Search engine optimisation is a complex field of study,especially given the amount of conflicting information available. As someone who is,from necessity, starting to learn about website optimisation, you’ll want to know some of the basics about good practices.We’ll try to answer questions such as “What exactly is good website optimisation”? And “Do the same website optimisation methods work for every site and what do SEO experts recommend?”
The Complexity of Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation can seem very confusing, given the number of good and bad methods you can read about. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be baffling. The basics are fairly easy to understand and with a good foundation you ought to find yourself able to recognise good and bad practises easily. You’ll be glad to hear that there are some golden rules that are easy to remember and apply. The goal of this article is to point you in the right direction to further study.
How Should You Approach SEO?
Think of SEO as a part of marketing. It will ideally fit neatly within an overall marketing plan and not be the entire focus of one. If you think you might get carried away with SEO, bare in mind that it is possible for a site to be profitable without people visiting it from search engines. It’s certainly a massive help if they do, though. Always keep things in perspective from a marketing point of view.
Our first golden rule is that when generally good marketing practises apply, a lot of the things SEO experts recommend will simply fall into place. This is not to say that it isn’t important to focus directly on the many factors that determine page rank with search engines, it is, but don’t lose fact that in the wider perspective it’s easy to do the right things. Designing a site that is user friendly will benefit you in SEO terms too, for example. So will having good inbound links to pages. The point is that things that are good for users are also good for search engines and for website optimisation.
Basic Factors to Keep In Mind
When wondering how to approach SEO, keep some basic factors in mind as important all of the time. Keyword research is always important and should never be far from your mind. This involves an understanding of Internet users and precisely what they will search for when looking for you online. On a more technical level, it involves anchor text on your page, textual content, links of all kind and other factors. Ongoing site development for search engine friendliness is another thing you should never forget about.
This involves understanding how search engines use robots to get information about your site, what exactly they look for and the ways data’s interpreted. Keep the phrase on-page SEO in mind and learn about its features so that you can work on SEO yourself. Think about link building and what it entails and always bare analytics in mind. And importantly, remember that all these things have to work together.
Some Bad Practices to Watch Out for
SEO methods fall into two categories, good and bad. Good methods are those that get results, of course, but they’re also ones that don’t have negative effects for users and search engines. Good methods are often referred to as ‘white hat’ methods. Techniques that in one way or another deceive users and search engines are called ‘black hat’ methods and most smart designers and SEO professionals will eschew them these days. In the past it used to be common for sites to lure unsuspecting web users to sites by deceptively using keywords that had no relevance or showing search engines entirely different pages than those shown to real people (a technique known as cloaking).
These days, hiding text or overemphasising SEO on a site is only likely to have negative results. Search engines have become much more sophisticated in recognising such methods. Similarly, users are intolerant of them and a ‘bad’ site’s unlikely to prosper. Remember the golden rule that if visitors like your site then it’ll be successful in SEO terms. While marketing, think like a user and keep in mind all the things you don’t like to see yourself when using the Internet, such as spam. In conclusion, don’t believe everything you read. Look at search engines’ own guidelines for SEO and keep the customer satisfied.