Let's start optimising your site (Part 1)
Search engine optimisation is the art of making your page rank well in the 'Search Engine Results Pages', also known in the industry as SERP's.
There are many influencing factors used by search engines to determine your pages worth and, effectively, your rank. People often dispute the importance of
individual ranking factors. But, with all of the little pieces of the puzzle placed correctly, you can end up with a wonderful masterpiece.
These factors include, but are not limited to;
- Domain name
- Domain age
- Page title
- Keyword Density
- Effective coding techniques
- Link building
We will go over each of these briefly. But a word of warning, once you start optimising, you'll never look at a website the same way again! (In a good way, of
course)
Domain Name
It is extremely important to decide carefully about what your domain name should be. Your domain name should be relevant to the topic of your website and where
possible contain the keywords that you are aiming for. For example if your chosen profesion is computer sales and your business is located right in the centre of
Sydney, Australia. Then it would make sense to buy the domain name sydneycomputers.com.au, as it contains two important keywords - 'Sydney Computers'. So, if someone
browsing for the term 'computers in sydney' then you have a great head start against your competitors.
Geographic location is very important as well. If you are located in the US and primarily sell in the US, then a '.com' domain would be a better choice as search
engines tend to weigh their results to the location of the person doing the search. Likewise, '.co.uk' is better suited for a business selling to people in the
United Kingdom and so on.
Domain Age
Where possible and where affordable, it is better to use a domain name that has been registered for a few years or more. Search engines tend to trust a site that
has been around for a long time. We have all seen these 'fly by night' spamming sites that come and go. Think of it from a human perspective, what would you trust
more, a well branded business that has been operating for years or a shonky looking shack that has been open a couple of days and looks like it could close equally
as quickly?
Now that we have that under control, we can now move on the the the actual page content in our next article.
Let's start optimising your site (Part 2)