10 things you need to do for search success

Only by delivering a steady stream of good quality enquiries that converts Internet browsers into customers can search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns be described as successful.

And how we wish that achieving this was as simple as pressing that imaginary ‘big red button’ on our computer keyboard.

While there are a lot of things we can do to make the optimisation process more effective, some initiatives demand a lot of time- and labour-intensive work while others are relatively straightforward and once done need only light maintenance.

Listed below are 10 considerations that fall into the latter category to help gain (and maintain) good search engine visibility. Bear these in mind before, during and after any website launch to really help getting your website noticed.

1. Target the right keywords
Many e-marketers choose keywords they think are descriptive of their website but it’s often the case that the average searcher doesn’t necessarily think in the same way. The keywords you select can significantly increase or decrease traffic to your site so leave nothing to chance, do your homework using reliable keyword suggestion tools to help you find keywords that are appropriate for both your business and your website.

2. Don’t ignore the ‘long-tail’ route
With many millions of websites all competing for short-tail keywords (one or two words), it can take months or even years to rank on the first few pages for a competitive keyphrase. This is where long-tail keywords come into their own  – they’re more specific, generate more highly-targeted traffic and deliver higher conversion rates than short-tail keywords.

3. Maintain a uniform URL structure in dynamic sites
If your website is dynamic, then modifying the URL structure of your web pages is highly recommended. Where possible, use URL rewrites to help maintain consistency as well as providing web ‘bots with a better understanding of those pages it wants to index.

4. Keep it fresh
Add new or revised content to your website on a regular basis as a way to maintain visitor interest and build credibility with the search engines.

5. Check out the competition
It pays to keep an eye on the websites that compete in your space so identify the websites in the top tier of results then research the following:

• How many backlinks do they have?
• How old are they?
• How many are competing for the same keyword(s)?
• What social media platforms are they using?

6. Give low quality websites a wide berth
While link building is undeniably a very important aspect of search engine optimisation but it’s links from authoritative, quality websites that carry the most weighting. Use caution when linking to irrelevant or poor quality websites as they can sometimes have a less-than-positive effect on your website’s ranking.

7. Give Flash a miss
Websites built completely in Flash are often very dynamic and eye-catching but, despite much progress, search engines are still unable to index this type of content. If deploying a Flash website is unavoidable, better to also upload an HTML (or static) version of it too.

8. Use Google Analytics
Make full use of Google’s free, analytics program to discover key metrics and use its reporting features to analyse your data. This will help you develop plans to increase traffic and improve conversion rates.

9. Don’t forget robots.txt
The humble robots.txt file is a powerful little tool. It can control how your site content is indexed (or not) by all or individual  search ‘bots. The robots.txt file can prevent specific web pages or directories from being indexed or even archived.

10. Easy on the JavaScript
Search ‘spiders’ were never designed for ploughing their way through lines of scripted code so try to keep the use of JavaScript to a minimum. Better still, keep all your JavaScript files together in a separate folder and simply ‘point’ to the respective script from your web pages.

These are just a handful of good practice search optimisation tips and aren’t intended to be an exhaustive list and in no particular order. For a more comprehensive approach to SEO, download The Escape’s FREE 72pp e-book, “Let’s Cut To The Chase“.