Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an internet marketing stratey.  It is the process of of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website via “natural” or “organic” search results. Typically, the higher up a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

SEO takes into account how search engines (specifically the Google search engine) work and what people search for. Optimizing a website involves editing its content and html to increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove / minimise any code that will deter the search engines.

All that said it is critical to do search engine optimisation the ethical way – if you try to cheat by doing things like key word stuffing (where you use your target key word too often throughout the content of your web page) then you run the risk of being de-indexed by the search engine.  Rather work together with a professional to optimise your website for the search engines while you focus on running your business!

Read this interesting info from Small Capital (21 issue 6 November / December 2006):

• 42% of people who buy from online retail sites arrive via search engines
• Only one site out of 100 gets substantial targeted traffic- and these are usually those that have implemented proper search engine optimisation and placement.
• More than 86% of all surfers discover new websites by using search engines
• When searching the internet users generally only view the first 10 listed sites – the rest almost never get seen
• Search engines create more awareness about websites that all other advertising combined, including banners, newspapers, TV and radio

If you are planning to launch a new website, or have an existing one, ask your service provider about search engine optimisation and how to improve your site’s position in the rankings. SEO is a must – just having a website is not enough anymore.  If people can’t find your website by searching for relevant keywords in a search engine then having a website is the equivalent of like winking in the dark
There are 2 main ways of getting traffic to your website: working at it so that the search engines have high rankings for your website for certain relevant keywords (known as the organic way of climbing the ranks) OR Pay Per Click where you pay to be listed in the sponsored links sections for certain keywords. This screenshot illustrates the difference: The Pay Per Click result is outlined in orange while the top organic result is outlined in green.

Both methods are effective ways of getting traffic to your website. The main difference being that when you stop paying with Pay Per Click then the link to your website is no longer featured and the traffic to your website stops.

The benefit of getting your site listed organically is that it will take a few months to get there but once it’s there it will probably stay pretty high in the rankings and be revisited every so often just to ensure that it stays there.

Where your website can be likened to having a company brochure, search engine optimisation can be likened to making sure you are ready and waiting with your brochure when there are people who need to read what it says.

Cantaloupe works more in getting results the ‘organic’ way and undertakes in a number of activities over a period of a few months in order to build up your rankings. Activities such ensuring the site is search engine friendly (not too much javascript, not coded in FLASH), checking that the content is optimised to the selected keywords, submitting the website to the search engines and directories, submitting articles to article directories and so on.