Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a digital marketing process which helps build higher rankings for your website. This is currently split into two clear areas; on-site and off-site SEO.

SEO can be complex and confusing, and if at this stage you find it exactly that, please don’t worry. Many of the areas are covered by Think in the design and development stages of your website and also in the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the site. If you are at an introductory stage, it is enough to understand that overall SEO looks to deliver higher search result rankings for your pages and site as a whole, and therefore draw more visitors.

Below we will attempt to give you an executive overview of SEO to help build your understanding and appreciation for how it can help your site and business success.

SEO as Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy

If the success of your site requires new visitors finding your site on a daily basis then SEO is incredibly important to you. If your site is highly ranked you significantly increase your chances of attracting a new visitor. Being ranked on the first page of any search is every site’s highest expectation but it is not always realistically possible as larger companies with larger resources, or even firms with greater SEO budgets, are likely to be ahead.

For many smaller sites there will still be plenty of opportunities to rank highly and build traffic levels. Think are able to offer experienced guidance to show you where those opportunities exist, as well as where to focus any investment for the maximum return.

When embarking upon an SEO plan you must realise that even if a website has a good ranking it does not necessarily mean it will generate a client, deliver engagement with your visitor or produce a sale.

SEO is about traffic generation only and therefore if your aim, at this time, is to generate a client or sale then the secret to a successful site is an expert Digital Marketing Strategy as well as a rounded off-line promotional strategy.

To generate new web driven business SEO needs to be planned alongside the ergonomics of your site, i.e. how visitors use and view your site and how the content engages with them. These may sound like jargon fuelled phrases but alongside SEO these are the key to a successful website.

Importance of Keyphrases

At the heart of SEO are keyphrases. These are words or phrases included in your site which your target visitors search for, such as; ‘property for sale in Kent’ or ‘family lawyers in Canterbury’. It is critical to understand that visitors will only be able to find your site under these phrases if your site includes relevant keyphrases and is supported by well planned SEO to enhance how relevant pages are ranked by search engines.

When embarking upon your SEO plan it is essential to build a keyphrase strategy. A guide to this is on the Think site, however to begin with you can build a list of phrases you believe people would type into a search engine and be able to find you. You might like to type these into a search engine yourself and discover your actual competitors and perhaps see what similar alternatives the search engine suggests that other people frequently type. This is rudimentary but a great starting point and an exercise Think asks many new clients to conduct at the early stages of planning a project.

What does SEO involve?

Whilst Think advise a meeting to review how your digital marketing strategy should incorporate SEO and which areas to focus upon, its two major elements (on-site and off-site SEO) incorporate the follow elements:

• On-site SEO
• Search engine friendly site design and page layout
• URL keyword structure
• Relevant keyword structured content
• Meta-data
• Off-site SEO
• Link building and quality
• Social media links
• Directory inclusion

Why is SEO beneficial?

SEO is a powerful and cost effective marketing tool for any website looking for visitors, and one which offers long term benefits against other ‘click’ marketing, such as pay-per-click which always has an ongoing cost.

Although financial and/or ‘sweat’ investment needs to be made in optimising the site, content or building the off-site optimisation elements, search engine optimisation has no cost per click. So, if you get it right and can tap into a rich vein of traffic, your marginal cost per visitor can be significantly lower than other digital marketing: delivering long-term ‘organic’ traffic.

Another benefit, often overlooked, is the subtle way you can help enhance your market positioning by being found prominently in a marketplace. By beating your competitors a perception will be created that your business is s stronger and more organised than its peers.

Power of Search Engines

Search engines are designed to provide the most relevant results to a user’s search. They do this by analysing available web pages and using their own individual algorithms to create rankings.

Algorithms are unique to each engine and a way of differentiating each other as each engine claims to offer the best results system and most relevant matches.

Key UK Search Engines (Rough guide):

Market Share

According to independent research in 2010, Microsoft’s search engine Bing has gained market share on the previously dominant Google. According to figures from ComScore the market is mainly split as below:

• Google UK – 62.6%
• Yahoo – 18.9%
• Bing – 12.7%
• Other – 5.8%

Whilst Google has relinquished some market share, it is still evident that Google is entrenched in our culture and in people's online behaviour. Unlike other engines Google has kept its interface incredibly simple, despite constantly adding services. Some consider this to be the reason for its prolonged success. Microsoft is investing serious amounts to catch up and many industry insiders expect Bing to be a serious competitor in the years ahead, as consumers take to the brand and the more in-depth way it provides search results.

Key Terms

Keywords – Generally refers to any word or phrase the user might search for in order to find a Web site or a page. Each variation of a keyword, such as the plural form of the word, is treated like a separate keyword. Phrases (i.e. a string of multiple keywords) are generally used interchangeably.

Keyword Frequency – is how often a keyword appears on a page and in specific areas on a page. The more times a keyword shows up on a search engine submission, the more relevant it will be to that search. If overdone, some engines and directories will downgrade the page due to what they term as spamming.

Keyword Placement – refers to the many areas on a web page that a search engine looks for in a search and includes the page title, heading, body as well as link text and even in comment tags. (This is still important but is becoming less important to some engines and spiders.)

Keyword Prominence – is how close to the start of the page content that the keyword appears. In general, a keyword that appears closer to the top of the page or area will be more relevant to some search engines. However, sometimes it helps to have a keyword in the middle of an area, or even toward the end of the area.

Keyword Weight or Density – is simply a factor in percentage form of a keyword or phrase in relation to all other words on a page.

Link Popularity - Getting high search engine rankings is highly dependent on having good reciprocal links.

Adwords - Is the Pay Per Click advertising program offered by Google. The service places relevant text-based ads both within Google, termed "sponsored links", and on external sites willing to host Google ads.