Basics of search engine optimisation

I’m often contacted by Customerstreet clients asking for practical advice and help regarding search engine positioning optimisation (how to make your website appear more attractive to the search engines and to help to improve it’s position in the search engine results).

Over the years I’ve worked on many large web sites and I’d like to share what I have done to achieve very good search engine rankings for many sites over the years.

Let’s start with the truth – no one can guarantee the number one position on the search engines – not on Google, not on Yahoo or Microsoft Live. It’s up to the search engines to decide whether a site is relevant enough for a search to be the number one choice.

What you can do however is make your site more accessible to the search engines and to your visitors, improving your chances of being found for different keywords.

The guidelines I’m describing here are a basic level of search engine optimisation – they are what every single website should have (but sadly very few do).

If you have a website try these guidelines first, and if you’re still not getting the results you want, you may want to look into getting more help.