Paolo Posted November 11, 2004 Share Posted November 11, 2004 This is a follow-up to the 'Buying habits of Europeans' thread because I didn't want to go off-topic there. As someone who didn’t know what SEO (search engine optimisation) meant until a year or so ago, but has been finding out about it since then, I thought it might be helpful to tell you what I’ve found out, as there are a couple of misperceptions in the above thread. SEO may sound strange and exotic but really it is just logical, anyone can do it, but like anything, some will do it better than others. So I wouldn’t advise spending big money on it. First of all, I am really talking about Google here because that is the search engine that is used for the majority of searches. You cannot pay to rank higher on Google. You do pay for Google’s pay-per-click programme, AdWords, but these are the little boxes that appear to the right of a results page, not the results themselves. Google is free. How high you rank is decided by two main factors: - relevance of a page’s content to the search phrase typed in by a user.- quality of links from other sites to yours (quality meaning relevance and popularity of those sites). Search engine optimisation is simply the manipulation of these two factors to make you rank higher. You can do it all yourself, or you can pay someone to do it. I would do it yourself, as a nice winter project. To optimise your site’s content, you need to work out which are the most likely phrases someone would type into a search engine when looking for a place like yours. Then you need to forget about the most popular ones like ‘gites in Normandy’ because you have no chance of competing against the hundreds of advertising sites optimised for this phrase. You should look for more ‘niche’ phrases, which include the name of your town or village. There will be fewer people searching with these, but they will be more pre-disposed to booking your house. Then you take two or three phrases per page of your site and weave them into the text, but not so much that it reads funny. Now your site will rank higher for a search using one of those phrases. For the linking aspect, I have written about this in my last newsletter for rental owners which you can see here (it’s free):http://www.laymyhat.com/newsletters/newsletter7.htm In the next one I will be writing about getting links from directories (very important). If you are wondering why links are important, it is because a link to your site represents a vote of approval for it. The more links you have the more useful your site must be. That was in the innocent days, before link farms and exchanges. So now links need to be from a related site, i.e. travel, holiday rentals, France, to be really effective. It used to be that a site’s relevance was judged by things like the keywords tag in the html code. Long gone now because so open to abuse. In fact the metatags are mostly dead at the moment, only the Title and Description count for anything on most search engines. Here are some good SEO tutorials for beginners that I found useful (and am not associated with): More sharing options... Miki Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Thanks Paolo, Winter is staring us in the face , so soon I shall sit down and give it my best ! All I have to do now is learn how to upload info !! Heathen you all cry !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Mpprh Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 HiWell summarised Paolo.Just to add that various directories are used by smaller search engines and many web sites as a source of links.The most important one is DMOZ. Once listed there, you will be gradually picked up by a lot of other sites who will link to you, thus helping your optimisation. DMOZ is also used as the basis for the Google directory, but people tend to use searchrather than plough through directories these days.Google has a page ranking system. Your inward links should ideally be from a higher page ranking than your own.Quantity of content definitely helps.Good optimisation is a slow process, but essentially free. Many of the companies offering paid, automated optimisation, are cowboys.Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Deby Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Paolo,Thank you. Couldn't have explained that myself - I did b a s t a r d i z e the subject really, but then I am only a novice.Deby (Duchess)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Paolo Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 Deby,Are you really a Duchess? Your home befits one. Do you rub your eyes in the morning when you see where you live?Paolo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Miki Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I'm sure the Duchess does rub here eyes often Paolo, especially when the heating bill lands in the post box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Please sign in to comment You will be able to leave a comment after signing in Sign In Now Share More sharing options... Followers 0
Miki Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Thanks Paolo, Winter is staring us in the face , so soon I shall sit down and give it my best ! All I have to do now is learn how to upload info !! Heathen you all cry !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mpprh Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 HiWell summarised Paolo.Just to add that various directories are used by smaller search engines and many web sites as a source of links.The most important one is DMOZ. Once listed there, you will be gradually picked up by a lot of other sites who will link to you, thus helping your optimisation. DMOZ is also used as the basis for the Google directory, but people tend to use searchrather than plough through directories these days.Google has a page ranking system. Your inward links should ideally be from a higher page ranking than your own.Quantity of content definitely helps.Good optimisation is a slow process, but essentially free. Many of the companies offering paid, automated optimisation, are cowboys.Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deby Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Paolo,Thank you. Couldn't have explained that myself - I did b a s t a r d i z e the subject really, but then I am only a novice.Deby (Duchess)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paolo Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 Deby,Are you really a Duchess? Your home befits one. Do you rub your eyes in the morning when you see where you live?Paolo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I'm sure the Duchess does rub here eyes often Paolo, especially when the heating bill lands in the post box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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