Search Engine Optimisation

Think of search engines as librarians, except these librarians read and index every book that ever was, or ever will be published. And when you visit the library and ask for a book on the mating habits of the cat flea, they'll recommend the one that they feel covers the subject in most depth, and which is referenced by the greatest number of books elsewhere in the library.

But matters are complicated by the fact that when you ask the librarian for a book about the mating habits of a cat flea, there are many different ways you might do it: ‘cat flea mating habits?', ‘book about flea sex?', ‘reproductive process of Ctenocephalides felis ?' or perhaps ‘sexy flea pics?'. Clearly, you need to make sure that the librarian knows your book, or rather, your website is relevant to all of these.

But now there's another problem. The ‘sexy flea pics' section of the library is absolutely chock-a-block full of websites containing pictures of nude fleas. What's more, the authors of these websites are also doing everything they can to persuade the librarian to recommend their site to anyone with a penchant for some flea action. In fact, they've been doing it for years and there's little chance you'll beat them at it, especially not in the short term. In this case, you'd be better asking the librarian to recommend your site to anyone asking about the: ‘reproductive process of Ctenocephalides felis '. Although less people might search using these terms, the librarian is more likely to point to your website when they do.

This, then, is the first step in optimising your website: researching which are the least competitive search terms that your customers might use to find you. Probably the best tool to help you do this is Wordtracker, a tool which helps you brainstorm search engine terms, and then tells you which are the most popular but least competitive. Other tools include the Overture keyword selector tool, which gives an indication of search term popularity, and the Google Adwords tool, which will give you an idea of how much other people are prepared to bid for certain terms.

Once you've identified your search terms, it is time to make sure your website shouts them at the librarian.

Search engines use automated programs called spiders (also known as crawlers, spiders, robots or bots) which browse the web, gathering website data to be added to their databases.

To optimise your site, you need to ensure that it is coded in a way that's easy for spiders to navigate, and that key search terms stand out. Clearly, this should be done when your site is first built, or you'll only end up having to rewrite some of the code later.

We've prepared a basic checklist of requirements for an optimised or search engine friendly website. However, algorithms used by search engines are evolving all the time, and these requirements may change. If in doubt, or if you simply don't have the resources to optimise your site in-house, we recommend you use a Google consultant - ideally to work hand-in-hand with your website builders as the site is built, or to optimise it afterwards.

Last updated: February 2007

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