Archive for category Search engine optimisation

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is not just a catch phrase being thrown around in the online world. It is a highly effective and extremely important marketing tool for the website designer or owner. In this three-part series, we will discuss the need for SEO, common problems with SEO, and winning SEO techniques.

What Is Optimization?

Optimization is the process wherein a website is naturally pushed up in the search engine results. The goal of an optimization campaign is to achieve a placement as high as possible on the search engine results page for a particular keyword, in order to draw clients and customers to your site in the most natural way possible.

The Need for SEO

So why should you take the time to optimize your site? The higher your results in the search engine, the more successful your site will be. Statistics show that moving up just one spot will increase your success substantially, and if you do not show up on the first page or two, you will struggle to success. If you can get into the top five or ten results for your chosen search terms, you will be in good shape.

Two Problems with SEO

So what problems will you face as you work to optimize your site? Well, the first is the vast amount of competition you will face. For instance, if you want to use the term “graphics designer” as your main keyword phrase, you will struggle because there are millions of other sites using that same keyword phrase. If you can achieve top results, it will only be with a tremendous amount of effort, and this is not going to be cost effective.

To combat this problem, focus your optimization to a narrower target market. This will allow you to streamline your keyword phrases to eliminate some of the competition.

The second problem you might face is dilution. When you type in “graphics designer,” you will get blogs, portfolios, landing pages, advertisements, forums, and informative articles, all on the same search engine results page. If your site is in that mix, you might not get any hits, the percentage of people searching for your particularly type of site, whether it be a blog or a sales page, is going to be much narrower with this broad of a search term. For every 100 searchers who see your link on Google, perhaps only 10 are looking for what you offer. This is because of dilution.

Keyword Planning

The best way to avoid these two pitfalls is to properly plan the keywords in your SEO campaign. This requires identifying your target market first. Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I looking for local traffic or worldwide traffic?
• What terms would draw my exact target market to my site?
• Are these terms too broad? Will they bring up too much competition or result in dilution?
• How can I narrow the terms to still reach my target market but avoid these problems?

Your goal is to find keywords and keyword phases that have a high search value. In other words, they bring more specific results, which means it is more likely that a person searching for that term is, in fact, looking for what you offer. Your graphics design website can be targeted for a particular niche. Instead of focusing on “graphics designer” as your keyword, make it more specific. Choose “freelance graphics designer Colorado,” or something similar that fits your website.

Remember, it will take time to fine-tune your SEO goals, and you may need to adjust your keywords from time to time. You may find that they are too specific and end up excluding some of your target market, or you may find that they are too broad and cause too much competition. But with time and proper planning, you can find the right balance and choose a popular keyword that will also drive the right traffic to your site.

You might find using some SEO tools useful, or checking out some search engine optimisation packages from various SEO providers around the net.