Ask around, and you'll find many people have been in the same position:
they spent a fortune on a gorgeous website, then found to their horror
that it didn"t appear on the front page of Google.

And given Google"s dominance over search these days, that can be a
problem. But not an insurmountable one, because there are simple things
that anyone can do to ensure their website rises higher up the rankings.
Even the smallest business need only invest a little time to get good
results.

The first thing to consider is the precise nature of the problem. It's
one thing to have a website, and another to have a website that Google
can understand and index properly.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) means tweaking your site's content and
construction so that it presents the best possible front to Google and
its rivals. Advertising specific products, special offers, or campaigns
is called search engine marketing (SEM). You pay a fee to the search
company to ensure that your site appears as a sponsored link at or near
the top of search results for particular words or phrases.

Both SEO and SEM have their uses, but it's important to understand the
differences between the two. David Viney, SEO expert and author of Get
to the top on Google, likens the two concepts to buying versus renting:

"Paid ads are just that, advertisements. They're good for a specific
campaign but they have limited long-term impact. Once you stop paying,
they're gone. The organic side, SEO, has a more long-term impact; it's
like buying a car rather than renting one."

Google consultant Steve Johnston maintains that success in Google SEO
depends on getting three things right: visibility, content and
reputation. He compares them to the legs of a tripod; they all need to
be there or the thing falls over.

"Google needs to find your content; visible sites are those that present
their content in an accessible and well organised manner. Create content
using the same vocabulary that your customers use. Write lots of useful
content to convince the human user that you are the best. This is the
form Google prefers; decent prose with proper paragraphs."

Google needs to assess your content's authenticity. "Google doesn't
trust you, out of the box, so the reputation you develop online will be
the deciding factor. Google measures your reputation by looking at the
quality and quantity of the links coming in to your site from elsewhere.
Reputation is what matters most, and it's the hardest thing to fake."

They might be competing for clients, but both Johnston and Viney agree
that it is vitally important to think like your customers. The words and
phrases ordinary people use when searching for your products or services
are the ones you need to include in your website copy.

This helps target what the experts call the long tail; in other words,
the searches that might only come through once in a while, but will be
all the more valuable when they do. Viney offers this example: "Someone
searching for "ski chalet accommodation" will get millions of hits. But
if they have specific needs, and search for "ski chalet Chamonix child
care", and it's your web page that has those keywords that rises to the
top - well, you've probably just made yourself a sale." The long tail is
a long-term investment. Don't expect instant results.

Johnston agrees. "Don't get hung up on trying to reach number one in the
search results. Instead, try to make your site as relevant as possible
to as many people as possible. That makes the long tail work for you."

When running a specific short-term marketing campaign, SEM takes front
seat. The best-known form is Google's AdWords system, although all the
major search sites offer something similar. The key to success lies in
careful planning and good copywriting, according to Jane Darley, Manager
of Online Advertising Products at BT Web Clicks. SEM can offer excellent
support to other online and offline marketing activities.

"You have to research the market thoroughly," says Darley. "Type
relevant keywords for your business into search engines and see what
comes up. If you have your SEO right, you will float to the top
naturally. But most businesses come up near the top if you type in their
name. It's not the name that the customers or potential customers are
searching for - it's what the product does, or a phrase that describes
the problem it solves."

Good search engine performance isn't necessarily the dark art it's
sometimes portrayed as, and is easily within reach of even the smallest
business. All it takes is a little forethought, a dash of common sense,
and a good understanding of what customers want. Like a lot of other
things in business, really.


CASE STUDY


Brownbook (www.brownbook.net) is a global business directory that anyone
can edit, just like Wikipedia. It was Wikipedia's success in Google
search results that was the Brownbook team's inspiration for
implementing SEO.

"We were impressed at the way Wikipedia turns up so well in Google
results," said Chief Operating Officer Marc Lyne. "We wanted to get the
same effect for Brownbook pages."

The development team made sure they signed up for an account with
Google's Webmaster Tools service (www.google.com/webmasters/tools),
where they formally registered the site and set up a site map. The
standard rules of the service only allow site maps of 50,000 links, but
Brownbook's rapidly-growing database of businesses  (currently at 2.2
million and counting) needed a different approach. The company invested
in additional coding to make such a large site conform to Google's
strict rules.

They also ensured that title tags were useful - each business has a
unique page and URL, with the business name included in the title tags
and the URL itself. Search result pages on Brownbook were designed to
include search terms in their own title and meta tags.

The investment paid off. From zero in February 2008 when the site was
launched, it now averages 26,000 visitors per week, over 90% of which
come via Google searches.


CASE STUDY

The West Midlands-based Porscheshop started life in the pre-internet
days as a mail order catalogue service, supplying replacement parts for
Porsche owners in the UK and around the world. Since then it has
expanded its range of products to include everything from engine and
body parts to reference books and luxury gifts. All Porsche models are
covered, from 1965 to the present day.

Now the business operates over the web (see www.porscheshop.co.uk),
which makes performance of the company's web site a number one priority,
according to Managing Director Ian Heward.

"It is essential that our site delivers the experience our customers
need," he said.

As a result of early investment in the site from its beginnings, it
performs well in searches on Google for typical phrases such as "Porsche
replacement parts" or "Porsche spares".

The Porscheshop team has always kept a close eye on web traffic using
monitoring tools like Google Analytics, but noticed that traffic from
other search engines was not as strong as that coming from Google. BT
Web Clicks provided an answer.

"We use BT Web Clicks to plug that gap," Heward explained. "Traffic from
Google searches was good. We did try paying for SEM advertising on
Google, but ended up having adverts displayed on search result pages
where our site appeared anyway.

"With Web Clicks working on our behalf, we were able to improve our
site's visibility across a wide spectrum of search sites, much more so
than if we had tried to do the promotional work in-house."