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Search Engine Optimising: What is it?

In a perfect world, all you'd need to do to get your site listed well would be to put it on line and tell a search engine that it exists. But faced with the millions of new sites that go live every day, most of the search engine operators use automated programs - known as spiders - to gather the data. The spiders look for certain indicators to guide them to a site's relevancy. The more easily these indicators can be found and understood, the more accurately can the spider assess the relevancy of the page.

There are essentially two types of search engine: those driven by automatic "spiders", and those operated by human editors. In practice many of the listing companies use a combination of the two techniques.

Spiders have a limited amount of intelligence which allows them to judge the relevance of a page for a particular search criterion. They're also able to recognise - and delist - certain of the more obvious tricks. This helps the search engine companies to avoid sending hits to sites that are trying to gain traffic that isn't relevant to the search word.

Human operators visit hundreds of sites daily, making judgments in a few seconds of what the site's about. Yahoo is the best known of this type of directory; like most systems of this type, Yahoo also receives input from spiders.

So Search Engine Optimisation is the process of making a site easily understood by the spider or the editor. A carefully judged weighting is given to certain keywords to achieve a listing under relevant searches.

When a page has been optimised, it's submitted to the search engines for evaluation and - hopefully - a high level listing. This last part of the process is a question of finely judged timing - Multiple submissions are necessary, but overdo it and you'll be de-listed (see pifalls for more about this).

The XSEO approach to all this is offer the search engines what they're looking for: clearly understandable pages that can be easily classified by humans or spiders. Inevitably, there are a few tricks of the trade that we use, but they're designed to help the search engine, not fool it.

Please contact us to discuss your organisation's exact needs

Ethical Search Engine Optimising

There are essentially two methods of approaching search engine optimising. You can attempt to fool search engines into giving you the hits you want, or you can use straightforward techniques to make their job easier.

Ethical search engine optimisation is based on producing information-rich, genuine pages without hidden text, sneaky redirects and other such subterfuges. It takes longer because it relies on the creation of proper content with lots of readable, relevant text. But ultimately the ethical approach produces longer-lasting, more sustainable results.

The search engines are wise to the tricks, and as each new "wheeze" comes into use, they begin work to detect it. Getting caught means getting de-listed (see pitfalls), so honesty is undoubtedly the best policy.

Making Sense of Search Engines

At some point you've probably wondered why it is that so many searches on the Web lead you to hobby Websites. You search for a new BMW and you find a site that someone created in his bedroom to show of pictures of his 1982 rattle trap. It's frustrating experience, and it's brought about by an imbalance of technology.

More about Making Sense of Search Engines

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	XSEO will bring extra, relevant traffic to your site. But we're interested in adding value, not just taking your money. So before you part with any of it, it makes sense to make sure you're doing all the things to give you the best chance of a decent listing. Here are a few tips:

last update 2 Apr 08