Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Estimates of how many internet searches are performed every day are well into the billions. When a search is performed, search engines display results showing the websites most likely to contain relevant information, related to the search.

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of designing or optimising a website in such a way that it ranks highly on search engine results, ideally on the first page. This is achieved by various techniques such as careful use & placement of key words and phrases, hyperlinks, titles, meta tags, images, links and many other parameters which are measured by the search engines.

How Search Engines work
Data is collected by search engines using spiders, highly complex automated programs which read all the information on a website, and then assign it a rank. Then, through a process called crawling, all the relevant information on site is catalogued by another program called an indexer. They work constantly, updating search results by adding new data and start again as soon as one cycle of scanning is finished. Search engines use programs known as algorithms to rate the information they gather, the details of which are highly guarded secrets within the industry.

SEO Consultants
A huge industry of SEO advisors and providers has developed to help companies ensure they are consistently found in the top results of searches. They may be involved from the design stages of a website or take an existing page and optimise it in such a way that gets it higher ratings using a variety of techniques. SEO experts constantly analyse the ever-changing 'secret' search engine algorithms and optimise their client's websites accordingly.