Search engine optimisation strategies for entrepreneurs

How does the busy entrepreneur know what essential factors are involved in getting top ranking listings in the search engines when the whole process is shrouded in mystery and black magic? Guy Levine, author of the SEO blog shares four strategies for search engine domination.

Following on from the last article, now that all the research on keywords and competition has been carried out, it is time to unleash the big guns and start going through the process of optimising the website.

On-site optimisationOn-site optimisation is the process of editing various sections of the website to make them as readable and understandable by the search engines as possible. Search engines can’t read pictures or flashy animation. They can only read the words on the page.

The key areas of optimisation are: the title tag; description tag; heading tag; and website copy.

The title tag is the line that appears as the link you click on in the actual search engine results page. This should start with the main keyword you are looking to optimise for, and contain ideally no more than ten words in total.The description tag is the description taht appears underneath the title tag in the search engine results. Some people try to stuff this full of the site’s keywords, however the real use is to convince people to click on the result. A nifty trick we use in-house is to include the company telephone number – it adds credibility to the site.The heading tag should be the first headline the search engine sees on the page, and should be (technical geek talk coming up…) contained in tags (it’s ok, it’s over now!) This just tells the search engine that the headline is the most important headline on the page. This should definitely include the main keyword for the site.

The website copy needs to include the words people will be typing into the search engines to find you. As an ideal ratio, a maximum of six keywords per page with the main keywords being mentioned three to six times per scroll of the screen. The optimum number of words per page is about 300.

With the internet playing a leading role in business, it is essential for every entrepreneur to at least know the questions to ask and the answers to listen out for. In the next article, we will look at how to boost your search engine rankings using other sites.

Guy Levine is the CEO of Web Marketing Advisor, a leading SEO company.

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