Website Search Engine Optimisation - A Beginners Guide
by Brian Cotsen

There are many steps in the process of good Website Search Engine Optimisation or SEO for short.

Search Engine Optimisation isn't done once and then forgotten about, it's an ongoing process that evolves with your website and online business.

There are no fast tracks to good Website Search Engine Optimisation, but there are lots of things that could slow it down if you get them wrong

 

 

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What is Search Engine Optimisation?

In a nutshell Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the process of preparing your website, from the domain name, keywords chosen, method of website construction (layers, tables, CSS etc) choice of content, navigation and links, which, when they all come together, serve to help your website be seen and understood by the Search Engines when they are looking for websites to display in the search results.

Good SEO is not about tricking the Search Engines to return your website in the search results unfairly.

It's about good solid practice at creating websites that are usable by both the search engines and human visitors alike.

Search Engines send out readers or robot spiders to crawl your web pages and look for information to determine what your website is about.

These 'spiders' will read both what the humans see, the content as well as the coding that is hidden to the everyday website visitor.

This article is designed as an introduction to SEO.

To understand in more detail about what happens when a 'spider' lands on your website why not take a look at my in depth article 'How Search Engines Crawl Web pages

For the purposes of understanding what you need to do to ensure that your website is Search Engine Optimised we are going to dive right in.

Lets Look at the basic elements to consider in SEO

• Choosing you website name effectively including the right domain extension i.e. .com, .net, .co.uk etc
• The importance of the 'Title Tag'
• The relevance of the 'Description Tag' & other meta tags.
• The Keyword tag and Alt Image tag.
• The Heading tag.
• Content and copy.
• Folders & files i.e. the importance of organising your website structure.
• Navigation & linking within your website.
• How 'Tables' or 'Frames' can hamper your SEO efforts.
• Who you can turn to for help - Books, guides, courses and services.

 

So lets start with the first of these important factors in good SEO of any website.

The domain name and how to choose a good domain name for your website or online business.

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