If you run an online business, you must know some basic search engine optimisation (‘SEO’) techniques. If you do not, you are almost certainly losing sales. You may think that SEO is for tech heads, geeks and nerds. Think again. Using clever, yet simply SEO techniques can literally, increase your sales for very little cost input.

Read on if you want to optimise your web pages and achieve a better search engine ranking. After digesting this article, you will be in a better position to choose the most appropriate search engine optimisation techniques to match your budget and achieve your potential sales. Further, you will be able to check your SEO performance and consider contracting with a professional ‘SEO geek’ to achieve even more.

Where to start

You want your website to appear on the first page of any search engine when potential customers search for your products or services. You can do this using pay per click advertising and also using organic methods. An organic or natural method involves cleverly editing and amending the text and other aspects of your website so that search engines prefer your site to those of your competitors.

For the best organic rankings, you need a plan and lots of patience. The importance of following a defined strategy cannot be overemphasised - it's so easy to get distracted by other things in your inbox. After reading this article, stop reading ‘how to’ guides and take action. It will take work, but once you have the rhythm right, your search engine rankings will surely increase.

Let's start with the all important formula, the 40:40:20 ratios. That means 40% of your SEO work should be put into dealing with 'on-page' factors. 40% of your SEO work should be put into off-page factors and 20% into getting the URLs spot on.

On-page factors

Use well defined keywords to allow search engines to find you more easily. If you sell red roses, using the keyword 'flower' will get you somewhere, but using the word 'red roses' will get you even further. Make sure each keyword is used an appropriate number of times on each page. Use it too often and to a human, the text does not make sense. Use it too few times and the search engine doesn’t pick up that red roses are your thing. We call this 'keyword density'.

So what are the right places and what is the right density? Ensure you use the keyword in the title tag, the description tag and the keywords tag. Do not stuff these tags with jargon. Be elegant. Further, if the keyword is towards the beginning of these ‘tags’, so much the better.

Tags: For example, if we use the term "SEOFirst search engine marketing", an optimal title tag might be "SEOFirst provides SEO and PPC campaign management services for online businesses and freelancers." The keyword list should be ten to twenty words; each separated using a comma, with the most important words at the beginning.

Text body: Next, include each of these keywords within the body of the text. The description is likely to be displayed in the organic search results so make it a well written, attention grabbing sentence. Again, make it SEO and customer friendly. Use 20 or so words, ensuring the keyword are near or at the beginning. Use a keyword a maximum of two times. To help you, there are many keyword density analysers on the Internet. Search and you will find help.

Strive to make your site clean, useful and engaging - this will pay off in more ways than one.

Off page factors

You must get back links to rank well. This is probably the most challenging tasks of all search engine optimisation. You'll need to continuously acquire back links, or your rankings will stagnate, or even slowly drop. This of course requires persistence and a plan! Optimally, you'll get a few links a day, with a steady increase in the total number. The easiest ways of increasing back links are through:

To gather link exchanges simply requires persistence. First, brainstorm the types of websites that you would a. like to be linked on and b. like to link to. These will often be websites that sell complementary goods or services. Then find those websites, list them in an excel file and collect the contract information of the companies to whom the website belongs. Next, send an email to those companies suggesting your idea for a link exchange. Finally, sign a link exchange agreement.

Article distribution is another matter. Articles should provide quality, readable, helpful information to prospective customers. On many distribution websites, you can post links within the ‘author resource box’. This serves both as an enticement for readers to visit your site and a means to give credibility to your internet business, plus search engines will also see these links and use them in their ranking algorithm.

An effective linking program will utilise both these link sources. Remember, it's not the total number of links, but a consistently increasing number that has the greatest long-term results.

URLs

The last 20% of results come from correct use of the URL. . Web pages which include keywords in the address rank better. If you're just starting a site, make sure you get primary keywords in the URL. Also, use keywords in relevant file names, for example http://www.seofirst.net/importance_of_
seo.php. Again, don't stuff the URL or file name with keywords. Lastly, remember to use a 301 redirect if you are about to change the names of 'old' pages. Hyphens are used a lot, however, their usefulness is questionable - short filenames and shallow directory structures are best.

Time to get started

Each search engine has different algorithms and different update frequencies. However, all follow the 40:40:20 formula closely enough for you to ignore the differences. A site or page that begins to rank highly on one engine may take months before it ranks highly on another. Patience and persistence are crucial. The age of a page is also a factor. Wasting your time on minor tweaks, rather than writing a quality article, will lead you nowhere. 'Close enough' is close enough with the on-page factors and URLs. Once these are done, try adding quality pages to your site regularly, and do get back links. If this is happening, free your mind to work on your site, or business plan or product, product photos, or whatever you think best.

Quality traffic is only part of the equation for a successful Internet business. Visitors plus a well-designed site, excellent products, competitive pricing and superior customer service is the real formula for success.