Q. What is search engine optimisation?
Search engine optimisation is the attempt to optimise your web site for maximum visibility on the search engines? The three main areas involved in search engine optimisation are keyword research or keyword analysis, page optimisation techniques, and link building strategies.
Q. Why should you consider search engine optimisation?
Having a website is one thing, but how are people going to know that your site exists. There are literally billions of web pages on the internet and the numbers are growing every day. Research suggests that up to 80% percent of people use search engines to find what they are looking for on the internet. In order to get your share of this huge market, it's important that your site can be found. Search engine optimisation can improve your visibility, so when someone types a search phrase into Google relevant to your company your website shows at or near the top of the list. Find out how our can help improve your search engine profile.
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Q. Why are keywords so important?
Keywords (or keyphrases) are the words that people type into search engines to find the information, products and services they are looking for. You need to determine what are the best keywords for your business and then optimise your web pages to ensure that your site appears high up in the search engines when someone searches for those words. Find out how our can help ensure you have the most effective keywords for your business.
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Q. What are the most popular search engines?
The key search engines in order of importance are Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask and AOL. Between them they cover around 95% of the market.
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Q. What is the difference between a search engine and a directory?
Search engines use programmes called spiders or bots which continuously traverse the internet going from site to site and link to link. Typically, a search engine spider will find your site through a link on another website. When it arrives at your site it will index your pages for inclusion in it's search results. Web directories typically consist of categories of subjects which visitors can browse or search. Whereas search engines will eventually find your site on their own, you need to submit your site to appear in a directory. Many directories have human editors who evaluate your submission before your site is placed. Some directories are free, while others charge a one off or even an annual fee to include your site. The (DMOZ) is the best and most well known free directory.
Among the many paid directories is the leader in the field.
Q. What's the importance of link-building?
Link building is increasingly recognised as a crucial requirement for search engine optimisation. All the major search engines have different formulas (algorithms) which they use to determine what results to show when someone performs a search on the internet. Among the most important factors are so called "in-bound links". An in-bound link is a link on another website which points to your site. Search engines interpret these links as a vote of confidence for your website. So a site with lots of in-bound links may be deemed more important than a site with no in-bound links. However, it is not just the number of links but the quality of those links that really makes the difference. Find out how our can help you succeed with your link building campaign.
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Q. How do I know if my site is doing well on the search engines?
In order to measure the success of your search engine optimisation efforts you will need a web statistics or web analytics package. There are many hundreds of products on the market which can show you a whole range of information about the visitors to your website. For example, how many visitors you receive each day, week or month, which pages on your web site your visitors are viewing and the geographical location of your visitors. In addition web analytics packages can also show you which search engines are referring visitors to your site, which keywords they are using and your position for certain keywords across a whole range of search engines. Click here more details about our own and packages.