Search engine rankings tips

Most website users do not look past the first 3 pages of search results in a search engine, so your goal is to be ranked as highly as possible and at least within the first 30 results and ideally the top 10. Search Engine Optimisation (also known as Website Optimisation) is the process of maximising a sites ranking potential by using multiple key techniques.

Although search engines frequently change the way in which they rank sites in order to avoid being manipulated by marketers and damaging the engines integrity some elements will always play a factor in the ranking process.

Keywords

This is crucial to your sites optimisation, and is not as easy as it sounds. The objective is to specify a list of relevant and popular phrases that relate specifically to your site that are also being search on by your websites target audience.

A keyword is a term used by a person searching through a search engine to find a website that best matches what they are searching for. Identifying keywords should be done as early as possible, and generally identifying key phrases is better practice then single keywords as this makes for a more targeted search result.

Link Popularity

This refers to the number of websites that link to your web pages, and search engines measure the quantity as well as the quality of the websites that link to you website. Many search engines use this as an important factor in determining the search engine ranking of a website as well as your web pages page rank.

The Age of a Domain Name

Another factor that many search engines measure, in a way, the age of a domain name gives the appearance of longevity and therefore can gain higher relevancy in some search engines (for example Google). This is driven by spam sites which exist and then drop off quickly.

URL Web Page Names

These are the names you call each of your web pages and are used when creating links to web pages within your website. The use of keywords in these names helps with your sites rankings.

Content

The use of keywords within the content of your web pages is one of the best ways to obtain high search engine rankings. The objective is to place keywords in places that matter the most to search engines. Each web page in your site should focus on different keywords, making the pages more targeted as opposed to being general. With this in mind, the main focus of the content is to appeal to the visitor first and search engine second.