Thursday, September 4, 2008

What is Website optimization or Optimisation?

The term website optimization -- or optimisation, as the British spell it -- refers
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to a number of techniques that are utilized to ensure that your website appears on the first page of search results in various search engines.

Because people search for things in different ways, the important issue regarding "Search Engine Optimization" is that you want your site to appear high in searches for hundreds or perhaps thousands of search phrases, not just a few.

If I don’t account for the possibility that you, the search engine user, will find your way to my page by entering any combination, order and spellings of the query “what is search engine optimization,” including “search engine optimisation” (spelled with an “s”), plain “SEO,” or perhaps “Optimisation Search Engine what is it” (with capitals and different word order), then I stand to lose many hits, most likely to someone who did prepare for more keyword search possibilities.

You may notice that I am using optimisation and optimization interchangeably. That's because in New Zealand we spell that word with an s, while Americans spell it with a z. I am making a great effort to Americanize my spelling.

Getting back to the topic of ranking well in search engine results, I have authored several articles on the importance of this concept and will include some links at the end of this article.
I have been involved in website design for over 7 years and taught myself the skills necessary for allowing search engines to find websites before I knew that there was a name for it (SEO). I have come to the realization that it is not enough to merely have a professional website.

SEO, or search engine optimisation, of the site you are creating also requires that the website contain accessible content that search engines can index and that users of these search engines can find using many different keywords and phrases. This leads to more frequent and higher-ranking appearances of the website in the results of search engines across the board.

It is quite gratifying to have clients who are happy that their website that is not only attractive, but is successful as well. I have come to the realization that being a jack-of-all-trades is not always efficient, so now my business is co-owned by a web-designer/developer and I have a programmer who handles the more complex websites.

My point is that a good SEO or search engine optimisation specialist should allow search engines to be able to index your website for as many related and similar keywords as possible. When you know what you are doing, this is not a difficult task. It does consume a bit of time, but it is not very hard.

Lynny
SEO Consultant
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