Thanks to Andy Jones, Technical Team Leader for writing this article.
Those new to marketing on the web are often confused about SEO. In this blog post I will simplify and demystify SEO and address some common misinterpretations.
First up, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation.
Secondly, SEO is the process of optimising your website to better cater for search engines.
SEO does NOT involve the optimisation of search engines, only the optimisation of your website!
SEO can be explained in 3 simple points:
- End users engage search engines to access information on a topic.
- eg. like visiting a library.
- Search Engines provide the most relevant information and rank the resultant pages accordingly.
- eg. like the use of the dewey decimal system to categorise books.
- The company handling your SEO collaborate with you to provide the most relevant information possible for end users.
- eg. like capturing the reader’s attention with an informative book title and blurb.
Using these points as a guideline, I will demonstrate the process:
- I visit http://www.google.com.au and type in: japanese import cars perth.
- Google provides me with a list of Japanese vehicle importers websites for Perth, Australia.
- I view the results and make a selection based on the website I feel will provide me with the most appropriate information I need to purchase a Japanese car.
Now you’re probably asking yourself “how can my business website rankings be improved?” or “how can my business website get listed on page 1 of the search engine results page?”
As a Search Engine Optimiser I can tell you now that in order to rank on page 1, there are many factors that contribute to a healthy ranking. The main factor is that search engines make their money by giving away limited information on the way their search engine behaves. After all, it would be commercial suicide for you to go blurting out your internal business information / trade secrets.
The factors that Search Engine Optimisers have uncovered to date can be broken down into 2 categories; On-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to the code that holds your website together and the textual content within the website. A few positive on-page SEO factors are:
Keywords!!!
- Keywords in your website URL
- eg. if you sell cars in Perth, and you want to have healthy rankings for the search term “car sales perth” you should think about registering your domain name as www.carsalesperth.com.au
- eg. if you sell 4WD vehicles, search engines should favour a URL such as www.carsalesperth.com.au/products/4WD/4WD-Vehicles.html
- Keywords in title tag
- eg. visit this site: http://www.afl.com.au – at the very top of your screen (above your browser address bar) you will read “AFL – The official site of the Australian Football League”
- Now do a Google search for: Australian Football League – you will see that http://www.afl.com.au is the first result for that search term
- Keyword density in body copy text
- Emphasis is placed on headings, paragraphs, lists, etc.
- For more information on on-page SEO factors, hit me up: andy@theloftgroup.com.au
A few positive off-page SEO factors are:
Page Rank
- Your website Page Rank score is based on the amount and the quality of links that point to your website.
- AKA “backlinks”
Hyperlink Text
- eg. The hyperlinks that point back to www.afl.com.au typically contain the words “Australian Football League” or “AFL” which is a strong factor and can explain why the AFL website ranks #1 for the search term: AFL
Site Age
- Google recognises old website as being stable and credible information resources.
Before I conclude this blog post, I thought that it would be interesting to point out that end users often take search engine results as gospel. So much to the point where end users may modify their original search term because they feel that their search term was not descriptive enough or incorrect.
I hope my examples were clear and easy to follow, if your head is spinning, feel free to contact me on andy@theloftgroup.com.au
Thanks, and happy web browsing 
Tags: Andy Jones, Building Client Relationships, Corporate Identity, Cultivate, Custom Website Development, customer relationship management, customers, customise, Google Analytics, Graphic Design, Innovate, market position, marketing, Matt Preston small business, networking, Quality Website and Print Design Perth, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, SEM, SEO, Software Developer Perth, Software Development Perth, Stimulate, The Loft Group, web sites, Website Design, Website Developer, Website Metrics, Website Review