When you do search engine optimisation, you are increasing your website’s rank among search engines such as Yahoo, Google and MSN. In Australia, Google is the main search engine with over 80% of the search engine market share. Tests have also revealed that Google searches almost always become either sales or inquiries much more often than searches by other major search engines do. In other words, this means that Google gives you the most high-quality search traffic. This is why you should focus your efforts to optimise on Google.

Once you rank well on Google you normally find that you rank pretty well on the others anyway. I’ll talk you through a three step process for doing search engine optimisation. Obviously, it’s a fairly complex topic and companies spend thousands of dollars for getting this done for them. It all comes down to a pretty much core three-step strategy.

Step 1: Doing Keyword Research Establish what keywords and phrases are relevant to your service or product. Then, focus your search engine optimisation efforts to maximise those. For example, if your business is local, your keyword research is going to be pretty straightforward. In that case, your keyword phrases are going to be something along the lines of your business plus your location. For example, if you are a carpet installer in Melbourne, you’ll want to say something to the effect of, “Carpet installation Melbourne,” or something similar. You can also use keyword search tools, including a free tool such as inventory.overture.com. There are also more sophisticated pay tools like keyworddiscovery.com and WordTracker.com.

Step 2: On page Optimisation Optimise your website content. You’ve probably heard that achieving high search engine rankings is all about making sure the right keywords appear on your web pages. Although this is part of the story, it’s certainly an important part of the puzzle and we call this on page optimisation. Here are some of the most important on page optimisation tips.

1. Make Sure Your Title Includes Your Keyword(s). At the blue bar on the top of your web browser, your title label appears. It’s also the title of your webpage in the organic search results for Google. This title should be concise and short, and have keywords or keyword phrases in it. Put the most important keywords first, and any secondary keywords afterward. For example, if you have your carpet cleaning shop in Surry Hills in Sydney, you can say as your title: Carpet Cleaning Sydney – Carpet Cleaning Surry Hills Sydney.” There’s some repetition there, true, but it’s got a lot of keywords in it and it doesn’t sound strange.

2. Have a Keyword Rich Description. This is properly called the Meta Description Tag. It is the part of your website code that describes the content on the page. Your descriptions should be keyword rich and written in complete sentences. For our digital printer, the description could read: Digital Printer in Surry Hills, Sydney. Providing Competitive Colour Digital Printing and Binding Services. Print Business Cards, Flyers, Brochures and Menus, Postcards, and More

3. Look at Your Headings. Search engines place great importance on headings because they seem to find important page content. Ensuring that your headings and subheadings are keyword rich is a good start. For example, Full Colour Digital Printing Services in Sydney

4. Address Your Page Content. You should ensure that you have at last one keyword rich paragraph of text on each page. Keywords used in your headings may be repeated again in you content. Try to use a mix of related key phrases. For example, Digital Printing, On Demand Printing, 60 minute Print Service rather than the same phrase over and over again.

5. Links Are Important. Yes, links, too, are important for page content. Instead of using generic phrases like, “Click here to find out more,” use those that are keyword rich and indicate what your business is. “Take a look at our carpet installation services” is one good example.

Step-3: Off Page Optimisation Off-page optimisation, or linking strategies, is the third and final stage. Every incoming link to your website is considered by Google as a vote for your website content by other websites. The reason why many businesses SEO efforts fail is that they focus exclusively on using keywords on web pages but they lack a linking strategy. Here are a few tips to start pushing your site up the ranks through linking strategies:

2. Put Your Site on So-Called “Authority Directories.” These website directories, called “authority directories,” are highly respected by search engines and can help improve rankings. This can help you improve your own rankings, too. Many of these sites charge a few to list there, but this helps keep out lower quality websites. Three of the most important ones are: botw.org, Yahoo.com.au, and business.com. Be advised that this isn’t about those scams that say they’ll submit your site to countless directories for $49 or so. Only submit your website to these well regarded directories.

2. List Your Sites on Authority Directories. Listing your website on website directories which are well regarded by search engines can help to improve your rankings. Most of these so-called authority directories charge a fee for listing. A fact that serves to keep out lower quality websites. Three of the most important authority directories are: Yahoo.com.au, botw.org and business.com. Please note that I’m not talking about email scams that offer to submit your site to 34 million directories for $49. You should only bother submitting your website to directories that are well regarded by search engines.