What Do Search Engines Really Want From Websites?

Almost 80 % of the traffic a website receives is thanks to the search engines. So in order to keep getting targeted traffic, it is critical to be ranked high among the search engines and this happens only with optimisation. It is equally important to know exactly how search engines rank websites, since a knowledge of these factors will help tweak your website to ensure that the relevant traffic flows in, and thereby increasing conversion rates.

Here is what a search engine looks for while ranking a website:

• Relevance to search
• Inbound links

When a visitor types in a search term in a search engine, the search engine immediately finds and displays the websites that contain the information related to the keywords in the order of relevance. Since search engines are machines, they need a specific method by which to display the search results in a particular order by relevance. This is what we call ranking. The search engine decides the importance of a website based on certain algorithms, which judge the websites, giving them points – so the more points a website gets, the higher its ranking. These are the factors for ranking:

• How often the keyword or key phrase appears in the website content, meta tags, page titles, hyperlinks, inbound links, etc. If the keyword density exceeds the search engine’s limit, then it ignores your site. This is why keyword stuffing is never recommended.
• How many relevant inbound links appear on your site? Inbound links are seen as an endorsement of your sites relevance for the keyword. Here, an important thing is the quality of the inbound links. The sites from where the inbound links come must be sites that have a high ranking with the search engines.
• How often you have fresh content on your site makes a big difference to the search engines. Steady change in relevant keyword rich content makes the search engine rank you higher.
• Other relevant issues that search engines look for relate to site navigation, content management, interaction, hosting, Flash, Javascript, sitemaps, etc.

A good way to keep track of how well your site is doing is to constantly monitor it, so that the necessary changes can be made. One way to do this is to keep up to date with what is happening at the search engines via forums and ongoing discussions. Other than that, if you happen to be launching a new website or even revamping your old one, make keyword research a continuous process. You site must be optimised for the keywords that your niche market will use to reach your website. Keyword position also makes a big impact. Your content must be structured in a way that will appeal to your target market and regularly updated.

Developing back links or link building with sites that are relevant and popular is another crucial activity. There are many ways like article marketing, blogs, forums, etc. to do this.

Getting ranked high by search engines might seem intimidating, but it is only a matter of a few simple steps and patience. As always, unique content rules, along with what your peers think of you.

WebResults.ie carries out audits to determine how visible your website is to the search engines. We also offer a range of other services to build your websites web presence.

Contact WebResults.ie for further information on What Do Search Engines Really Want From Websites?