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Every owner wants to be at the top of every relevant search to their website. This is simply because nearly 80% of users, who search using Google, open the websites they see on first page of the results, and rarely venture into succeeding pages. So being on page 1 means that your website is on its way to attracting audience numbers.

 

This blog is a guide to help assist you to rise in Google rankings. Google is the search engine we will feature as it owns more than 90% of the Australian search engine market.

 

Website owners must keep in mind that the Google search results page includes organic search results and often paid advertisements (aka Sponsored Links) as well. Advertising with Google won't have any effect on your website's presence in the search results. Google never accepts money to include or rank websites in their search results, and it costs nothing to appear in their organic search results. Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and the discussion forum can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimise your website for organic search.

 

For your better understanding, it is important to know that Google delivers search results after undertaking three processes, namely crawling, indexing and serving. Crawling simply answers ‘does Google know your website'? Indexing is just about adding your website to Google's index. And Serving is concerned in websites having good and useful content that is relevant to the user's search.

 

Now that you know the process, following the below guidelines (taken from http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 and expanded on) will help Google find, index, and rank your website:

 

1. 1. When your website is ready, submit it to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html.
      
      
   2. Submit a Sitemap using Google Webmaster Tools. The sitemap you submitted will be use by Google to learn about your structure and increase coverage of your webpages.
      
      
   3. Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online. And make sure that other websites link to yours, the many links that you'll have will increase your ranking.
      
      
   4. Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. Make a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
      
      
   5. Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.
      
      
   6. Give visitors the information they're looking for by creating a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
      
      
   7. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
      
      
   8. Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images. If you must use images for textual content, consider using the "ALT" attribute to include a few words of descriptive text.
      
      
   9. Make sure that your elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.
      
      
   10. Check for broken links and correct HTML.
       
       
   11. If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.
       
       
   12. Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).
       
       
   13. Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site
       
       
   14. Allow search bots to crawl your sites without session IDs or arguments that track their path through the site.
       
       
   15. Make sure your web server supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header.
       
       
   16. Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server.
       
       
   17. If your company buys a content management system, make sure that the system creates pages and links that search engines can crawl.
       
       
   18. Use robots.txt to prevent crawling of search results pages or other auto-generated pages that don't add much value for users coming from search engines.
       
       
   19. Test your site to make sure that it appears correctly in different browsers.
       
       
   20. Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
       
       
   21. Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
       
       
   22. Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank.
       
       
   23. Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc.
       
       
   24. Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
       
       
   25. Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
       
       
   26. Don't send automated queries to Google.
       
       
   27. Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.
       
       
   28. Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
       
       
   29. Don't create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.
       
       
   30. Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engine or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
       
       
   31. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value.
       
       
   32. Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links and only natural links are useful for the indexing and ranking of your site.

Much of the above requires technical knowledge, and this is why SEO professionals like us make a living!

 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) service providers are specialists in doing all of the above. A great time to hire is when you're considering a website re-design, or planning to launch a new website. That way, you and your search engine optimiser can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up.

 

But you must take great caution when acquiring SEO services as there are unethical players in the market, who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate Google's guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your website's presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from their index.

 

Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. So just keep these in mind and be guided.

 

We at KayWeb (Sydney and Melbourne) are ethical SEO professionals.

The COMSCORE Australia social networking usage study (August 2009) shows an overwhelming graph of statistics.

 

1. A more than 1000% growth of Twitter over Facebook causes different reactions; some are happy to know that over 800,000 Aussies are now active on Twitter, while other consider this a typical figure for the later-released Twitter, which is still way behind the 6,000,000 Australian users of Facebook.
   
   
   
2. While the first finding's reasons can be argued, the next finding cannot. That internet usage in Australia is growing rapidly. 75% of adults use social networks in Australia. Australia has over 400,000 bloggers. People spent on average 8.9 hours per week (or 1.5 days a month) using the web, which is up 27% compared to previous years - significantly, this is more time than Australians spent reading print media, watching movies, or playing video games.

 

These numbers are good for Australia.

 

Innovative web technologies have the potential play a vital role in driving productivity gain, creating new local businesses by those losing jobs during tough economic times, and helping fuel the growth the Australian economy needs to continue on its recovery path.

It has long been said that it takes two to tango. Web development is exactly like that. Web design cannot do it alone without backend support. But to a majority of users, website design has a big space in their consciousness; for them it is dependent on whether a certain site will be a success or a failure.

 

There is a sudden surge in demand for a beautifully made websites. Users don't want poor presentations anymore; they all like something else, something new to their eyes because they have become web-sophisticated. With the advent of css 3, almost any kind of design is now possible in web. It's like photoshopping your way to the world wide web.

 

True Beauty Comes From The Inside

Informed web designers and business owners alike know that design is vital to a successful website, and its beauty must go far beyond looks. While design needs to support a company's brand positioning, it must also effectively inform, communicate and provide positive experiences.

 

A winning website is one that delivers useful, relevant content that allows people to accomplish their goals quickly and easily. In today's hectic society, that's what makes a great and lasting impression on the Web.

 

Good design achieves simplicity through a range of elements - from a single point of focus to intuitive information flow to plain, familiar menu names. And as more people flock to the Web for everything from casual encounters to green homes, more businesses will likely lean on web specialists who can contribute to effective design.

 

Web professionals who specialise in select services, technologies and industries will increasingly thrive with higher client list and get paid accordingly. In contrast, jack-of-all-trade web types can't keep up with every emerging tactic and tool, and they'll eventually only appeal to and serve clients who are purely price-driven. These clients generally don't value expertise, nor are they willing to pay for it.

 

Additionally, web professionals will benefit from the fact that businesses are pushing more of their marketing dollars online - even those businesses that have been hesitant to shift from traditional media such as TV, radio and newsprint.

 

Moving marketing online makes more sense than ever. Something's off when typical consumers might spend 25% of their media time on the Web and a company is investing only 5% or so of its marketing budgets on websites and other online promotions.

 

An investment in a website will get almost any business a better return on investment than an ad in a newspaper, magazine or print telephone directory. A website can provide greater reach and superior exposure, and it works for a business 24/7 for multiple years.

 

Great Web Copy

Other people indicate a weak web copy would most likely prompt them to abandon a website, businesses should continue to take their web writing seriously.

 

While there appears to be increasing awareness surrounding web writing in general, many businesses continue to fail to recognise what a professional web writer can bring to a website and a business's bottom line.

 

Web writers, website content writers, SEO copywriters - call them what you will - these web copy specialists are often not even being considered a part of the equation when it comes to building or overhauling a website.

 

A well-versed web writer can help a business with everything from attaining traffic via search engines, to differentiating a business from competitors and conveying key benefits effectively, to achieving higher conversion rates.

 

Fortunately, as of late, there are more web-related organisations and schools introducing copywriting courses specifically for the Web, which promises to increase the supply and qualifications of web writers.

 

An increase in writers who specialise in the Web will help decrease the ineffective, error-laden, self-centered copy that is so common on the Web.

 

Faster Is Better

Making people wait is a BIG mistake and it will make them hit a competitor's site. The main objective is not to make them leave and explore a site at longer rates.

 

Good web designers and developers respond by optimizing images, streamlining HTML and avoiding dated gimmicks like Flash intros. But some designers and business owners alike continue to fall into such traps.

 

Unfortunately, web designers and business owners sometimes let their egos get in the way. They fail to acknowledge that when a prospect visits a website looking for information or to complete a task, that Flash intro will only get in the way, and potentially frustrate visitors.

 

Flash intros were tolerated in the '90s when the Web was a novelty. People were excited about this new thing called the World Wide Web, and spent countless hours surfing it. Today, however, most people want to get information and complete tasks in as little time and with as few clicks as possible, so they can get on with their busy lives.

 

Give Users What They Want

Internet professionals would better serve Internet users by collaborating and delivering simple, fast, useful and convenient websites.

 

Give Internet users what they want and everyone wins: web users benefit from ease of use and efficiency; businesses enjoy increased leads and sales; and the web professionals maximise income and fill their portfolios with winning websites.