MEMBERS BULLETIN No. 1; August 2004
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
We've chosen search engine optimisation (SEO) as the first subject because it's a hot topic at present though levels of understanding vary considerably.
Welcome to this the first of a series of regular Bulletins to help our subscribers get the most from the Internet. On occasions such as this, the aim will be to help subscribers improve the performance of their own websites. On other occasions, the aim will be to take a critical look at other services available and to keep subscribers briefed on new developments.
1. Pay Per Click (PPC)
With PPC you bid for position on the results pages thrown up by search engines but bids can go very high. This makes it difficult to get a reasonable return unless you have several properties. Even then, you'll be paying forever and your advert - for that's what it is - will never have the same credibility as web listings that have got there on their own merit.
We will, however, cover this in greater depth in future Bulletins because - as you would expect from the web - it's a moving feast and innovation is all around.
2. Do it Yourself (DIY)
If you'd rather not pay for each visitor and prefer instead to have people know your site appears on merit rather than having to depend on the size of your wallet, then there's work to be done. Your site will need to be customised or 'optimised' to attract visitors from your target market and it's this that gives rise to the term 'Search Engine Optimisation' (SEO).
3. Employ an Expert (EAE)
This is recommended but be warned - it can be like buying a second-hand car you may never get to see. As in the early days of desk-top publishing, there are plenty of 'experts' that have purchased a bit of cheap kit and are ready to relieve you of your money. Go by recommendation only and take time out to learn a bit about the basic steps of SEO below.
4. Join a Consortium (JAC)
If you are a sole trader with a single property, it's not just the cost of tackling SOE effectively it's the time too. This is where online consortiums like Staying in Wales come into their own by spreading the cost of providing online services like SEO across a select number of providers, using online brands to create recognition. Some like Staying in Wales also provide location-based mapping services.
This is easily the most economic way of getting a number of online services at a single affordable cost but watch out again for the pretenders.
The Basic Steps of SEO
Key Phrases
These are the words and phrases your target market keys into search engines like Google and Yahoo! to search for what you're offering without knowing of your existence.
Website Name
Your website name is one of the first things that can improve your site's SOE but your folder names and page names can also improve your SOE and increase visitor traffic if they include your key phrases.
For example, if you have a hotel in Tenby, your website (domain name) could be www.hoteltenby.com or, better still, www.tenbyhotel.com. But what if someone already owns these domain names? If you just want to target a UK audience then www.tenbyhotel.co.uk,www.tenbyhotel.org.uk, or even www.tenbyhotel.info would be OK.
Even if these names are taken, with a little bit of imagination you're sure to be able to come up with something - for example www.thetenbyhotel.info. But be careful not to fall foul of a possible passing-off action if there is, in fact, a hotel called The Tenby Hotel that hasn't yet registered this. We will cover this possibility in a future bulletin.
You could then have a folder called 'fishing' with a page in it called mackerel' as in http://www.thetenbyhotel.info/fishing/mackerel.html. Avoid capitals and spaces. Use hyphens and not underscores and no more than two if you must.
Site Structure
Make the route from your Home page to every other page on you website as short as possible, measured in the number of clicks required. Aim to make every page on your website reachable from your Home page with no more than three clicks.
Use simple text links if possible and use your key phrases in the text. And avoid using 'Frames' for reasons best not explained here through lack of space!
Page Structure
First, if you're using any 'scripting' like Java and CSS put it in separate files where possible.
Search engines analyse a page's code from the top to the bottom with the code at the top considered most important. You can take advantage of this by dividing your page into (divs)s, placing the most key phrase-rich (div)s at the start of the page's code and using CSS to control where the (div)s appear in browsers.
Site Content
Content is King and you want as much of it relevant to your target market on as many pages as possible. Think hundreds of pages, thousands if possible! If you've got archive information somewhere, use it. If not, plan a programme of content page generation.
Page Content
Use each page to target a 'collection' of key phrases. For example, don't just target 'fishing mackerel' but also related key words such as 'fishing mackerel bait' and 'fishing mackerel smoked'. Make sure these phrases appear throughout the page, including the html tags in the 'head' (title, description) and the 'body' text, including headlines ("h1") and ("h2").
More tips on page content will be included in the next Bulletin.
SEO Spam
Do not try to cheat the search engines (spamming). This can get your site penalised or even banned. A simple rule for staying the right side of a ban is not to do anything overtly to try to impress search engines. Other practices that can get you banned are hidden text; text colour similar to background colour; duplicating copy on different pages or different sites, and excessive cross-linking between different sites. And the rules change, so watch out!
Site Submission / Linking
This is the way of getting your website into the major search engines' databases.
The best (and free) way to get listed on Google, Yahoo!, and MSN (Microsoft Network) is via links into your site from other sites that are already listed. This includes important directories such as DMOZ (aka The Open Directory), Yahoo!, and Business.com.
If you are in a rush you can 'pay to submit' to some of the major search engines, with the exception of Google. Make sure it's worth your while as it may cost up to £20/page per year and this doesn't mean your site will perform well and get visitors; it's just to get in the race. Should you get visitors, they can then cost you up to 20p per visit or per 'click'. With the free route you might have to wait three months or more before being indexed but you won't have to 'pay per click' (PPC) once you are.
But there is much more to linking. To Google, and increasingly to other search engines, a link to your website is a vote of confidence. The more links you have, the higher Google and others will rank your site and the more visitors you'll get.
The quality of the links is also crucial. This includes the relevance the site from which the link to your site is from (it should be in the same subject area); the importance of the site as determined by Google, and the nature of the link itself, i.e. the words in the text (if there is any text).
Because search engines take all these issues into account, a collection of 'authority sites' are created that cross-link and feed off one another. Simply give them a good reason to link to you and gain from their strength.
The latest concept to emerge is the specialist, niche-market network such as Staying in Wales that links businesses of a kind together to form high-profile 'authority sites' in their own right. Businesses on these networks co-operate to compete by sharing services and attracting a substantial mass of visitors from which they all benefit.
Visitor Stats
By using good 'visitor statistics analysis' software on your website (not the packages you get for free) you can find out where your paying visitors come from, what search terms they use, and how they travel through your site. With this information to hand, you can then target your SEO to where the money is.
Wait
It takes time. If you've done everything right, you may need to wait three months for your site to be visited and indexed by Google and the other major search engines, and the same again for the sites that link to you to be indexed.
Think First
Once you've taken some if not all of the basic steps outlined above to improve your website's performance, think first before making changes unless in support of tactical marketing e.g. pricing and availability. Try to use your visitor stats to assess how well you're doing with the key phrases you've chosen and to experiment with new key phrases.
Measure Your Return
In the same way you measure the return you get on your capital investment (ROC), you need also to measure the return you get on time and money spent on marketing (ROM). With traditional advertising and promotion this has always been a big challenge: "I know that 50% of my marketing budget works but if I knew which 50% I'd save a lot of money!".
Internet marketing changes this. It's more direct, much less expensive and the returns come quicker, so you can afford to experiment. It's also easier to track down where your enquiries are coming from, making it easier to measure your returns. The Internet also enables 'cluster marketing' and 'viral marketing', which increase enquiry levels whilst further reducing cost but we'll save that for the next Bulletin!
But all this is just a first step. Marketing returns are ultimately judged on the bottom line, which is as much to do with pricing as it is to do with number of enquiries/conversions. A future Bulletin will look at how accommodation providers using the Internet can adopt the EasyJet booking model to maximise profitability.
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Staying in Wales-Aros yng Nghymru
Unit 4, Penamser Business Park, Porthmadog LL49 9GB Wales UK
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