Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Raising your Profile and Being Found

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via ‘ natural’ (‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’) search results. To index a website, a robot or crawler starts from a known point of origin, follows links between web pages, and caches page text, content and other text or HTML based information as it moves about the web.
Google and Yahoo differ in their approach and from time to time this formula will change. It is therefore important to monitor how your pages appear in searches, and to adjust the part of the meta and/or page text that appears.

It is critical that your website structure and coding is search engine friendly. Many complex tourism sites have barriers to search engine crawlers that mean their content is not fully indexed. These barriers include:

• Mark-up code which does not validate to W3C WAI recommendations.
• Flash introduction pages and/or Flash navigation.
• Javascript navigation (commonly used to provide dropdown or rollover subsidiary navigation menus)
• Complex database URLs. These should be masked with conventional URL formats
• Relying on performing a search that cannot be replicated by search engines, to produce content from a database-driven site
• Frames construction may form a barrier for crawlers
• Redirects and linking multiple domain names to one website. Redirects can be useful in certain circumstances, but may harm rankings if used incorrectly

Accessible sites with extensive valuable text content are generally search engine friendly. Check whether the deepest pages of your site are indexed by pasting the URL (without http://), or a block of text within inverted commas, into the search engine.

You can discover the search terms people use with the help of tools such as:

• Google Adwords keyword tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox
• Overture search term checker:
• For USA users: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
• For UK users: http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
• Keyword Discovery: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
• Word Tracker: http://www.wordtracker.com

Check the comparative competition level on each search term by inputting it to Google or Yahoo and noting the number of pages returned.  Look for search terms that have a higher ratio of searches to number of pages returned, and that are most likely to produce business. You should also:

• Check the top ranking sites for each term to see how well they are optimised and how easy it would be to challenge their position. Use the Google toolbar www.toolbar.google.com to see what value Google places on each page returned; and check their link popularity on www.linkpopularity.com
• Develop an understanding of the words buyers of your service have used to search for information before or during their trip. Use customer surveys and the search function in your website to gather this valuable information
• Select two or three relevant search terms per page, that are specific (and therefore easier targets), achievable, and likely to produce site visitors who will turn into customers. The words you select may be about your service, your location, or other distinctive attributes

Optimising text and meta data for your target terms

The following instructions contain technical terms and references to HTML code. If necessary, ask your webmaster or programmer for assistance when going through these steps.
Step 1: Write the page text intended for the site user:
Provide useful and actionable information in an easy-to-read style. Write to suit the on-screen user
Do not use graphics to display text. Search engines cannot read this, so persuade your graphic designers to use text even at the expense of the design
Step 2: re-edit so that your target search terms appear two or three times in the text of each page:
Try to include these terms (without dividing the words up) in the anchor text (the actual text contained within the clickable link) and in headings and subheadings (using the HTML codes that signify header and sub header status – <h1> and <h2>):
Place them as high up the page as possible and
Include your business’s core service type, geographic area and the country name in text on the footer of each page to help optimise search chances for the important geographical terms
Step 3: edit the HTML Title tag (approximately 10 to 65 characters) to include the target terms for each page as close to the start of the Title as possible:
There are several schools of thought as to the ideal content for the HTML Title tag, which will be visible to site users at the top of the browser window (usually in blue), and should be a clear statement of what that page is about
Make your company status clear in the HTML Title tag but avoid trying to use it purely for branding – and resist the temptation to just repeat keywords as it may make your site look less official and reliable, and it will not help optimisation
Step 4: edit the meta tag Description, again repeating the target search phrases for that page:
The meta tag Description can be longer than the HTML Title tag and should be a useful and truthful description of the text content of the page
Step 5: in the meta tag Keywords (<meta name=”keywords” content=”your keywords”>), add keywords that appear on the page and include those target search terms again:
Meta keywords are not currently used by search engines, but this may change and it is good practice to include them.  Make sure that all keywords in the meta tag Keywords are included in the text on the page, otherwise you may incur ranking penalties
Finally: add target search terms to at least one alternate text (commonly called alt tags, they are the text that can pop up when the cursor is moved over a graphic), for a graphic on the page, preferably a clickable graphic.

Remember, if you have different language versions then you must optimise in each language separately.

Developing keyword-rich anchor text links within the site

Many websites rely upon graphic buttons for global and core navigation menus.  There is an SEO advantage to having text based links in menus, especially if they contain target search terms relevant to the content of the pages they lead to. Make sure there are plenty of key search-term-rich text links between pages, whether or not the main menu(s) are text. The anchor text should contain the target search terms of the page it leads to. Such links also provide useful alternative routes to key information for site visitors and can help improve accessibility compliance.
For example:
Wrong: “Click here to book safari tour in (Destination) now”
Right:  “Book safari tour in (Destination) online now”

Page URLs Matter

The URL or address of a website page is important and should as far as possible contain target search terms for that page.
If a site is database driven, mask the database URLs with conventional page URLs. This is easier for site users to understand and is believed to increase the likelihood of search engines indexing all pages.

For example:
Wrong: www.oursite.com/57429/22.bb.html/?profile=NDpMTOSbRGt+ty=234
Right: www.oursite.com/accommodation.html

Choosing a content management system

Some content management systems (CMS) can be detrimental to ranking and optimisation.Take care to choose a system which produces simple URLs that contain page titles – not numbers.
It should also allow you to:

• Update the HTML Title tag, meta tag Description and meta tag Keywords on an individual basis for each page
• Use the HTML header and sub header code <h1>,<h2> tags to signify important headings and to format text as italic or bold
• Add and edit alternate text to images
• Insert key search-term-rich links between pages and to other sites (see example above
• Ensure changed URLs are properly covered with so-called 301 redirects – a search engine friendly method for web page redirection that should preserve the search engine rankings for that particular page
• Create a so-called 404 (‘page not found’) reception page, which can include the clickable site map to assist the user

Sitemaps based on text links

Sitemaps coded in Extensible Markup Language (XML) and HTML, and based purely on text links containing target search terms, will both assist the optimisation process and improve accessibility.
You must work on the ranking of the site, too – especially in the highly competitive field of travel and tourism.

Update the site frequently

When a page is indexed by Google or Yahoo it is compared with the previous version cached. Where sites are regularly updated it is likely that they will be indexed more often. News sites like CNN may be indexed every few minutes; most sites are indexed at least monthly, but sites that are not regularly updated may seldom be visited by search engine crawlers and will not rank highly. Conversely, regularly updated sites with timely information such as events and news seem to be more highly ranked in most searches.

Develop links from other high ranking sites

It is vital to develop relevant links, with keyword-rich anchor text, from other high ranking sites. Anchor text (the actual text contained within the clickable link) is extremely important in optimisation.
Volumes have been written about the importance of link popularity in ranking web pages, but the logic is simple:

• If more website editors choose to link to one site than another when wishing to point people to information, then that receiving site ranks more highly
• This is especially true if sites linking to your site themselves have a high ranking
• The effectiveness of these links is enhanced if the link on the third-party site has text contained within it that relates to the page it points to – just like the anchor text between pages on your own site

The algorithms of search engines change continuously as search engines learn from the behaviour and feedback of searchers. Keeping up to date with developments and sharing knowledge is fundamental to continued success in this area. Whether you outsource some of your SEO, or do it all in-house, those responsible should have a clear programme of continuing professional development. This should involve joint working with others in their field, participation in forums, and online research through the resources provided by Google and others.