Free (Organic) Listings

There are two important snippets of information we need from you - a Description tag and your Keywords. With these, we can optimise your site for search engines like Google and Bing using SEO techniques.

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the skill of incorporating techniques and text into your pages in a way to increase the likelihood that your site will appear in a search engine listing. Your site is one of billions of other sites, and without SEO, your site will be buried under countless of other sites, making it difficult for people to find.

It is important to note that no webdesigner can guarantee a No1 spot on Google in the free listing area. But we can definitely give your site a good start.

The best rule of thumb for SEO is to honestly use text in the content of your pages that accurately describes what you do. Search engines will read and analyse the text on your pages and link it to searchable words and phrases.

Google is sensitive to people trying to trick the system (ie: by over cramming your pages with keywords) so don't think you can fool it. If you get caught trying to trick the system - it will reduce your ranking.

Description Tag

The description meta tag is supported by most major search engines like Google and Bing Search. The description text should be a concise explanation of your services, or products that your sell.

The description is often, but not always, displayed on search engine results pages, so it can impact the amount of visitors that may click on your site, but it won't effect your rankings.

What we need from you is the Description text. It should not be more that 200 characters and should efficiently describe your services or products.

Keywords

We need to know your keywords to help advise you on your content. Basically you need your keywords in your text, in your page titles, in your image names and even in your domain name.

If you can, get people to link to your site using a hyperlinked keyword.

Basically, think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.

There is a Meta Tag for keywords. This is not what we are talking about. Search engine providers realized that information stored in the Keywords meta tag was often unreliable and misleading. Search engines began dropping support for metadata provided by the meta element in 1998, and by the early 2000s, most search engines had veered completely away from reliance on this meta tag.

Myth - Using Meta Tags for SEO

Webpages can have Meta Tags. In the old days, there was a Meta tag for Keywords. But good search engines have stopped using these as they we abused by business owners who thought they could take advantage of the online markets by stuffing loads of keywords into their meta-tags.

That's why search engines now rely on the text content of your page and what is linked to your website.

If you get "advice" from somebody regarding using keyword meta-data - best to advise them to stick to their day job!

More on SEO...

For more info on improving your search engine listing, visit Search Engine Rankings.

Paid Listings - Awords

You can pay your way onto Google Sponsored areas by participating in a Google Adwords campaign.