Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving a website to rank higher in organic search results (as opposed to paid listings such as Google AdWords).
This is a brief guide to the two main factors that affect your search engine ranking; your website’s content and links from other websites to your website.
Your website’s content
Also known as on-site content, this refers to keywords on your website that can be read by search engines. Choosing the right keywords is very important, it involves selecting the words and phrases that are relevant to each page and using them throughout the page. It also involves checking what words people actually search for as there’s no point ranking number one for a term nobody uses.
For best effect, keywords must be used in these places:
- Once in the HTML title. These are the words that appear in the top bar of your web browser
- Once in the HTML description. This is not visible on screen but is often used in search engine results
- Around once a paragraph in the page content and in headings and subheadings.
If you are linking to a page within your website you should also use keywords in the link. For example, if you make a link to a page about web design:
For more about web design, click here.
Find out more about web design.
Links from other websites
Good content only goes so far, to get into good rankings takes links from other websites. As a rule, the better the website, the more a link from it is worth. Also, where possible, the link should go to the most relevant page which is not necessarily your home page - this is called “deep linking”.
However, getting other websites to link to yours can be difficult – put yourself in their shoes, why would they want to link to your website? Therefore you have to give people a reason to link to you, preferably without you having to link back to them. The best approach to this varies a lot depending on your particular website and industry.
How can we help?
Datadrum can help with all aspects your search engine optimisation from the keyword selection process to ongoing link-building. Alternatively we are happy to point you in the right direction.
Our content management system is designed to make your website as search engine friendly as possible, including managing your own keywords in all the most important places.
Further information
This guide is the tip of the iceberg, if you would like to know more please feel free to contact us. You may also like to read some of these useful links:
- Beginners guide to SEO
- Glossary of SEO terms
- Discussion of search engine ranking factors
- 66 ways to build links
