Search engine optimisation, also called SEO, is usually presented as a costly and time-consuming marketing technique. However you can improve the optimisation of your website by following a few simple tips if you do not want to spend money on an expensive SEO service.

You need to start with your unique value proposition. Ask yourself what your site offers that is unique. You should also review search trends to get an idea of which keywords people use when looking for information related to the content of your site. Try Google Keyword Planner or Google Trends. You should then move on to integrating the strong keywords you find people are using and focusing on what makes your website unique and valuable.

What are the factors that determine the ranking of your site?

Hundreds of factors can influence the ranking of a web page but there are three main factors you can easily control:

Strong keywords need to appear on your pages. Do not overdo it by placing keywords everywhere on your page. Make sure the keywords you place on your pages correspond to the content of the pages. Try including different variations of the keywords that describe your content. For instance, a page about fishing gear should include words like fish, fishing, fishes.

Make sure your search phrases are placed within HTML title tags toward the top of your pages. You should be able to see the source code of your page by simply pressing Ctrl + U. Choose a descriptive title for your page. For instance, a good title for a page about fishing that also targets a specific geographic location would be ‘Fishing Tips And Gear – Bermuda’.

There should be several links pointing users to your pages. It is important to build a strong link structure within your site, but also you should work on developing efficient marketing methods to build more links to your site and develop your footprint. Make sure your keywords are included in the anchor text of your different links rather than using phrases that are not very descriptive such as ‘click here’.

You should submit your site to a technical review once you change the content and add more keywords. A technical review is necessary to make sure that search engines can find all the pages of your website. You could use Google Webmaster Tools or Bing Webmaster Tools to analyse your site and get tips on how to fix problems. These tools are very easy to use and will provide you with details about your site within a few minutes.

A lot of sites that are not properly optimised do not have unique meta descriptions. The meta description of a page has little influence over its ranking these days but a good meta description will definitely encourage people to click on the links listed in search results. You should have a different meta description for each page. A good description should give users an idea of what they will find on each page.

Optimizing a new website

Launching a new website is a lot of work. It might be months before your pages rank in search results for keywords besides the name of your site. You should work on creating some quality links from other popular websites.  

You can accelerate the indexing process by sharing your homepage with Google Webmaster Tools. Create an account, register your website and go to the diagnostics tab. Click on Fetch as Googlebot. Do not enter anything in the input box and click on Fetch. Wait until the page has been fetched and click on submit the page and all pages connected to it through the index.

Google+ has been in the news quite often recently. It seems that Vic Gundotra (head of Google+) and Google are parting company and 1,000 or more of the team that has worked on Google+ will now be reassigned within the Google workplace. TechCrunch recently published an article headed ‘Google+ is Walking Dead‘ which, as might be expected, has sparked reaction from Google.

One might wonder what this change of staff both at the helm and down through the echelons will mean for the Google+ platform. And how may it affect those people and businesses that attempt to use Google+ as a marketing tool.

Huffington Post recently ran an article entitled ‘Google+ Isn’t Dead. It’s Just In A Coma And On Life Support‘ which may provide the answer in its punchline ‘The Google+ profile you haven’t looked at in months isn’t going away anytime soon. The difference is that Google is going to start paying a lot less attention to it.’