Search Engine Optimised

Let's start off with the basics. A search Engine is simply an information retrieval system created to help you find information stored on a computer system such as the internet.

Search engines minimise the time required to find information by indexing the internet and all the websites that inhabit it and upon request it does the searching for you. Each Search Engine has its own unique way of indexing and ranking websites; their importance and relevance to your search criteria. When you, a Searcher, enter a key word into a search engine, the search engine matches up websites it believes best match your criteria.

The more complex your keywords become, for example, instead of entering "shoes", which would retrieve websites that are more generic to shoe websites, entering "buy brown leather shoes for children" would allow the Search Engine to retrieve specific targeted websites that sell exactly what you are looking for.

Search Engines, a bit of back ground

Whilst there are hundreds of Search Engines out there, for our purposes, there are really 4 Search Engines to consider Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. As the Search Market grows, Google remains the unquestionable market leader - everywhere in the world. It's lead in Europe and the UK is much more significant than in the USA, where Yahoo and MSN still have a duble-digit percentage market share.

So why should you even consider optimising for Search Engines? Look through these simple facts:

Some Search Engine Facts

• 81% of Internet users worldwide, that is 256 million people, visited a search engine in December 2006
• Over the last 6 months, Google has a 71.6% share of the global search engine market and Yahoo! has only 5.5%
• In the UK Google's share is 80.2%
• In France too Google hogs the spotlight with 78.4% market share while Yahoo! gets only 3.8%
• Search engine reach in the UK is the highest, with search engines reaching 85% of users, ahead of France (83% reach), Spain (83% reach) and the U.S. (77% reach)
• In the UK, search engines also receive the most traffic, even more than adult websites. 

The astronomical growth rate of search engine usage is only surpassed by the growth rate of Google itself,which almost means that the other search engines seem to be pulling the industry down. Europe seems to be leading this growth.

• Total number of search users has grown by 10% over the last year, while Google's user base has grown almost 2.5 times as fast
• Search engine user number have grown most dramatically in France (27%) and Spain (21%), ahead of the US (8%)

As the search engine industry matures, so do the users. The average number of keywords per query has steadily increased year upon year, the number of searches per sessions has increased and the frequency of search has risen.

• On average searchers spent 27 minutes on search engines each month and viewed 93 search pages, accounting for 3.4% of total time spent online
• The heaviest search users come from France and Spain
• U.S. searchers are the lightest users
• Over 60% of search engine visitors use at least two different search engines
• Many users use a search engine as their point of entry to the Internet
• Searcher behaviour varies on different search engines
• A survey of European advertisers and agencies conducted by Jupiter Research in France, Italy and Spain during January 2007 found a continuing upward trend in search engine marketing activity and budgets
• 62% of advertisers surveyed said they plan to increase search marketing spend over the next 12 months
• Advertisers and agencies are generally satisfied with the ROI from search marketing
• The main objective for most search marketers is to generate online sales and build brand awareness
• The main problem advertisers face was found to be increasing competition
• Mobile search, video search and pay per call are areas where advertisers plan to spend more in 2007
• The main reasons advertisers hire agencies is to improve results and due to a lack of knowledge /expertise in-house.

What are the principles of Search Engine Optimisation?

Optimising a website for a Search Engine requires your website to conform to certain guidelines.

Think of it as structuring an essay. Using the correct sentence structure allows your essay to be more easily read. In essence, SEO is all about presenting your website and its contents in a manner that Search Engines will prefer.

A couple of areas  that Search Engines consider that you may not be aware of are:

• Reading age of website content
• Website conformance to accessibility guidelines

For those of you that are completely new to the SEO arena are probably thinking "are you serious!? Do Search Engines really care about that?!" Well to answer, simply think about how heavily Search Engines invest on the algorithms that determine which website appears where in search results. Search Engines make their profit from ancillary services, from advertising and sponsorship technology like pay per click.

In order for Pay Per Click to be a viable business opportunity for companies, the provider has to make sure they have a high amount of traffic going to there search engine. The only way to retain fickle internet searchers is to keep them happy - to keep the results accurate and useful. So that is why optimisation is big business.

With this in mind, it makes sense that the basic rules for Search Engines to would be, websites that we as a Search Engine promote, must be: quality websites that are usable, well structured, technically robust, hosted on servers that do not go down, that are websites that have been around for a while and so can be trusted.

It basically boils down to Search Engines want to give their Searchers the websites that they want. The concept is so simple but the realities of SEO are far from it.

If you are serious about your website being found on Search Engines you must ask yourself this question; "Could my website really be of value to a Searcher?" Hopefully the answer is yes, and if it is then you are half way there. The next task is to present your website and it's content correctly. In doing this you are actually likely to have some great unforeseen benefits.

If your websites content is easier for your targeted audience to understand then it will make your content more engaging and your products, services and unique selling points more transparent.

If your website is hosted on better servers that do not go offline when there is peak traffic, your website will be available to your customers more consistently. If your website has been built with accessibility issues in mind and is W3c compliant then you will not be discriminating and alienating any would-be customers and therefor you reach a far wider audience and also gain some respect for being socially aware.

If your navigation is well structured and obvious, your customers will find what they are looking for on your website quicker and therefor less likely to get lost in depths of a page and so not convert to a sale. If your website content is updated regularly then the likelihood of your content being relevant increases. It increases because you wouldn't consider sending out a catalogue of your products that has 2001's price list on them!

Very quickly you are able to draw true comparisons between virtual ecommerce shops and real world shops. The same principles apply it is simply a different medium. Google is now your location, being in the top ten of Search Results is Oxford Street, your Meta information is your newspaper advert, your website home page is your store front and sales person, word of mouth is now social networking popularity.

How does Dusza Search Engine Optimise?

Dusza follows a holistic approach to Search Engine Optimisation. Our Ecommerce websites have always ranked well in Search Engines because we take a lot of time helping to structure the content correctly.

With our marketing background we know how to get better conversions. Since 2006 we have always coded to W3C strict accessibility compliancy.

Our approach to creating visually stunning and intuitive website navigation is our strength. Adhering to these principles and not being tempted by quick fix techniques that are liable to have an ecommerce penalised and dropped from Search Engines altogether is a more responsible way forward. Our approach is an honest approach.

What kind of volume traffic can I get for my business?

Let's take a few examples of Search Traffic generated through Google Search Engine. There are 16,600,000 searches every month for the term Wii within the UK with a further 18,100 searches for Wii Prices.  There are 165,000 searches every month for the term Roller Skates within the UK with 720 searches for Buy Roller Skates.

These examples are also a great introduction to what key words should I be targeting. Do you go for a generic term that has an incredibly high search volume but requires a higher budget to achieve first page exposure and inevitably lead to a low conversion from visitor to purchasing customer. Or do you opt for a more targeted search phrase so that your ecommerce will convert a higher percentage of a smaller audience.