Laying the Foundation for Enhanced Search Engine Visibility

Posted by steve on June 18, 2008 at 11:18 AM

When it comes to obtaining and sustaining optimal search engine presence for keywords relevant to your website and company, specifically in the natural/organic listings, the layout and architecture of your site is an essential element which comes into play.

Much of the information and advice that you'll find out there surrounding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) pertains to the importance of identifying and building relevancy around targeted keywords. You'll also find extensive coverage relevant to link building, with a multitude of varied opinions on the best way to go about improving link popularity.

While there is no mistaking that identification of the right keywords is one of the most important aspects to any successful SEO campaign, and that quality inbound links are essential to establishing top placement among your competition for those keywords, the importance of first laying the foundation for enhanced search engine visibility often seems understated.

The development and implementation of a comprehensive search engine optimization campaign should always first include an in-depth analysis of your website from a search engine perspective.

It is no secret that in order to achieve top placement in the organic search engine listings for relevant keywords, the search engines must first crawl and index your site. What isn't as commonly understood is the way that search engines spider websites and how they assign relevancy to different pages, and different elements within those pages, based on a variety of factors.

Whether you are handling your SEO efforts in-house, or you have outsourced the work to an outside firm, a comprehensive site analysis should be at the forefront of your plan in order to uncover any and all issues which are impeding the ability of the search engines to effectively crawl your website.

An in-depth site analysis, and more importantly, the site changes recommended based on that analysis, are often overlooked when companies are preparing to engage in an SEO campaign as many are focused solely on site updates relevant to targeted keywords, rather than technical updates, which may initially seem unnecessary.

It is important that companies fully understand not only the potential investment needed in order to create a site which is ideal from a search engine standpoint, but also the inherent value associated with doing so. Whether or not you have outsourced your search engine optimization campaign, it is the responsibility of your SEO team to help you better understand the current status of the site, along with the rationale behind each recommendation made. From that point, they should then work closely with your IT team to help ensure those recommendations are implemented correctly, and that ideal solutions are developed based on time and resources available.

With the right foundation, you will give your site the best potential to maximize its presence throughout the search engines.

Tags
SEO
Website Analysis
Oneupweb

Category
Best Practices

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