Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of today's many Internet-related buzzwords. How do I get to the top of Google? Well you will hear many companies offering guaranteed top-10 Google ranking or others offering submission to 10,000 search engines.
Well unfortunately, the truth of the matter is a little more complicated. Google, Yahoo and MSN Search currently have about an 80% share of search engine customers between them. There are many other directories, search engines and speciality listings which between them account for the remaining few percent of listings.
The main factor when it comes to SEO is getting traffic to your site. However, someone simply visiting your site is not enough - they have to be a potential customer if their visit is worth anything. For example, there is no point in attracting vegetarians to your prime beef steak site. So, what we need to do is attract targeted customers.
Google and the rest of the search engines have become well aware of the multitude of spamming methods that people have used for gaining top-10 ranking. They just don't wash these days and trying them will simply get your site banned from the search engines.
There is only one true long-term method that is successful - a regularly-updated site, with quality content, which has been written with web standards and accessibility in mind. The site will also have been optimised with relevant keywords - I mean, why try to get to the top of Google for 'tennis club' when there are millions of entries for this term. Instead, be more specific and optimise for 'Cambridge tennis club', which will have less competition and it is more likely that people who search for this will be looking for a tennis club in Cambridge.
Another issue is optimising with the separation of style from content. Why clutter up your quality content with unnecessary styling code which will only dilute the essence of your site for the search engines? Instead, separate the style from the content and make your site more accessible for people with disabilities at the same time.
So, assessing the competition, good keyword research, site optimisation, submission to the relevant search engines, building up a network between relevant sites, regularly-updated quality content and patience are the requisites - there is no magic button and anyone who tells you there is, doesn't know what they are talking about.
Grifnett.com is currently in the top 10 for 'Barcelona search engine optimisation' and 'Barcelona web design' in all 3 major search engines, Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search.
We believe these results speak for themselves. For more information on how we can help you establish a prominent web presence in the search engines, please contact us.
* Please bear in mind that search engine results fluctuate. However, these results are correct as of 29th November 2007.
Barcelona search engine optimisation | UK search engine optimization