Search Engine Optimization (or optimisation as the British prefer) is a key web marketing activity.

According to Wikipedia it is the job of “improving rankings for relevant keywords in search results by rectifying the web site structure, and content such that they could be easily read and understood by the search engine’s software programs”.

This definition infers that:

1. SEO improves the visibility of a web site only for predetermined keywords;
2. sauce for the Goose may not be sauce for the Gander: in other words, optimisation for one search engine may not work well, or even at all, in another.

So far, pretty good. It could be improved or at least made more honest though in two respects:

1. SEO does not necessarily “rectify” anything. Perfectly decent web sites may not be search optimised at all, and perfectly awful web sites (riddled with technical and usability errors) may yet be perfectly optimised.
2. Except in romantic novels, SEO is less concerned with how a web site’s structure and content can be “easily read and understood” by a visiting search engine, and more with how the structure and content can be adapted to ‘persuade’ or influence it. Ironically this touch of realism appears to make SEO synonymous with rhetoric, which as Lord Baldwin of Bewdley reminded us, is the harlot of the arts.

One might argue that there are harlots, and then there are harlots. The same is true of SEO. A spot of careful and moderate SEO may go, in many cases, largely unnoticed by the web site user, certainly it won’t degrade the integrity, usability or technical correctness of the website beyond acceptable levels. But it is a compromise – between quality and search-effectiveness, and it will cause problems if it goes too far.

What sorts of problems? Well, poor or excessive search engine optimisation commonly creates the following usability defects:

1. Deception. This is a serious problem relating to the use of keywords within pages that are not relevant to the content of that page. This is very prevalent in the top listings of most search engines. It is serious because it assumes that people do not mind being deceived, which is a rather brave assumption. My experience is that people tend to have a low tolerance for web sites that waste their time (unless they come with that objective).
2. Bookmarks and browser History. You want people to bookmark your web site so that they can return easily. Browser ‘History’ entries let you easily find sites you’ve been to but haven’t bookmarked. SEO routinely perverts the titles and descriptions of web pages in order to make them seem relevant to target keywords; resulting in bookmarks and history entries like “UK business office furniture hire – chairs, tables & desks. Furniture Hire.”, rather than the more obviously useful and accurate “Kilroy’s Furniture Ltd. | Contact Us”. These problems get worse as ‘keyword reinforcement’ techniques often use the same title across many web pages. Perhaps it’s poetic justice, but this technique actually reduces the likelihood that, should anyone visit your web site, they will be able to find their way back again, which thereby perpetuates a dependence on search engines.
3. Marketing glaze. Many studies have shown that on the web, although I suspect everywhere, people avoid anything that looks like advertising and tend to ignore text written in marketese (marketing-speak, the lingo of sales). If the content on your web site is stuffed with keywords, and reads like a commercial, you really cannot expect anyone (other than children, who are the rather predictable exception to this tendency) to hang around long enough to actually buy anything or explore your web site.

These problems will:

1. do nothing to enhance your reputation;
2. keep you dependent on search engines;
3. turn away many adult visitors;
4. significantly reduce your web site’s effectiveness.

Search Engine Optimization is also not the only way to get your web site listed. And on its own it will not work miracles with your search engine positioning. Having a well-rounded relevant web site, and a carefully researched marketing programme, is how one gets a good Google position, and SEO is a part, but only a part, of that process.

There are occasions though where SEO is unnecessary or maybe even inadvisable: if your web site is part of a large organisation, like a government, the BBC or Microsoft. It’s not necessary because, providing you get some links from key pages on the main organisation web site and providing that your web site is built properly, your position will rise regardless of SEO. And it is inadvisable because – for a government web site, or any site that has to follow policies on accessibility, usability and technical conformance – SEO can quite easily break your obligations to those requirements. In this latter situation organisations should meet the requirements first, then undertake SEO and retest to ensure requirements are still being met, discarding ‘optimisations’ that prevent conformance.

Most of us though aren’t lucky enough to get incoming links from the BBC homepage, so we have to degrade our web sites to some extent in the cause of search optimisation. I suppose then the only question is: how much of a harlot are you prepared to be?

Sure, companies obviously do get those fancy addresses, but space is limited and there’s only room for so many. And whilst it’s probably a good aspiration, is it actually vital to land that prime spot? Or does missing out mean that the game is over, that it’s impossible to run a business in another location?

Obviously not. If that were true then the Internet would be a whole lot smaller – remember that (conservatively) only about 1 in 100,000 websites¹ can be in the Google top ten at any one time – it’s a rarefied group and in mainstream retail sectors the top ten is a conglomerate of giant brands and directories, neither of whom are realistic competitors for most businesses.

Also, the Internet is a big place getting bigger by the day, and the frenzied drive for page one Google listings is, to a large degree, a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. Of course everyone would love to see their web site listed in the top ten, but it is perfectly possible to do good business with a lower position, via traffic from other search engines (yes, there are other search engines out there), through partnership activities, advertising and most importantly, by providing value (as your search engine position is absolutely worthless unless you provide a service that people want to use).

Then there is the issue of what do users do when the listings on page one are low quality, which (let’s face it) is not unusual. Do they search again for different terms or do they click on to page 2? Research is clear that most users prefer to search again when a quick scan tells them the listings aren’t appropriate, but I don’t know of any research that looks at what happens when users can see they’ve got the search terms right, but that the web sites that the listings lead to are poor. It’s a good question and, speaking personally, if I think I’ve got the terms right, I will keep looking down the listings until I’m sure that Google can’t help me.

This leads to the possibility that the situation might not be so bleak for those web sites that seem mysteriously to remain trapped beneath poor quality competition occupying the spots above them. As I say, this is an educated guess, but no one I know has proved it wrong.

Benefiting from search engine position is simply a numbers game – and you should remember that search engines are most important for generating new customers, not for retaining customers. At the top end, the visitor numbers are so high that web sites can clearly afford to lose customers, and lower down the listings, web sites clearly cannot. The lower down the listings you are, the more important it is that you retain visitors and turn them into customers, by giving them what they want in an easily digestible form.

Providing good content is always the best policy. It is not only an important tactic in raising your search engine position (as other people tend to link to good web sites, and because high-quality text-based information gives the search engine more to chew on), but it ensures that while your web site is making its ascent up the index you are extracting the most from the customers you get. In an environment where resources are scarce, they must be nurtured carefully – providing good content is the best way to nurture your customer figures.

And, if you think about it, a visitor who comes back to your web site is probably better than a new visitor (especially for ecommerce web sites). New visitors are fickle: they are quick to judge, demanding in their expectations, often they’re only there to compare prices or availability, and they know there are usually other places where they can find what you are offering. By comparison, providing you maintain standards, new visitors are worth their weight in gold: visiting times tend to be longer, they will gradually ‘learn’ your site and so discover and use more of it, and though they still visit to make comparisons they are more likely to spend money if your offer seems competitive – having previously earned their trust to some degree. Unfortunately, a great many shopping experiences on the web end in disappointment so trust is very valuable – leading as it does to the holy grail of marketing: personal recommendation.

The point of this article is to remember that no web marketing strategy relies only on a high Google position. Prepare your website for its ascent up the Google charts by making sure you Search Optimize it. Then move on and deal with the reality that Google isn’t going to be swinging you much business for a while yet – through an ‘organic’ search listing anyway (an organic search listing is one that hasn’t been paid for). Now is the time to get on with the other equally important work of finding advertising and marketing opportunities that do not rely on organic listings in Google or other major search engines.

Some people are impatient though. They just can’t wait, and a ‘non organic’ listing courtesy of a sponsored AdWords advert seems so alluring. But however much it may increase your visitor numbers, it is also an expensive and relatively inefficient way to generate traffic, so finding out what your money is achieving should be a priority. This goes for any advertising you undertake, not just a Google AdWords programme. If your web marketing costs you money then, generally speaking, you should be quite interested in whether it is working for you or not.

You can find out where your ad money goes by using some of the other arrows in the well-filled quiver of your marketing programme – you can get regular reports showing where your search engine visitors go and what they do; you can set up target entry pages with user activities in mind (getting them to make an enquiry or buy a product, for example) and because you know what it has cost to get that person where you want them, you can see how much they return to your business. Remember to track the after-effects of a campaign, as intermittent advertising can be very cost-effective; set yardsticks and be brave enough to pause your campaign if it doesn’t measure up.

Many web sites do these things anyway as part of their standard web marketing activities. If your business spends a lot on advertising then you should do them too, you will learn a lot about your web business and become better at managing it.

But getting back to the Google Top Ten. In the shorter term, there are other important and profitable ways to market a web site (and ways a business can use the Internet for marketing). Sure, as a long-term aim, there’s no harm imagining yourself sharing a joke and a glass of bubbly with the boss on the day you hit the top ten, but for now why not explain to him how Google position is more a means than an end (and if you like cliches remind him that there are many ways to skin a cat); impress him with the fact that you do your job well enough to generate visitors under tougher conditions – in the long run, if your boss understands the bottom line, he’ll see you’re actually doing a good job.

How can I get my web site onto Google’s first page of results?

I think I hear this question (or its variants) more often than any other, which maybe isn’t surprising as it seems widely held that a web site faces doom having the temerity to turn up on any page other than Google’s first.

Well, how do you do it, how long does it take, is it even possible or worth doing?

Some people claim that they can get any web page to the Google top ten, pretty much on demand; Google says they can’t. The answer lies in very Liberal fashion somewhere in between – because actually you can but you probably shouldn’t.

For most commercial web sites, to cheat the Google system and leap in at the top you have to bend some rules. However, you also have to bend your website out of the streamlined, purposeful shape it hopefully possesses; leaving behind, when the process is complete, an inane object likely to send visitors fleeing for the exit within seconds. And then Google will probably discard your listing when they find out (and they will find out; let’s face it you won’t be hard to find). So Google is kind of right: you can’t really cheat your way to the top – because it is tantamount to commercial suicide.

This holds true in situations where there is fierce competition for particular search terms. However, where competition isn’t so hot there are ways (such as blogging) to work with the Google system and still achieve a page one listing. The fact that this happens (and can happen so quickly) is both Google’s strength and its Achilles’ heel. Currency and relevance are what made Google such a good search tool in the first place and if it’s used according to the manufacturer’s instructions the system works very well.

The position of a web page is worked out by considering many factors, chief amongst which is its Google PageRank™. PageRank measures a web page’s importance and is determined by the nature of the links between that page and others: a link from a highly rated page does your ranking more good than a link from one with a low rating. The PageRank algorithm has subtle and extensive implications beyond the scope of this article but it does show that getting links to your web site is very important.

Ultimately though, relevance to the search terms will always win out, which is why a search for your company name (unless it’s very common) will usually bring your website up number one, as will using strange word combinations – even Google knows of only one “shoemaker of distinction” (it’s in South Africa). The only snag is that people don’t normally search for company names or strange word combinations, they search for things like “curtains”, “motor bike insurance” and “cheap holidays”. Oh well, back to the PageRank.

Considering all this, a good starting strategy would be to:

• optimise your web site (also known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO);
• start a link network;
• submit your web site to other relevant databases;
• get listed on certain directories;
• ensure that your content is relevant and useful.

These are actually just general web marketing activities, and will benefit you regardless of what happens on Google. But sure as cream rises they will all help to improve your Google position too. Some will work better than others in this regard, it depends on what area of business you are in and what the competition is like for your target search terms (this changes so the research is worth repeating occasionally).

In the end, if you want to achieve a sustainable high Google position, then you will almost certainly have to be patient; and there are never any guarantees – it may never happen. If you are really lucky you might be guaranteed a place¹, if you’re not then your chances could be 1 in 100 million², which is about ten times less likely than winning the National Lottery.

My advice is to be realistic and read on, because the important point I’ve been trying to get to is that, for 99% of businesses, getting to page one on Google is not actually what’s most important.

Life outside the Google top ten »