Planning A Top Ranking Website

When seeking information on specific products and services, who sells them and how to contact the firm or organisation, people are increasingly turning to the Internet and making use of search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing. As you probably know from your own experience, if you can't find what you are looking for within the first two or three pages you give up and try another keyword or phrase.

In this e-newsletter we take a look at what needs to be planned for when considering optimising your website to maximise its rankings (listings) with search engines and hence boost its visibility with potential clients.

Search Engine Optimisation

So what has this got to do with search engine optimisation? I hear you ask. Well quite a lot in fact. Search engine optimisation is about promoting your website to a top ranking or listing on a search engine's results page. In other words, it's about optimising your website for the search engines. For this to happen, you need to modify your website's content, consider changes to the website's source code, and boost the number and quality of the links from other sites to yours. Alternatively, when redesigning your website or starting from scratch, utilise the 'principles' of search engine optimisation (SEO, and website usability) from the very start of the process.

Making Search Engine Optimisation Work For You

So where do you start? Well, first of all you need to decide if search engine optimisation is a good marketing strategy for you. With consumers increasingly using the Internet to find out about services and products the answer must surely be yes. Next, ask yourself:

• What do I hope to gain by having a highly visible website - one with a top 30 ranking or higher with the search engines?
• Can I compete with other sites? (Generally the answer is "Yes!", although it could be difficult to compete directly with a very popular site such as Telecom NZ).
• How will I measure the success of search engine optimisation?
  • Will I measure it in terms of visitors to the website?
  • The average number of website pages viewed per visitor?
  • The number of documents downloaded?
  • The amount of revenue directly attributable to the website?
  • A reduction in the number of phone calls (asking for, for example, product information - brochures).
  • By the number of enquiries I receive via the "Contact Us" form?

Next consider tactics. Will you:

• Optimise the site yourself (i.e. in-house)?
  (There's a wealth of free search engine optimisation material out there)
• Hire a specialist to:
  • Advise you via a website audit on what needs to be done?
  • Work alongside your team to ensure that SEO techniques are built into the website from the word 'go'?
  • Optimise the website for you?

home | website design | starter package | web site audit | contact us | about us | site map

© 2010 Optimum Websites Ltd, Wellington, NZ. Telephone 64 4 383 8086. Website http://www.optimumwebsites.co.nz