Paul Forest has been leading the website optimization team for 1st Place Design over the last 8 years. During this time people have begun to socially credit him as a world leader in the field. Paul often presents at varies business marketing and innovation exhibitions.
Search engine optimisation is the process of enhancing a web sites ability to achieve top positions on search engines, therefore increasing the exposure of the web site to Internet users.
Search engine optimisation is the process of enhancing a web sites ability to achieve top positions on search engines, therefore increasing the exposure of the web site to Internet users. There are thousands of search engines used today. Three clearly dominate the world accounting for more than 90% of usage. These engines (in order of size) are Google, Yahoo and MSN. For a web site to succeed, it must be found easily on these major search engines.
A search engine is a database of web site pages on the Internet. The larger engines have billions of pages in their databases. When a user enters a search request, a very complex program then quickly calculates which pages, from the billions in their database, they will display for their search results. Needless to say, web sites appearing at the top of these results are deemed to be the most important and will therefore receive a greater number of visitors.
There are 2 areas that are considered by a search engine when they are compiling their results: Web Page Content and Web Page Link Support.
Web Page Content refers to the raw code of a web page. Each search engine has its own algorithm that is used to sort through web page code and arrive at a 'Content' score for the page. Most algorithms will assess the same areas of a web page, so it is important to ensure that each web page on a web site can be clearly understood. Search engine optimisation will focus a web page on a group of words determined to be the most important in regards to the audience being targeted. The important sections of a web page are then checked and content is adjusted to ensure that the best possible 'Content' score is achieved.
Web Page Link Support refers to the other web pages that link to the web page being assessed. The linking web pages can either be from the same web site or from other sites on the Internet. As with Web Page Content, an algorithm is used to generate a 'Web Page Link Support' score. This algorithm will consider several factors, including relevancy, strength and the formatting used for the link. The most important and time consuming job within search engine optimisation is building a strong network of related links to a specific web page. Building this network properly is very difficult, which is why search engines like Google now consider this score to be the most important when determining results.
Once the 2 scores have been generated, they are then used to create a final score for the web page being assessed. This final score will determine the position of the web page in the search result list.
The Web Page Content Score (WPCS)
To arrive at the WPCS*, a search engine will be examining the prominence and density of many different areas. In order to perform search engine optimisation (or SEO) to a web page, it is important to understand which areas need your attention. Here is a breakdown of each focus area:
Page Title:
This is the text displayed in the very top bar of your web browser. Page titles will also appear as the title in the search results on search engines. Page titles receive a lot of visibility before and after a person visits your site. Due to their high visibility, they are regarded as a very important variable in the calculation of your WPCS.
Figure 1: Example of Page Title, being "Example Web Page"
Figure 2: Example of Page Title in search results, being "Example Web Page"
File Names:
File names are the names that follow the "/" after your domain name in the Address bar of your browser. File names are usually very short descriptions of a web page (e.g. contact-us.html probably contains the contact information for the web site). As file name size is limited, keywords** that are used in this area are deemed to be important. Search engines will consider the file name of the page being assessed, as well as the file names that are linked to, from the page being assessed.
Figure 3: Example of a File Name, being "example.html"
Headings:
Headings use a special type of format called the
Link Text:
When you click on a link to visit another page, the text that you have clicked on is referred to as the link text (unless you have clicked an image, in which there is no link text - not good for SEO!). This is probably the most important area of a page when the WPCS is being calculated. Search engines like Google have based their entire search algorithms on how web pages link to each other. The prominence (i.e. position and text format) and keywords2 used in your link navigation is very important.
Body Text:
The body text refers to the main content visible on your web page. Search engines will be assessing the total amount of content as well as the density of the keywords** within the body text. It is ideal to keep pages within the range of 200-500 words. If you have pages that exceed 500 words, try and break them into multiple pages.
Alt Tag Text:
Alt Tag text plays an important role in usability. Alt tags will display the text for images, which is useful if a user has images turned off in their browser. Alt tags have minimal importance in the calculation of the WPCS as they are invisible to the user most of the time.
Figure 4: Example of Heading, Link, Body and Alt Text.
Meta Description:
The Meta Description appears in the 'Head' section of the source code for a web page. This description is not visible when viewing a web page in a browser; however it will be used by search engines like Google for descriptions in their search results (see Figure 2 - if the Meta Description is available (and contains keywords**) Google will place the description under the 'Link Title'). Meta Keywords: Like the Meta Description, Meta Keywords also appear in the 'Head' section of the source code for a web page. It is dubious as to whether Meta Keywords are considered by the major search engines anymore. However, it is good to include them just in case. It's also possible that smaller search engines are still placing a fair amount of weight on this area of the page.
Figure 5: Example of a Meta Description and Meta Keyword Tags.
Once you have identified these areas of the page, you are ready to begin optimising the page. Good SEO is all about balance; too many keywords in any of these areas can lead to penalties. As a minimum, it is good to insert one occurrence of each keyword you are targeting into these areas. Sometimes you may encounter a strong conflict with your design. It is important not to forget that search engine positioning is one part of success for your site. Once your visitor arrives, you need to capture with your design and content. Ideally, it is good to consult an SEO expert before constructing a web site. That way you will avoid design conflicts and ensure that your web site has the best possible chance of success.
Quick Google Tip for Better PageRank:
Google's PageRank score is all about the perceived quality of a web page. A very easy way to increase your PageRank is to align your Page Titles, Link Text and File Names on your web site. Google sees this as good usability and will reward you. For example, if you have a 'Contact Us' web page, then it would be good to use a Page Title 'Contact Us', link to the web page from other pages using the link text 'Contact Us' and then name the page file 'contact-us.htm'.
* The abbreviation WPCS has been created solely for this series and is not a commonly used term in the SEO world.
** A keyword is any word entered into a search box on a search engine. For example if you visited Google.com and typed "leather boots" into the search box, both "leather" and "boots" would be the keywords used for your search.