So what does a search engine look for?
As mentioned, Google looks for the most relevant website to a search query. So doing, it provides the best services it can to its users. The key to any good search engine optimization, is knowing what search engines are looking for and more importantly, what their users are searching for and optimizing your site according t those key factors.
There are a number of key things that search engines are looking for:
1. Keywords and page content
Keywords are possibly the most important thing yo can do when it comes to search engine optimization, it should be used over and over again in your site and even on other sites linking to your site. So what are keywords? Keywords are most commonly known as the words and phrases that a search engine user would use to search what they are looking for. This is what makes it so powerful and also very important to know, what keywords to use, where, how and when.
The most common place to find keywords is in the <META> tag, the META tag, or also know as the META DATA tag, is commonly used to house all the keywords that your site is about, it would be the first thing that search engines look for and there after scan your site to make sure the keywords that are used in the MEAT DATA tag, are used throughout the content of your site.
Almost equally important is the heading or rather TITLE of each page of your website. You should try to fill the TITLE tag of a page with a keyword or keywords n a non spam looking way. In other words, if you have a site selling motorcycle spares, and your keywords are "filters, rims, chains, exhausts...", your site should look something like this: "Motorcycle spares: we sell motorcycle filters, rims, chains and exhausts." This way you make it sound informative as well as making it sound as if you're using keywords in a non spam like way. If you are making use of Word Press, the easiest way to keep your Page TITLE and META DATA tags up to date, is by making use of a plugin called All in one SEO. Remember the TITLE of a page is what a user sees in their search result and can only have around 60 characters in them, so make the titles as effective as you can.
When writing content for your site, it's best not to over use keywords in a spam like way. The reason for this is that search engines penalize your ranking if it thinks you are abusing keywords for the purpose of getting a higher ranking site. Copy should be written to be informative and useful to a user and second to that should be keyword use. If users find that your site is informative rather than spam, they will find it more useful and so doing, search engines will notice this and your ranking will go up. To add to keyword use, it's better to only make 5-10% of your content keyword based. I find it best to write around 1000 words of copy and add the keywords in to that, it's far better than only writing 250 words and end up with something that is less informative and makes use of less keywords. It also makes your page more search engine friendly by having more content than HTML code in it. Also try to keep the most important keywords and information first in your content, search engines will most likely not scan through all your content, so keep important content first.
With that said, you can also highlight keywords used with various HTML tags such as headings <H1>, <H2>, etc, <STRONG> and <EM> tags. Heading tags are important to search engines as they give an indicator of what the web page is about, much like headings in a book telling a reader what a chapter is about. Filling headings with keywords is a good way to get higher search rankings. Keep in mind to have a clear Hierarchy of importance when making use of Headings, it will make sense to do so, and will help your page rank.
It's important to know that search engines rely heavily on the text on a page, much more than the images, videos, podcasts, etc. Build your content first then the added extras that compliment your sites usability. Remember, you want to rank high and keep your users entertained when they get to your site. Before we move on to more in depth topics, it's important to know what users are searching for and knowing what keywords are being used in those searches. One can't assume that everyone searches the web in the same way as you do, so it is important to look at search trends and the keywords used for those searches. Remember that if you understand your users, it will be to your advantage, you won't just know what keywords to use, but also exactly what they will be looking for and expecting when they get to your site.
Avoid duplicate content. Search engines will recognise duplicate content in a heartbeat, and will consider it as spamming.
Key points to remember:
- Keywords and use of content are the most important when it comes to search engine optimization
- Make proper use if the Page TITLE and META DATA tags
- Highlight keywords with the <strong>, <em>, etc. HTML tags
- Don't overuse keywords. Keywords shouldn't take up more than 5-10% of your content.
- Make good use of Heading tags eg. <H1>, <H2>...
- Make sure you have more content than HTML on your page
- Write for humans, not for search engines
2. Use of links on your site
The amount and quality of Links linking to your site from another site plays a major role when it comes to page rank. The quality of links to your site from other websites are far more important than the quantity. So what am I talking about when I say quality links? Quality links are mainly links that come from a site that already has a high page ranking on a major search engine, keep in mind that if a site that's linking to your site isn't in the same niche as yours, it could be of lesser value to your site than a link coming from the same niche as your site. Quality links can also be matched by the links name, for example, if the link linking to your site has a keyword relevant to your site, it will be of more value to you than if it hadn't had a keyword in it.
There are many sites out there who link to your site, most, if not all, asking for compensation. There are also a large amount of sites lining to each other in a mini site network fashion. These sites and networks are called link farms, it's a simple strategy, but effective. Keep in mind that search engines are aware of these strategies and will penalize your ranking if you grow these links too quickly, so it's best to have most of your links just happen naturally. Remember that if your content is found to be informative, people will link to it.
It's also important to know that when linking to another site, make sure that it's relevant to the topic you are covering. The quality of the site you are linking to can be important to your page rank. If you link your site to random sites that aren't covering what you are talking about in your copy, your site might degrade and be viewed as spam, and that is a really bad thing when it comes to search engine optimization.
An added extra is the sitemap. A sitemap is like an index section of a book, it tells a search engine what pages are on your site and makes it easy for search engines to know where to look when they are indexing your site. If your are using Word Press, you can find many plugins used to generate a sitemap and keep it up to date, Google XML Sitemap is my favorite and gets updates regularly. A sitemap is made up of a XML file that, with all the pages inside your website, gives search engines the ability to crawl your site faster and recognize changes made to pages far quicker then normal.
To help search engines recognize where your sitemap is located, you should look for the 'robot.txt' file found in the root folder of your website. Open it up and add 'http://www.yoursitename.com/sitemap.xml' (your sites name and sitemaps naming will of course be different, so make use of the correct file names).
Key points to remember:
- Introduce Quality links from other sites to your site
- Make sure that the outgoing links from your site is relevant to your keywords
- Make use of a sitemap for search engines to know what to look for and where to look for it
3. The quality and age of a website boosts the sites search ranking
Search engines will also take into account how long your site has been offering a service and the quality of that service. Sites that have been around longer, generally rank higher if their content sits well with what users are looking for.
Search engines will also favor sub pages, and find them more trustworthy if the index page (Homepage) is informative and ranks well. This doesn't always apply just to the homepage, but can also apply to sub pages. In short: If a search engine finds information on a page trustworthy and informative, other pages that are linked inside that page will get some of that pages credibility.
Key points to remember:
- The older a site, the more favor it will have with some search engines (if the content is seen as trustworthy)
- If your content is trustworthy to search engines, linking pages will also be viewed as more trustworthy
4. URL Quality
In order to make your site more friendly to search engines, it's important to make all your links (URLs) as easy to read as possible. Try to structure them as basic as it comes and search engines take notice that your site is made to be friendly for users. Here is an example of a bad URL structure and a good URL structure:
BAD URL STRUCTURES:
http://mysite.com/nu=post?action=mod&modnu=505&me=1
(this is very hard for a user to interpret and search engines take this into account)
GOOD URL STRUCTURES:
http://mysite.com/category/post-in-category
(it just makes more sense to make your site as friendly as possible and so doing you're making it friendly for users and search engines alike)
One other thing to consider, is to try and include keywords in your sites URLS. This is only good practice when it comes to search engine optimization. But be sure to keep the use of links and URLs on a page below 100, search engines take into account that if your site links to less external sites and/or pages, that you are only linking to pages that are more relevant to your page.
Key points to remember:
- Make site URLs short and neat
- Include Keywords in URLs
- Use less than 100 links on a page
5. Site and page load time
Recently, Google announced that page load speed will be affecting search rankings, meaning that websites won't only be judged by keyword relevance and content quality and relevance, but also load speed. The best would be to use the free tools below to understand in details what can be done to reduce your sites load time.
GTmetrix is a free service that interprets how Google grades your site and shows exactly what you can do to improve your page loading time. This is possibly the most useful application out there breaking down every call that's made to the server, showing where improvements can be made to your site and pages. It also has the ability to evaluate two URLs along side each other, allowing you to view your site load time against that of your competitor, giving you a slight advantage.
YSlow has been developed by Yahoo to recognize how many server calls are made by a HTML page giving a breakdown of how many KB's are loaded by the page and by what element or elements, it's fairly basic, but a useful tool to have for evaluating load time.
Key points to remember:
- Optimize pictures as best you can and make use of sprites
- Don't make use of too many large files that need to load into a page
- Cut down on all the unneeded elements on your site and pages
Submitting your site to the major search engines:
So you're ready to submit your site, it's an easy and fast process. So here's where to go. it's self explanatory:
There are more search engines out there such as Bing, Ask and AOL. So look them up and submit your site to them.
Just a reminder that search engine optimization is and should always be an ongoing process. There's always room for improvement, testing, etc. And with the nature of the web changing so rapidly, these principles will change in the future.
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