In my position as a Online Business Development ManagerI often get asked something along the lines of, ‘how should I write so my site gets found on search engines’ or something along these lines. There is generally do definitive answer to this, no ‘do this and you’ll be fine’ instead this is generally what I advise.

The first thing to remember is that ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ (or SEO for short) is not an exact science, there are things that we can do (and you) to try and influence the position of your website in search engine rankings but at the end of the day it’s down to Google (or Yahoo, or MSN etc) and not us to decide which site goes where in the listings. There are over 100 different factors that the search engines take into account when deciding the position of a web site, a good web developer will generally concentrate on the most important of those factors. Many of the things that influence the rankings are not even visible to the average user of the website. Things like page titles, hidden meta data, number of inbound links to the site etc. have a very large influence but don’t worry a good web developer will take care of this part for you.

As you may or may not know, the actual written content of your website is important and this is where you can actually help towards the SEO of the site. Simply write your content (or use a skilled copywriter) to ensure a number of your ‘Keywords and Key-phrases’ are used throughout. These are the important words on your site that you want to get found for in Google for searches and also similar and related searches. A keyword might be something like ‘jewellery’, whilst Key-phrases are usually a combination of 2, 3 or 4 keywords, for example ‘sterling silver jewellery’. Ideally we want the key-phrases to be in the same order that someone might actually type them into Google. Here are some basic guidelines for the descriptions.

• Remember that the content is for end user and should be clear to them.
• Use keywords and key-phrases frequently to increase search engine positions for these. (This makes the page seem more relevant to the search engines for people searching for these words and phrases).
• However don’t over use them, so that it doesn’t read well or just looks weird, make sure it flows and sounds natural.
• Keep the descriptions relevant to product.
• Be direct. Use short sentences. Break up the text with line breaks. Search engines don’t actually bother reading punctuation or line breaks but for users, it’s easier to read if it’s spaced out and not one big chunk of text.
• Use lists if appropriate; these are concise and easy to read.
• Don’t be afraid to repeat a little bit to get your point across, this could mean summarising with a final sentence or paragraph containing important keywords. However, it’s important to ensure that it doesn’t look weird or out of place.
• Up to 300 words on the page is ideal for most products and services. If there’s not much to say then it’s not always good to put something there just for the sake of it.

This is a guest post by : Alistair Gleave is a multi skilled online business development manager who is passionate in developing communication strategies for clients and creating bespoke online communication programs for them that provide quantifiable results. Blog: Online Business Development

His three central tenets are extraordinary customer service, extraordinary product quality and delivering an extraordinary and engaging web presence.

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