As a website owner, having your website at or near the top of search engine results is the holy grail. If you're not on the first page when prospective customers search for your products or services, then you might as well be on page 999.

The two main ways to make your website prominent in search engine results are search engine optimization* (SEO) and advertising.

SEO is the technique of making your website content relevant to what people are looking for when they use search engines. It involves ensuring that each page has words that are commonly used in searches for the subject of that page, called key words. For example, a plumbing website should have pages containing words and terms like 'dripping tap', 'leaking pipe', 'blocked drain', 'toilet not flushing', 'water heater not working', etc.

Search engines rank web pages using complex formulas, called algorythms, that analyse their relevance and popularity.Search engines have access to every page on every website on the Internet. They also have access to data about each web page visit ('hit' in Internet jargon), such as the duration of the visit, whether it was the visitor's first or repeat visit, and whether the visitor then went to other pages or left the website.

The front end text is used for ranking by search engines, but words on graphic images aren't. Only the images' digital file names are used.words the number of visits and average duration of each visit.

Content relevance is assessed by matching the words in the search enquiry to words on website pages. Each page has two parts: its file in the website's content management system (CMS, or 'back end' in web designer jargon) software, which is accessible by logging in with a username and password; and the publicly viewable version ('front end'), which looks much the same as a page in a printed magazine.

The back end file has fields including the URL, title, description and keywords (words that are commonly associated with the subject matter).

But while search engines' basic methodology hasn't changed radically over the years, their content-matching formulas, called algorythms, are much more sophisticated than they used to be.  In the Internet's early days, search engine algorythms were quite primitive. The more frequently that keywords appeared on a page, the higher that page ranked in the search results. Naturally people started packing their metadata and website pages with keywords, with the result that the pages that topped search engine rankings were almost unreadable!

Not any more. These days the algorythms can identify those 'black hat' SEO tricks, and downgrade those pages' rankings - even delete them from search engine rankings altogether.

THE SOLUTION

The best way to move your website up the search rankings is to make it more popular than your competitors’ websites.

It’s no different from shopping at your local mall. If people can find what they’re looking easily and quickly on your website, then they’re more likely to stay to read the content. Not only does that make them more likely to contact you to buy your products or services, but it tells search engines that your website's worth visiting.

Happy visitors often tell their online friends about useful information by posting links on their social media accounts. That helps your search engine ranking too! On the other hand, if your website is built like a rabbit burrow and filled with verbiage, then it’s likely to send visitors fleeing to your nearest competitor.

To make your website attract visitors, not turn them away, there’s no substitute for professional copywriting and editing. The text must be informative, entertaining and error-free without wasting a single word.

Font selection, page layout and site mapping (the website structure) are all important. Each one can make the difference between a visitor staying or leaving.  Don’t assume that your website’s designer has these skills, though. A web designer is the Internet equivalent of a printer/graphic artist, not an editor.

What about advertising? Sure it can put your website link above or beside the top-ranking SEO results, but not automatically. It's subject to the same SEO criteria as website content, as obviously every ad can't be at the top of the search pageand evenv . the [Ad] icon shows that you've paid to be there. As this website's Media Publicity article explains, advertising lacks credbility. Everyone knows that it's biased, and some people don't visit websites that advertise on search engines purely for that reason.

Come to Good Publicity to ensure that your website welcomes visitors with open arms.

Good Publicity is located in Guildford, six kilometres south of Parramatta in the heart of Greater Sydney, NSW. No matter what industry you're in, or wherever you are in Australia or overseas, you can be assured of prompt, professional and affordable service.

Whether you already have a website or need a new one, contact Good Publicity for a no-obligation appraisal of its SEO potential.

* Yes, I know the English spelling is 'optimisation', but image libraries prefer the American version!