Search Engine Optimisation in Ireland
Search Engine Optimisation is coming of age in Ireland. Not very long ago myself and my colleagues would have to gently and sensitively explain (to people we thought really should know better) why search engine optimisation should be part of the specification for their new corporate website, online retail website or product launch website. Recently however, it has become more common for website owners to approach us at the start of a website development/redevelopment project to ensure that search engine friendliness is built into their new site.
Another new departure is that the very best web design agencies are recognising that search engine optimisation is a specialist area and are partnering with competent SEO providers to produce sites that are both usable and accessible via search engines.
The basics of search engine optimisation are … basic.
Content is King
If you want your website to be found in the organic listings of the search engine when someone searches on “vanilla ice cream” then you need to have content relating to “vanilla ice cream” on your website. It’s that simple. When we talk about content for the purposes of search engine optimisation, we mean plain old HTML text content, prominently displayed, in a gramatically correct fashion, on the homepage of your website and on other pages on the site. When you start to look at page layouts, site architectures and navigation systems it can become a lot more complicated but the starting point is having 200-300 words of keyword rich text on the page you are optimising.
Get Connected
The second most important criteria to achieve a good natural search engine ranking is Link Popularity. Link Popularity refers to the number of inbound links to your website from other websites. Some commentators prefer to use the phrase “Link Equity” as the relevance of each link is more significant than the total number of links. Basically, a search engine will judge your website to be an “authority” website if it has lots of inbound links from other websites with related content. So, for example, it will help your online giftware retailing website have a higher ranking in the search engines if it has inbound links from directories associated with gifts and retailing.
Top Tips for Search Engine Optimisation of your Website
- Decide on the keywords for which you should have a high ranking and write your website copy around these terms
- Discover the sites that link to your highly ranked competitors (use the link:www.competitorsite.com in Google) and, where possible, submit your site to these
- Provide a text link on your homepage to a sitemap
- Write a blog related to your business/interest/area of expertise
- When it comes to redesigning your site include search engines as one of the target audiences for your site and design the site accordingly
Obstacles to the Achievement of a Good Search Engine Ranking
- Highly graphical or highly functional websites with little keyword rich text
- Flash websites
- Session IDs
- Graphical navigation