If a tree falls in the forest... (Search Engine Optimizing)

Article

This is the beginning to a rather well known philosophical riddle about whether something can exist if it is not capable of being perceived. We'd like to change the question and ask "if a website exists in cyberspace but nobody can find it, does it really have a purpose?".

Leaving aside questions of philosophy, your website is indeed a bit like that lonely tree in a vast proverbial forest. Estimates of the number of websites online vary but the numbers are staggering and growing at a breathtaking pace. So search engine tools like Google and Yahoo are potentially a great asset in bringing new customers to your online doorstep.

Keyword searching is the most commonly used method of finding what we need online. However there is fierce competition to rank well on search engine result pages. Many factors influence how well a site ranks.

Incoming Links

Links from other websites play an important part in determining your ranking success but when you are first starting out, this can be one of the most difficult things to achieve. A good web design consultant may be able to help you get incoming links.

Site Content

Something which you have immediate control over is the content of your website. If the contents are well written with a good keyword strategy in mind, this can have a good impact. You should work closely with your web consultant in crafting your content material in such a way that it is both rich in target keywords, yet still natural and useful for your human audience.

Website Coding

The way that search engines perceive your pages is often quite different to what we see when looking at a page on screen. A search engine robot (searchbot) will look at the underlying source code and pay particular attention to some coding elements. A good web designer will understanding how to craft your website code in such a way that certain keyword rich elements receive prominence and are easily readable by the search engines.

Note:

We would also like to state quite explicitly that you should beware of web designers who guarantee high search rankings . Nobody can make such an assurance. There are potentially ways that a web designer could exploit Google and Yahoo`s ranking systems but these so called "black hat" techniques are well known by the search engine companies themselves and if your site is deemed to be using such "black hat" techniques, you might find it is banned from the search engine concerned. It`s a dangerous game to play.

When deciding on a web page designer for your project, it is essential to select a consultant who understands approved search engine optimization techniques.