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Home > Web Services > Additional services > You are here Search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Search engines use various techniques to determine the position of a website in their results pages. SEO is the collective name for methods used to improve website rankings within search engine listings. Using SEO helps you to maximise the chance of your site appearing as near to the top of these rankings as possible. The exact way in which search engines prioritise sites is generally kept secret to prevent the system being abused. However you can combine common sense methods and use guidelines issued by the search engines to maximise your site’s exposure. Conversely your site rankings could be negatively affected if you are not aware of, or you fail to use, these common sense methods.

The details of SEO

Search engines can take more than a hundred aspects of a page or website into account when determining its position in their results listings.

These include:

• number of other sites linking to the page
• number of links on the page
• page titles – generic or reflecting page content
• site structure – how hidden is the useful information
• regularity of content updates
• metadata (keywords, content type)
• code/content quality.

A good basic premise is to provide useful content for your readers. Although simple, this concept can be overlooked. Useful content, updated regularly, helps to ensure other sites link to your site, which in turn helps increase your search engine rankings. These concepts apply to organic search results only, and they are a subset of the overall results returned by the different search engines.

Listings – organic results vs advertising

Two kinds of results are generated when users query a search engine:

1. organic or natural results, listed in an order determined by the search engine using factors such as metadata and code/content quality
2. paid results, listed according to the amount each advertiser pays to display their results

Users generally pay more attention to organic search results because their ranking is determined impartially. Because the order of organic results generally depends on quality of content not on the advertising budget, smaller firms can compete equally with larger firms. This means users feel more confident about the results.

How SEO can help your business grow

Research shows that most people find sites by using search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo. So to attract new visitors, it’s vital that your site is easily found by users of these search engines.

A simple test is to imagine yourself as someone looking for the services your company provides. What would you type into a search engine to get the results you want? Try this with a few different words and phrases, then check your own ranking within the search engine results. Compare this with the ranking of any competitors. The higher your ranking in the results list, the more people will visit your site.

How we can help

Site optimisation involves altering code and it is important to ensure such changes do not compromise accessibility. With our background and wealth of experience in website accessibility and design we can work with you to make sure your website receives maximum exposure within search engine results without impacting accessibility.

We do this by:

• optimising for key words and phrases
• examining site structure – document titles, use of headings, navigation
• checking the quality of site code and broken links
• avoiding negative scores (hidden links, misleading content, browser traps)
• ensuring your site can be effectively accessed by search engine spiders
• submitting your site to search engines.

We will also advise you on the best way to:

• establish reciprocal links with other sites, particularly highly weighted sites
• pay-per-click advertising using services such as Google adwords
• regularly update your content and perform quality checks*
• regularly resubmit your site to search engines*.

* We are also able to undertake these for you – ask us for details.

For more information:

• Email accessibility@AbilityNet.org.uk
• Phone 0800 269545

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