Coined the ‘holy grail’ of internet marketing, fully search engine optimised websites are every web owner’s dream. But in reality a fully search engine optimised site is extremely hard to achieve. You not only have to know what you are doing in the search engine optimisation (SEO) arena but you also have to keep abreast of search engine changes and developments. In this article we take a look at what SEO is, the importance of keywords and link building as well as the need for all websites to have a website audit done.

What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and is the process of getting your website found for certain keywords which are used by people when looking for something online. SEO encompasses a number of different elements including determining the keywords which are searched for and most suited to your website, producing copy which includes the keywords in a balanced way, tagging your site with appropriate words and generating relevant inbound links. It is typically an on-going process which is never completed and the ‘rules’ in which you should right copy and optimise your site are constantly changing as the leading search engines such as Google and Yahoo change their algorithms.

Using the Right Keywords
One of the main factors in the constant struggle to get your website optimised and highly ranked by the search engines is to determine the right keywords to use. For example if you are an online shop selling jewellery, you might initially think that ‘jewellery’ would be a suitable keyword to use.

However in reality all jewellery websites will be using this keyword so the term is highly competitive, making it hard to get ranked highly. You therefore need to be very specific about which keywords you go after for search engine rankings and these might include ‘sterling silver jewellery’ or ‘9 carat gold necklaces’. Long tail keywords are less competitive and can lead to high rankings and high conversion rates such as ’18 inch sterling silver snake chain’ for example. There are a number of online tools which can be used to undertake keyword research, some of which are free to use.

The Need for a Website Audit
The next step in trying to achieve a fully optimised website is to have a full website audit undertaken. This looks at your website from both a search engine and a visitor point of view and makes recommendations for elements that might be lacking from the site, ultimately hindering your SEO performance. Website audits are best done by professionals who understand the complexities of SEO and how visitors actually use websites.

The Importance of Link Building
Another important element in the quest for a search engine optimised site is a range of relevant inbound links. These are typically links from other websites which share similar keywords to you and direct traffic to your site. Although this might seem like a simple process, obtaining relevant inbound links is extremely difficult to do. The links need to be free and not paid for in most cases and must be on a website with a high Google page rank themselves. Link building is an extremely time-consuming process but greatly benefits your website’s search engine performance if done right.

Although SEO can be done by web owners, due to the on-going nature of SEO and the changing ‘rules’ it is something which is best done by professionals who specialise in SEO.