossible.

Search Engine Optimisation (seo) is a process designed to ensure that your web site lists as high as possible in each of these search engines.

To build their database of web sites, the search engines use small programs (called spiders or 'bots) to automatically scan the web and then index the websites that they find. The search engines then use a complex set of rules to prioritise these sites based on relevance to the search terms or phrases entered by visitors when they perform a search.

Search Engine Optimisation aims to make it as easy as possible for the search engines to index your web site and to ensure that your site is associated with the right keywords, terms or phrases; those with which you want to be associated and those that result in the most conversions at your site (conversions referring to sales, subscriptions, enquiries or any other goals that you have set for your web site). So that when someone searches for a particular keyword or phrase your web site will be listed as near to the top of the page as possible.

Being Visible

Many web sites rank very poorly, if not at all, because their content is effectively hidden from the search engines due to search-engine-unfriendly design. What might look pretty, might not 'spider' very well. You also need to layout your site in 'search-engine-friendly' ways, write the content on your website in 'search-engine-friendly' ways and establish links with other websites in order to improve your ranking on the major search engines.

Competition

Achieving a high search-engine ranking is made even more difficult by the fact that everyone else is trying to get their site listed on the front page of Google, Yahoo and MSN as well. The amount of work required to achieve a front-page listing is dependant on the level of competition that you face for specific keywords or phrases. If your competitors optimise their web site more effectively than you do (by spending more money, time and effort than you) they will out rank you and will get more traffic to their website Ð it is estimated that 90% of traffic goes to sites listed on the first page of a search listing.