Feb 18 2010

The Key to Search Engine Optimisation

*The following article is by Christopher Holland*

As the saying goes, patience is a virtue. Patience is one of the key parts to running a successful search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign.

Creating a website that will rank highly on search engines does not happen over night. There may be quick fixes (as there are in any industry), but quick fixes are usually short term and can lead to many problems further down the line. Despite this, SEO is still first when it comes to internet marketing.

If you’re new to the game, then you have to know that SEO isn’t an exact science; it’s a series of educated guesses. You’ll have to be prepared for the trails and problems that lie ahead and on many occasions there will be times where nothing seems to happen, but you’ll have to learn to ride this through.

After you have carried out the basic practices (optimised the content, obtained relevant backlinks), it is then a waiting game. Not only does it take time for the search engine spiders to crawl your website and to index appropriately, but there are also less known important factors that play an essential role.

Trust is built over time

The older and more established your domain is the more influence you will have within the search engine world. It is thought that nearly 24% of Google Algorithm is on the trust and authority of the host domain – which can only be achieved by being patient (and of course by choosing backlinks carefully).

Always changing

The internet marketing industry is always changing. Technology is always advancing, and search engines are always updating their algorithms. With this in mind, companies have to constantly study and implement changes to stay top of their field.

With social media now firmly here to stay, people have also started to change the way they search. With sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Digg, it has become a lot easier to share information, and people are now basing their choice upon friend’s recommendations (read more here).

Work never stops

For most successful websites, work never stops. Companies will have to keep building links from directories, creating and distributing articles and sending out enquiries all of the time. This time should be seen as an investment, and even if you don’t initially see any results, keep going.

So hopefully by now, you will guess what I’m trying to get at. Be positive and keep working at what you’re wanting to achieve.

This article was by Christopher Holland, who is a search engine marketer for nbat Digital – professional web design and search engine optimisation services. Follow us on twitter – @nbatdigital or take a look at our blog.

6 Responses to “The Key to Search Engine Optimisation”

  1. Mikael Hostrup says:
    February 18, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    Hi.
    You are so right. If people concider jumping into the SEO enviroment i strongly advise them to read this post first.

  2. Chris says:
    February 18, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    Many thanks, glad you liked it

  3. Ian Campbell says:
    February 18, 2010 at 10:57 pm

    You know, this is a great reminder to so many people who have forgotten the fundamentals of SEO. We talk so much about the theory of SEO and where it’s going and what could happen next that a lot of us seem to forget that when it comes down to it, there’s more to it than what tomorrow’s rule is going to be. Good article.

  4. Shiju Alex says:
    February 19, 2010 at 4:48 am

    “SEO isn’t an exact science; it’s a series of educated guesses”

    I liked that and the whole article. Apart from the science of it, we as SEOs are trying to manage a lot of external factors.

    Thanks.

  5. sunil says:
    February 25, 2010 at 6:10 am

    very cool information thanks for sharing

  6. Billy Hahn says:
    October 11, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    I think this post is related to this one….
    http://bit.ly/9R0YhV