Search Engine Optimization..... The Facts.....
This is Google's SEO 22 page guide which is very good.
Just a small sample of a few of our websites.
7 practical tips on how to market your business website.....
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or Spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.
Getting indexed
The leading search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Some search engines, notably Yahoo!, operate a paid submission service that guarantee crawling for either a set fee or cost per click.Such programs usually guarantee inclusion in the database, but do not guarantee specific ranking within the search results.Two major directories, the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project both require manual submission and human editorial review.Google offers Google Webmaster Tools, for which an XML Sitemap feed can be created and submitted for free to ensure that all pages are found, especially pages that aren't discoverable by automatically following links.
Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled
White hat versus black hat
SEO techniques can be classified into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design, and those techniques of which search engines do not approve. The search engines attempt to minimize the effect of the latter, among them spamdexing. Some industry commentators have classified these methods, and the practitioners who employ them, as either white hat SEO, or black hat SEO. White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing.[36]
An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see. White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility,[38] although the two are not identical.
Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception. One black hat technique uses text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off screen. Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking.
Search engines may penalize sites they discover using black hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. Such penalties can be applied either automatically by the search engines' algorithms, or by a manual site review. Infamous examples are the February 2006 Google removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for use of deceptive practices and the April 2006 removal of the PPC Agency BigMouthMedia.All three companies, however, quickly apologized, fixed the offending pages, and were restored to Google's list.
Many Web applications employ back-end systems that dynamically modify page content (both visible and meta-data) and are designed to increase page relevance to search engines based upon how past visitors reached the original page. This dynamic search engine optimization and tuning process can be (and has been) abused by criminals in the past. Exploitation of Web applications that dynamically alter themselves can be poisoned.
There are companies out there that will get you on Page 1,but there are many that will take your cash and do pretty much the basic things which myself or anybody else can do.
The key factor is to give it a little time,make sure the site has good content and work at it,some of the sites we have done are on page 1 of google and even are the 1st listing in google.
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Natural search engine rankings are a great way for small companies with tight budgets to increase traffic to their website. Nobody can guarantee positions in rankings, but by systematically optimizing your website around key terms, you can make a big impact. However, it also doesn’t happen overnight and patience is needed while you establish your website.
Keywords/phrases are the best place to start when looking to boost your website up the search engine rankings. If you have a have a taxi company in Brighton, you want to choose keywords that relate to your business such as ‘Brighton taxis’. The general rule of thumb here is that that the more specific the terms are, the better the chance you have of it ranking higher. So instead of listing single words, a better approach is to use two or three word phrases associated with your site, as this cuts out a lot of unrelated results.
2. Build online communities
Through forums and blogs, you can create online communities on and around your website which will benefit your business’s website in a number of ways. The sense of community will enrich customers’ experience of your site and it will also give them a reason to return. Involve them on discussion boards, encourage them to post blogs, and they will come back to continue the conversation.
3. Create ‘expert content’
This point ties-in with the previous point – creating expert content, through informative and helpful articles, gives customers a reason to visit your site. This reaps further rewards as it generates inbound links when your articles and blogs are mentioned on other websites and links are posted. This will also help to boost your search ranking.
There’s no reason to restrict your comments to your own site as well. Write blogs or articles for other websites which will push your website out further into the public domain and raise your profile. Make sure your articles are original and provide useful information otherwise they won’t get picked up.
4. Use online directories
Another useful way of boosting your site on search engine results is by adding it to relevant and reputable directories. These could be business directories, or interest and subject based directories. Search engines will follow the link from that site and slowly start to index your page.
5. Link to other relevant/complementary sites
Another method to increase traffic is by linking to similar sites. The way to do this is to strike deals with the webmasters of related sites to arrange reciprocal link exchanges. The key tip here is to find sites of a similar size and subject to yours.
6. Online Advertising
This aspect of website marketing is not so subtle, and is a simple case of paying for exposure. Through services such as Google Adwords, you can pay to get your site listed in the sponsored links section of the search results page. The cost per click can be anywhere between 20p and £10 depending on the words you’re advertising on. The benefit of this is that you are guaranteeing exposure and you can also measure exactly how successful it is by using analytical tools.
7. Tie-in to your offline activity
The final point is an obvious one, but essential and often overlooked. Ensure that your website is included in all your offline materials in order to boost awareness of your online presence. This can be as simple as putting the website on your business cards, letter heads, or anything else with your business’ name on it.
This is Google's SEO 22 page guide which is very good.
