Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

What is search engine optimisation?

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is the practice of optimising elements in a web page with the aim of gaining a higher rank in search engine results. Almost all search engines use tiny computer programs called web crawlers, which continually scan millions of individual websites to create a searchable index of websites.

Search engine optimisation involves careful editing of the structure and content of your website, to make it easier for these crawlers to understand. To obtain a high placement in the search results, it is important to make sure your website is understandable to search engine crawlers as well as humans.

Why is search engine optimisation important?

If you don’t give your customers some way to find your website, it will only ever be visited by people who already know the address. On the Internet, search engines are one of the most popular ways of finding information on unfamiliar subjects. Most Internet users are already familiar with search engines, so they can be a powerful way of reaching new customers who might otherwise never hear about you.

That’s all very well in theory, but there are millions of other websites out there competing with you for the same customers; how do you make sure you don’t end up languishing at the bottom of the search results? The answer, of course, is to use search engine optimisation.

How does search engine optimisation work?

Unfortunately, there’s no infallible solution to get your website onto the coveted first page of Google. Search engine optimisation is an ongoing process – a way of letting the search engine crawlers know exactly what your web content is about. Carefully optimising your web content for specific key words and phrases will help to steadily increase your search engine rank, without the risk of being penalised for underhand tactics.

Historically, it has been possible to pay for a top position in the results of many search engines. This could often lead to search results that didn’t always reflect what the user was originally looking for. Modern search engines such as Google have shied away from this practice, preferring to focus on natural search results, where the highest ranking pages are those that appear most relevant to the user’s query. Websites are not allowed to buy higher rankings than they would otherwise obtain.

Some companies still claim to guarantee you a top search engine placement, but you should approach these with caution. There are many ways to optimise a website, but search engines discourage dishonest techniques such as keyword stuffing, where web content is packed so full of keywords that it becomes almost unreadable. Websites that use these techniques risk being penalised, or even banned completely, by the search engines.

If you are planning to hire an SEO expert, you should always check what search engine optimisation techniques they plan to use on your website. Avoid any that will compromise the legibility of your web content. It’s important to write your website for humans first, search engines afterwards.

How can Isle of Man Advertising help?

Isle of Man Advertising has an SEO copywriter on our web development team. In addition to optimising your existing website content, we can also help write copy from scratch, or simply provide advice on search engine optimisation and other forms of online marketing.

We take search engine optimisation into account whenever we design a website. Our sites are structured to be as accessible to search engine crawlers as possible, and the text is carefully optimised around your chosen keywords. So not only can you take advantage of our web design and development skills, you can also get your content optimised for search engines at the same time.