14.02.2007

Searched and found

Marketing_Search Engine Optimisation

Searched and found

If the own homepage is not listed in the first result pages of the search engines, your commitment to online measures can be classified "humble". The optimisation of a website is anything but trivial. Thus professional assistance pays off very fast.

Text_Karsten Zunke

Just a few years ago it was considered worthwhile to appear on the first result page of a search query. Today most people are smarter: Latest studies assume that the chances to be noticed by the surfer already sink rapidly from position six. Last year the American search engine marketing agencies Enquiro and Didit.com examined in co-operation with the software company Eyetools, how a search engine’s listing order was perceived by the eye. Result: While the first three hits were read by all subjects, the fourth was noticed only by 85 per cent of the surfer. Starting rank six there were still 50 per cent reading, rank eight only receives 30 per cent of the attention and 20 per cent took notice of the tenth and last result on the first result page. Although there are still numerous search engines active on the market, it suffices if your own internet presence is found via Google. The enterprise has a quasi-monopolistic position: More than 80 per cent of all world-wide search queries are made in the listed American search engine giant. And Google finds almost everything: The search index covers billions of websites.


"So test therefore, who join forever"
When the management begins considering search engine optimisation, they ask themselves the question whether the project is to be realised with the help of a service provider or in house. "Who wants to optimise his web pages for search machines himself, must have a command of the basics of website programming, must know the different algorithms of search machines at least in tendencies and must particularly try to understand the search behaviour and the desires of the target group", says Uwe Stache, managing director of the internet service provider Berlin-One.net, who is also active in his role as advisor for search engine optimisation. "Metatags, alternative texts and headings are frequently communicated as panacea, but they are only the thin surface. Just beneath this surface true search machine optimisation starts." says Stache. Clean HTML and programming that is exempt from barrier are rather something for professionals than for do-it-yourselfers.

When selecting a service provider, enterprises must pay attention that dubious search engine optimisers do not pull a fast one on them. There are still black sheep in the market, who optimise and cash up a website immediately. According to experience Google shows freshly registered websites very fast and at the very top of search results. "But that is not the ranking. After the first Google Dance the website usually slips notches and notches downward within the search results. Only after two, three months the actual ranking is developed", advises Stache. "The success of a search engine optimisation can be measured at the earliest after half a year. Also, afterwards it remains a long-term project", states the expert.

Short term successes are often based on doubtful cheats of the optimisers. "Each measure that deceives search engines is risky", explains Marcus Koch, member of the Suchtreffer AG management in Constance. Even if temporarily success should arise, there is a chance that search engines change their algorithm. They recognise the deception and simply remove the website from the search index.
Therefore each entrepreneur should become sceptical, if a service provider promises his customers the moon. "Using respectable means, it is impossible to quickly be listed in position # 1 on a Google result page with a freshly launched website in highly competitive fields, such as Travel, Mobile or Insurance," says Koch. The oversized competition is established and disposes of an excellent linking; their ranking grew organically in the course of time. "No one can guarantee you a placement on the first result page", adds Stache. Basically you can distinguish between three groups of service providers: Small "Low Cost" optimisers (partially one-man operations), larger agencies that are specialised on search engine marketing as well as the all rounder - usually multi media agencies that want to dispose their whole online marketing package alongside doing the search engine optimisation.


Generate high-quality links
When it comes to services, you can distinguish between two groups: On the one hand there are pure advisors, who analyse a website and hereupon give the customer’s IT-department precise instructions on how to optimise. On the other hand there are providers that do not only advise on how to optimise, but actually optimise your website themselves. Who wants to be on the safe side, should be content with an extensive website check as well as an all-embracing advice. And then leave the work on the sensitive web appearance to your IT provider of choice - or your own IT department, if you have one. Anyway, on whichever kind of cooperation you decide: "You should make sure that the assigned search engine optimiser (SEO) provides services to maximally one more customer from the same industry. Otherwise the provider will inevitably come into a conflict of interests", says Stache. The algorithm Google uses to scan the internet is and remains a secret shrouded in legend.

However one thing is known: The base of this search technology is called PageRank - named after the Google joint founder Larry Page. The system assesses the importance of websites. An equation with 500 million variables and more than three billion terms is calculated. Essentially, the ranking of your website is affected by number, kind and quality of incoming links. If a link comes from a site, qualified as high-quality, the own PageRank rises as well. This link popularity of a website, where ten out of ten is the highest possible ranking, can be indicated with the help of the free Google Toolbar within the internet explorer. But it is in no way advisable to generate separate internet sides, all linking a hundredfold towards your own page.

Google marks this as spam and, in the worst case, removes the site from its index. It is important to have many different links from different domains. Firstly, companies should consider, who of their business partners could refer to the own web presence. "Partner enterprises, suppliers, customers or subsidiary companies should be used for link building", advises Koch. Links in press releases can be helpful for a better link popularity as well. But not only the link’s quality is important, but also the text which refers to the own website. This text, if possible, should consist of topic relevant keywords of your own website. "Is an incoming link of high-quality, calling the operator of the linking website to ask him to alter the link text is worth the while. This can eventually improve the search result", says Koch. Furthermore, Google analyses the whole content of each individual webpage - just like character fonts, partitioning and the exact position of all terms on the page.


Contents before technology
"If a website is very badly ranked, this is usually caused by some serious faults which affect the whole web presence", explains Koch. For example, the content management system could generate long cryptic URLs which cannot be followed by the search engine’s crawlers. "That’s why you should always take the whole web presence into account while optimising, but not only single web pages." And this can become a problem very quickly. "The worst assumable case is a website which already exists" according to Stache. Usually it is more favourable to launch a new website which is optimised for search engines from the start. The cost for a website optimisation usually ranges from a lower four-digit amount of euros and can devour sums of up to five-digits, depending on project and consulting efforts. But: "A website which is technically optimised but does not satisfy the visitor’s need for information will gain nothing in the end", says Stache. Someone that offers good content will receive high quality links of other websites and new visitors automatically. "There is only one absolutely safe method, in order to be well ranked in Google: The Website must offer attractive content", says Stache.
redaktion@acquisa.de


TIPS, ON HOW TO BE RANKED VERY HIGH IN GOOGLE

Only the company that is found in search engines acquires new customers in the web. This is reason enough to optimise the own homepage professionally for search engines.

- > keyword appears several times in the text of the relevant page (keyword density about 2 to 3 per cent)
- > keyword appears in the title of a page
- > keyword appears already at the beginning of a page’s content
- > keyword is contained in the page’s file name
- > keyword is contained in the domain’s name
- > website has high link popularity (many external websites refer to the own website)
- > external links on the own website contain the keyword
- > pages of the own website are linked among each other with text links which contain the most important keywords
- > web pages contain as much as possible visible text in relation to HTML source text
- > page has an expressive description (meta name = “description")
- > website has a search engine readable sitemap

Source: www.marketing-boerse.de

MARKETING SUMMARY * SEARCH MACHINE OPTIMISERS

Search Engine Marketing = SEM, Search Engine Optimisation = SEO

* This list is not exhaustive
Source: www.marketing-boerse.de