2.04 Search engine optimisation - SEO

When web sites are ranked highly in the search engines - listed in the first few results returned – then they attract larger visitor numbers, sell more and make greater profits. The need to achieve high rankings has led to the creation of a whole new industry - Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.

NaCl
SEO is new, unregulated, largely based on poorly defined “knowledge” and has a potential to make a large difference to the income that web sites generate – so its not surprising that it attracts large numbers of dubious operators. All claims made by SEO consultancies should be taken with a shovelful of salt. If you are considering employing an SEO company check their portfolio and make a point of talking to previous clients in person.

The good and the bad
I don't want to give the impression that SEO firms are all bad. There are lots of competent and conscientious companies that can make a real difference to how well your site performs online. They may not be the ones shouting loudest though.

Spamming the results
Search engines want to help every searcher to find what they are looking for as efficiently as possible. They employ expensive teams of highly qualified programmers and mathematicians to maintain the quality of their results. The algorithms they create to decide how pages rank are complex. Like any complex system there is an opportunity for the unscrupulous to manipulate the system. It is possible to achieve undeservedly higher rankings by taking advantage of loopholes in the way that search engines work. This is commonly known as “spamming the search engines”.

Falling off the top
When a site discovers a new method to “spam” the search engines it is often possible to achieve dramatically improved rankings for a short term. When the cheat comes to the search engines attention it changes its algorithm – and the site drops out of view again. If the abuse is extreme enough the site may even disappear from the index entirely.

Working with the search engines
The best way to optimise your site is to ensure that it provides the kind of content that searchers are looking for. Each page should have generous quantities of coherent quality content on a single theme. The text should be in natural language and should contain keywords and key phrases that searchers are actually likely to use when searching. To help the search engines your site should avoid page design elements that make it difficult for them to index your content.
The search engines want to return high quality, relevant, content rich sites to their users. If you create just that then you will achieve long term high rankings in all the engines.

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