| The first time I carried out Search Engine | | | | nowadays involve removing a lot of duplicated |
| Optimization (SEO) was back in 1998. Back then | | | | content from their indexes. Back in the late 90's it |
| things were so much simpler than they are now. | | | | was quite common for a search query to |
| Essentially all you had to do was put the | | | | produce search results from different sites all |
| keywords on the bottom of every page and with | | | | containing almost exactly the same content. |
| little other effort it was inevitable that you would | | | | Nowadays, the first ten search results will differ |
| get a substantial amount of traffic to your site. | | | | as identical pages are removed from the main |
| Nowadays the web is so much larger which | | | | indexes. So if you want your site to rank well the |
| effectively means there are more competitor | | | | conclusion is that not only do you need good |
| web sites around. However that is only half the | | | | content for your website, you need original |
| story. With the advent of patented technology | | | | content. |
| such as Page Rank, and search engines being | | | | Only once you have created original content for |
| more clever about how they undertake indexing | | | | your website can you really start thinking about |
| and attributing importance to each page, life is a | | | | Search Engine Optimization techniques and the |
| lot more complicated. | | | | rules to follow. The first of these rules is |
| However it should be remembered that many of | | | | surprisingly frequently broken by people with little |
| the methods used (or assumed to be used as | | | | experience - making sure that all page on the site |
| most search engine companies keep their | | | | can be indexed by web search engines spider. |
| methodologies a closely guarded secret) have one | | | | Next is making sure that the text on the page is |
| purpose in mind, to give results to the user that | | | | readable. Many web designers who come from a |
| the user will find useful and relevant. | | | | graphic design background place the text into an |
| With that in mind, it should be blatantly obvious to | | | | image file. The reason behind this is that it saves |
| any person, especially a so called expert, that | | | | the designer worrying about having to create the |
| website content is going to be the most | | | | style and layout they want using html and CSS. |
| significant factor. If you think and contemplate this | | | | Whilst the site may look nice, the major issue |
| fact for a while you will realise that no matter | | | | with this is that search engines don't read the |
| how many articles you write, how many social | | | | text in images (although undoubtedly this will |
| networking links you create, if the target site has | | | | change in future as text recognition software |
| no content then you are not going to rank | | | | becomes more flexible and accurate). |
| anywhere, if indeed your pages get indexed. | | | | If you concentrate on the content as the first |
| However it is not just content that search | | | | part of an SEO campaign you will find that you will |
| engines like and love to index, it's specifically | | | | be a long way down the road to success rather |
| original content. The mechanics of search engines | | | | than struggling with an uphill battle. |