"Whenever I search for anything in Melksham, I keep coming back to your site". So say some of our friends; new contacts tend to be along the lines of "So YOU are the ones behind that web site I keep finding".

We encourage the search engines to index our pages, and we know that many of our technical and local area pages ARE read, used, appreciated. It's quite intentional and it does help keep us in touch with past students, to make contact with potential new ones, and to help (for free) those who are too distant from us or who don't need a full course just for one answer.

What places site "A" above site "B" in search engine rankings? There are whole books on the subject, algorithms change over time, and there's a great deal of secrecy in order to keep the playing field level. There's amateurs who will tell you they know the technical secrets, and charge you for their thoughts. There are professionals who do know at least some of the current detail. But I think the real, long term keys to success are as follows:

a) Provide plenty of useful and accessible content
b) Follow the philosophies of the web
c) Make your information search engine friendly

Providing useful and accessible content is no magic, short term thing. I mean providing original text, information that people will be seeking, with plenty of links around the site so that it's reachable. And the information should be updated as necessary and not allowed to go stale either. If in doubt, provide more information and more pages rather than less - we're amazed at the number of visitors who arrive through obscure searches at slightly suprising pages. And your human readers who arrive at your main pages don't HAVE to follow your "History of Beanacre" link, nor your "Beanacre A350 traffic" link if they're just looking for your B&B, do they?

The philosophy of the web is 'open' and 'more'. Wondering whether to put in a link to the local Tourist Information Centre? Why not? You can always have it pop up in a fresh window if you don't want to loose your visitors, but better to have the link than not. You'll be 'rated' by the search engines as a real part of the web (and the whole word 'web' does encourage networking pages!) and your ranking will be helped. But don't go over the top and provide what's just a 'link farm' either.

Should you do the 'technical stuff' like robots.txt files, metatags with descriptions and keywords? I would answer 'yes' even through people argue about the need for an empty robots file, and about which engines use the metatgs. It can do no harm ... and it might do a whole lot of good. And help the search engines by keeping content well apart from style and any script you need.

Are these magic keys to guaranteed engine placement? Of course they're not - but they will help tip the balance in your favour. The cost, though, is a lot of time invested now and in the future. Search Engine placement is rather like driving a big oil tanker. You start the propellor going and at first nothing appears to be happening. You just sit there and wonder whether you actually flicked the switch. But then, very gradually, you start to see movement. And, given some time, you're headed in the right direction. Now you had better be careful to avoid the rocks ...
(written 2006-12-30 12:25:24)

 W512 - Web and Intranet - Site Design Aspects
G902 - Well House Consultants - Web site techniques, utility and visibility

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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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