Optimise your site for Google

John Taylor Editor of Website Creator Magazine shows how to get your website displayed higher up the search engine lists.
Search Engine Optimisation is used to describe the process of improving the number of hits to, and the quality of traffic, attending a website via the more traditional search-engine based links. When a potential visitor enters a phrase into a search engine such as, Google, Yahoo or AltaVista, they will immediately look towards the first five or six links that appear as a result of that phrase. The key to a successful commercial website is therefore, to ensure that your website appears within the first page of hits when a user types in a phrase relevant to your site. Search Engine Optimisation considers how search algorithms work and the things people look for. It works by having an understanding of the spidering (spiders are used to search for a feed web pages to internet search engines),  technique used by search engines - that is the means by which search engines read the content of sites and hence add links into the search engine themselves.

John Taylor Editor of Website Creator Magazine shows how to get your website displayed higher up the search engine lists.
Search Engine Optimisation is used to describe the process of improving the number of hits to, and the quality of traffic, attending a website via the more traditional search-engine based links. When a potential visitor enters a phrase into a search engine such as, Google, Yahoo or AltaVista, they will immediately look towards the first five or six links that appear as a result of that phrase. The key to a successful commercial website is therefore, to ensure that your website appears within the first page of hits when a user types in a phrase relevant to your site. Search Engine Optimisation considers how search algorithms work and the things people look for. It works by having an understanding of the spidering (spiders are used to search for a feed web pages to internet search engines),  technique used by search engines - that is the means by which search engines read the content of sites and hence add links into the search engine themselves.

Each of the leading search engines uses this technique. Pages that are linked from other indexed pages do not need to be submitted into the engine because they are found as the search engine crawler reads through the content of your sites. There are two ways to increase promotion of your site.
The first, and most expensive, is to pay an external agency to look after the job for you. Yahoo, for example, operates a paid submission service allowing you to ensure that your site receives a guaranteed number of hits as a result of a listing on the search engine.
A charge is made, either a set fee or a cost per click, and you can use this to create a marketing campaign on a very limited budget. While these programmes guarantee inclusion within the search engine, they do not guarantee the position - to guarantee a decent position within the search engine takes a little more work.
This is where the second technique comes in. You can optimise the content of your site to better suit the crawlers as they make their way through it. The most user-friendly way to do this is to always ensure that the main page of your site has prominent content relating to your corporate (or educational) aim. In a site dedicated to eBay; for instance; you’d ensure that your homepage had multiple references to the site itself as well as to the title of your site.
This technique is known as White hat SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) - it’s where you’re creating the content of your site for the user, rather than to guarantee a position within the search engine. An example of white hat search engine optimisation in use is, eBay Advisor (www.ebayadvisormag.co.uk).
Referring to a popular subject within any of these sites through Google will always bring back links within the sites themselves. If there are multiple sites with the same name, you have to be sure to optimise your site within the most appropriate country - Google operates on a global basis; so having your UK site visible through the French Google site is going to be of little benefit.
Black Hat SEO is an alternative process. This is used to describe ways to improve the position within the search engine, using techniques solely for that purpose. Examples include colouring text similar to the background, hiding text within comments on the site itself and placing it within an invisible DIV.
As a marketing strategy, it’s difficult to fault SEO. Studies have shown that readers naturally scan a webpage from top to bottom, and left to right, meaning that it’s always a benefit to be towards the top of the site.
Wholly though perhaps it’s a small part of the equation - many of the most successful sites use it in combination with paid advertising - both on-line and in print - to increase the overall impact of their site.
Over the next six steps we explore some of the techniques used in search engine optimisation.

More information about steps, could be found here:
http://blog.host1plus.com/2009/optimise-your-site-for-google/