Search Engine Optimisation

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is the art of designing and building a website in a way that maximises the potential for that site to achieve a high ranking in search results for relevant keyword phrases.

The value of obtaining a high ranking varies from business to business. Some businesses would be prepared to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars for a number one ranking on Google. For other businesses there may be little or no benefit.

How does it work?

Most search engines employ software programs, commonly refered to as "bots" or "spiders" to visit websites. The bot explores all of the links it finds on the site, indexing the site's information as it goes.

The search engine uses the collected data to rank the site for relevance against other sites it has previously indexed.

Each search engine uses a number of criteria to assess each site. The criteria used are closely guarded secrets and constantly being updated and refined. Anyone professing to know "the secret" to getting you to number one on Google for example is probably misrepresenting themselves - ask for a written guarantee.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation about regarding the pracitse of SEO and how to achieve the best results. In fact some of the techniques used just a few years ago might now get you removed, even banned, from some of the major search engines as they try to prevent their data from being manipulated and exploited.

What does ThinkSales recommend?

All ThinkSales websites are designed in a search engine friendly manner. We never use design techniques that any of the major search engines would find objectionable.

At ThinkSales we have identified five principals that your site should meet if it is to have a chance of ranking well. We are happy to provide this information to any of our customers and provide advice as to how these principals can be employed.

There are many things that we can do to improve your potential for a high ranking site, depending upon the importance to you of obtaining a high ranking position in the first place.