We are often asked how search engines work out the position of listings. Although this is an extremely complex issue here is a summary of the most important things to note.

Online marketing designed to improve your natural page position in search engines is called “SEO” (Search Engine Optimisation). This is something of a black art as the different search engines each use a unique method to determine page positions.

At Get on Fast our Professional SEO methodology is based largely on Google’s search system. This is because Google is the most popular UK and international search engine, and also because where Google leads the others search engines will often follow. Google uses over 150 factors to determine the position of a web page, and keep the exact combination of these variables a closely guarded secret.

Key Search Engine Optimisation Factors

When performing website optimisation, there are three key factors to consider:-

• Google Page Rank (PR)
• Keyword Density
• Submitting to Search Engines

Details on each of these factors are given below.

Google Page Rank

Page Rank (PR) is a score given by Google based on the quantity and quality of external websites that link to your site. Every web page which Google is aware of has an associated PR score from zero to ten. A PR of zero means that a web page is unlisted or even banned, and a PR of ten indicates one of the highest-profile web pages on the internet.

The order of Google’s listings is decided using a combination of Page Rank and keyword density (see below). The PR of a site is important even on search engines other than Google since many of them use a similar link popularity system to determine the weight of a web page. Simply put, external links to your site increase your online profile.

The exact formula Google uses to determine PR score changes regulary – a recent development is that sites with PR 3 or less often do not show up as links and have little or no effect on your site’s PR. This is a measure introduced by Google to remove any benefit of being listed on “link farms” and other pages designed only to give link popularity. It is now far better to submit to fifty PR 4 sites then four thousand PR 1 sites.

Google provides a free toolbar for your browser which will show you the Page Rank of every page you visit. It is easy to install and has several other useful features such as quick Google searches and pop-up window control.

Click Here to download Google’s free toolbar.

Once installed, press the Google button in your browser window, select “Options”, tick “Page Rank Display” and press OK. Then you can browse through your site and see each page’s Page Rank.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is a measure of a web page’s relevance to particular search terms. A web page which contains a certain word or phrase many times is said to have a high keyword density for that word or phrase. The idea is that a web page which is highly relevant to the searcher’s query will be shown first.

The challenge is that search engines decide themselves which keywords to list you against based on your site’s content, the title of your page, your domain name and several other text-based components of your site.

Search engines can only read printed text, so remember that text within images or a Flash movie will be ignored. If your site is written using Flash animation alone, you will unfortunately have little or no keyword density against desirable keywords.

Your keyword density is expressed as a percentage – in simple terms, if a certain keyword is repeated 5 times in a page containing 100 words, your keyword density would be 5%. Remember that “keywords” can be composed of one or more words.

First, you must find search terms with high usage (at least several thousand searches per month) which you can compete against. This means that you should avoid competing on keywords which are targeted by sites with a much higher Page Rank than yours. You simply will not be able to beat these sites until your PR is higher so it is best to find more niche terms to target until you have a higher profile.

Visit our Keyword Research page for further information.

Once you have found your desired keywords you should include them in strategic places within your site:

• Your domain name – keywords can be separated by dashes
• Your TITLE tag – but keep it highly readable for human visitors
• Your other Meta Tags – particularly “description” and “keywords” tags
• Page headings and section headings
• Page wording/page content Image tags – also called ALT tags

The concept of keyword density can be open to abuse and a variety of tricks have been popular in the past to try to boost listings. Google and many other search engines take this very seriously and can penalise or permanently ban any site which employs such tricks. These tricks have included “cloaking”, hidden text, stealth entry pages, keyword spamming and many more. At Get on Fast we do not use any such tricks as part of the search engine optimisation process, nor do we recommend doing so.

The key to good keyword density is to first have a decent amount of page content in the form of actual text within your site. Then you should review the content carefully and try to include your desired keywords as much as possible while keeping the text readable for human visitors. There is an optimum level of keyword density as too many repetitions of a keyword may be seen as “spamming” by search engines. At Get on Fast we consider a keyword density of between 3% and 7% keyword ideal for most web pages.

Google uses a combination of keyword density and PR to establish the position of listings. Sites will often need fine-tuning over several months before they achieve the desired results. This can be a daunting task but with perseverance and by following the rules you should see significant improvement in your visitor levels. Visitors will also be better targeted as they are finding you against keywords you’ve chosen yourself.

Search Engine Submission process

Before you can benefit from any search engine optimisation or link generation work you must of course let the search engines know about your site. There are a multitude of companies, search engines and directories that offer to submit your web pages for a fee. The problem is to decide what is worth buying and what is not. Unfortunately, the majority of paid inclusions will have little or no effect on your levels of visitor traffic. In fact it is possible to pay several thousand pounds or dollars just to be included on search engines with little or no return on investment. It is therefore not cost effective to submit to everywhere, as it is also unlikely to improve your position on major search engines. However, there are a few places where it is extremely beneficial to pay for inclusion.

There are a number of search engine results “wholesalers” which are not commonly used by the public. They provide search results for other search engines. Almost all search engines use some combination of wholesale results, for example MSN, Google, Lycos and Yahoo. This allows search engines to give more results to searchers.

It is wise to be submitted or included into these wholesale results as it can get you listed on many other search engines. It is also important to know which search engines are using which wholesalers, as this changes over time. We particularly recommend using the free submissions at DMOZ (otherwise known as the Open Directory Project) as a respected results wholesaler.

All types of search engines have a policy of returning to re-index your site every so often to check if your site has changed. Sites which are updated regularly are always given higher listings than sites that are static. Therefore it is a good idea to make regular small changes to your site.

For further information you may wish to view our Professional SEO optimisation page or Contact Us for further assistance.

Alternatively, to discover and control how search engines rate your website please request your FREE Web Site Analysis report.