How Can Search Engine Optimisation Help My Website?

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

Many business owners have heard about search engine optimisation, or SEO, but are not sure what it is. Search engine optimisation is an effective web marketing technique which aims to boost your rankings on search engines for certain keywords concerning your business. Link-building articles, press releases and website content are then written with a focus on these words to boost online prominence.The keywords which are targeted in search engine optimisation will be carefully considered by your SEO agency using a number of technical tools.

These keywords can be single words or medium or long-tail keywords - phrases a few words long. If you own a travel business specialising in Egyptian holidays, for example, you may want to target words such as “Egypt holidays”, “holidays in Egypt”, “Cheap Egypt holidays” or “luxury Egyptian holidays”, depending on your business, the volume of searches and the competition for searches of these terms. Your search engine optimisation initial keyword research might entail looking at which search terms are leading to ‘conversions’ on your website (which may be sales, requests for more information or bookings.

All of these are just some of the factors taken into account before choosing your keywords. Good search engine optimisation companies will write original quality content tailored to these words (eg, an article on “The best resorts for holidays in Egypt”), and distribute these across the web.Search engine optimisation is a key online marketing technique. Whether you have a small local business or an international corporation, any business can benefit from search engine optimisation.

Hiring an SEO Agency

If you have decided to begin search engine optimisation to boost your website it is important to hire a company which specialises in SEO. Your website design agency may offer SEO services but they often do not have the skills, or provide adequate levels of research, to carry out thorough and successful optimisation.Ensure that you will be hiring a reputable search engine optimisation agency. And finally, do not employ a company which uses ‘black hat’ search engine optimisation techniques.

Some of these include the following:
• Creating hidden content on your website to boost your keywords without affecting content. Google and other search engines can recognise websites with too many keywords.
• Keyword stuffing - Creating poor content with too many keywords in it. Search engines are now wise enough to recognise poor content.
• Link farming. Some sites provide links to your site, alongside many other websites, despite them being unrelated.

These are again viewed unfavourably by Google and other search engines, and your business may be banned for participating. If your seo agency offers suspicious techniques such as these then try somewhere else. A reliable SEO company will use ethical ‘white hat’ techniques and will not promise instant results, but long-term sustainable success.