The Truth About Search Engines

80% of internet users use search engines to find a website. That makes them a vitally important consideration when developing most websites.

Unfortunately, simply having a website is no longer enough to get to the top of a search engine’s results. In fact, there is no guaranteed way to get a website to the top of search engine results (except if you are prepared to pay to do so). Be very wary of anyone who tells you otherwise.

Giving a website the best chance of a high ranking result is an art not a science and depends on many different factors. Currently, it appears that the four most important factors, in no particular order, are:

• the number of links from related websites
• the quality of the content and the regularity with which it is updated
• competition from other websites
• how long the site has been online

This document gives an introduction to search engines. It then looks at each of the four influencing factors in turn, explores best practice and suggests ways of optimising a website to give it the best possible chance of success. Throughout, we use the fictitious Bendy Straw company and its website as an example.

The amount of effort put into developing and maintaining your website directly affects the benefits it will bring to your business. Our service, which includes content copywriting and regular updates is particularly helpful for businesses looking to maximise their website’s potential. We cannot, of course, do this in isolation, so the more and varied the contributions that come from the client, the more attractive the website will be and the better it will search.

An introduction to search engines

A search engine depends on the quality of its results. If it returns unsatisfactory or irrelevant results, then people won’t use it again. This means that search engines are incredibly sophisticated pieces of technology.

Search engines must constantly update the way they gather and process results so they can return the most relevant results and that means ignoring websites from businesses who are trying to skew the results in their favour.

This means that there is no point in trying to fool the search engines with tricks : any gains made in the short term will be lost in the long term. The best way to think of search engines is as very sophisticated human searchers. Give human searchers what they want and you are giving search engines what they want.

Factor 1 : The number of links from related websites

Search engines place a great deal of emphasis on links from other websites. (Indeed, they work by following links from one website to another.) They perceive that an incoming link is an indicator of quality and worth. They also perceive that it’s one area where it’s more difficult to be ‘dishonest’.

Take the analogy of a search engine being the same as a human searcher. When you search the web, you probably follow links from one website to another. Even if there is a disclaimer (‘We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites’ for example), the link must be there for a reason – it contains supplementary or related information you’ll probably find useful. Search engines work on exactly the same principle.

So, to maximise your chances of high ranking search engine results, incoming links from related websites – the more the better – are vital.

Opportunities for incoming links

• Professional or business associations of which you’re a member: many association websites have member directories or lists in which you can include your details and your website
• Manufacturers’ websites: if the companies you work with maintain lists of agents or partners on their site, your details should include a link to your site
• Companies you do business with: many companies maintain client lists on their website; if any of the companies you work with have such lists or useful links pages, ask that you be included on it
• Sites that link to your competition: if a site links to your competition they may be prepared to link to you too
• Sites that should mention your site because it’s of benefit to their visitors (e.g. visitors to the Plastic Cocktail Umbrella’s website might find the Bendy Straw Company’s website useful)

Please understand that this part of the optimisation process is not an area to which we can make a large contribution. We cannot realistically, for example, approach your customers, business partners, industry associations or colleagues.

Factor 2 : The quality of the content and the regularity with which it is updated

A few years ago, search engines placed a great deal of emphasis on keywords. (Keywords are the words that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for: someone looking for a bendy straw supplier might enter ‘bendy straws’ into a search engine.) They reasoned that the more times a keyword was mentioned, the more relevant it was likely to be. Unfortunately, this is a fairly crude indicator. A page with the words:

“A big bendy straw welcome to the Bendy Straw Company’s website. When it comes to bendy straws, our bendy straws are the best bendy straws you can buy!”

would rank higher than a page with:

“Welcome to the Bendy Straw Company’s website. We sell the best bendy straws in the world!”

even though the second site is less irritating and difficult to read.

Keywords are still important of course – if the words ‘bendy straws’ didn’t appear on the website, there’d be no way of knowing what it was about. But keyword density is now taken into account – the first example above would be penalised for ‘keyword stacking’.

So, if you sell bendy straws, rather than mentioning bendy straws 100 times over 5 pages, it would be better to mention them 100 times over 20 pages.

That means that volume of content is an issue. Often this means thinking laterally – instead of simply providing an outline of your service, is there other information visitors to your site would find useful or interesting? Examples might include:

• a news page keeping visitors up-to-date on what your company has been involved in recently
• articles on current issues or new developments in your industry
• case studies putting your product or service in context

If you choose us as your web design partner, we will propose a sitemap for your website based on what you tell us you want and what you tell us your customers want. It will generally feature one or more of the above suggestions. They all offer visitors to your site something extra so it can become a value-added site that’s worthwhile visiting (not to mention worthwhile linking to). Your human visitors will be grateful for the information and reassured by your expertise. Search engines will also appreciate the extra effort.

The frequency with which content is updated is also an issue. An out-of-date website creates a negative impression on human visitors (a news page that was last updated in November 2003, for example, sends out the wrong impression about a company’s attention to detail and commitment to its customers). It also creates a negative impression on search engines for exactly the same reasons because it suggests that it’s no longer being maintained. Keeping your website up-to-date allows you to keep in touch with existing customers, make a good impression on new ones and please the search engines.

Copywriting the content for your website and keeping it up-to-date once it’s online is part of our service. This means you don’t need to think about keyword density and so on. However, we cannot know as much about your business or industry as you do. When it comes to content, the more information you give us, the better we can make it, both for your customers and for search engines.

Factor 3: The competition from other websites

Your company – and therefore your website – is in competition with others. The more competition you face as a company, the more competition you will face online, particularly when you compete against multinational companies with bigger budgets and better brand recognition.

There are broadly two ways to attempt to alleviate this problem. The first is to use ‘pay per click’, which is essentially online advertising: if this is of interest, please ask for details.

The second is to think about optimising your site for more specific keywords. If you were searching for a bendy straw supplier, you probably wouldn’t enter the phrase ‘bendy straw’ into a search engine because you know from experience you’ll get a lot of results that aren’t relevant. Instead, you’ll qualify it and make it more specific (‘bendy straws in Worcestershire’ or ‘yellow bendy straws’, for example). As part of our copywriting service, we’ll discuss your keywords and the levels of competition you might face as a result.

Factor 4 : How long the site has been online

When you look for a new product or service online (or offline), you’re looking for a company that you’re confident is reputable and reliable. Search engines want the same thing but rather than using research or instinct, as we would do, they use an ‘ageing delay’. This means that a new site is unlikely to be ranked for between three and six months after it is launched.

Conclusion

Ranking well in search engines is almost invariably essential for any business. Unfortunately, no single factor will get you to the top of the results. Instead, a combination of factors all contribute to success. Crucially, these factors all bring benefits for your visitors too.