Search Engine Optimisation broadly breaks down in to these key stages:
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Planning and strategy - This typically includes keyphrase research analysis and selection; auditing current search engine performance; analysing your competitors and what they're doing.
- Index inclusion - Determine which search engines to target including industry specific; incorporate sitemap protocol; avoid issues with dynamic content; domain name strategy.
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Page Optimisation - keyphrase selection per page; keyphrase density; HTML markup factors. Poor coding can impede search engine indexing.
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Link Building Strategy (internal and external) Links from good quality sites to yours increase your visibility in the search engines. Google realised that link popularity and link quality were a great way of determining the relevance of a page, especially once combined with the keyphrases on that page. Since all major search engines now follow this logic, proactive link-building has become a key activity for SEO.
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SEO process - The nitty gritty process on ensuring that the site meets the criteria to improve its ranking.
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Measuring Return on Investment (ROI)- The criteria with which you judge whether your investment in SEO is a success will vary. If you're an e-commerce venture it will almost certainly mean more paying customers, but it may equally be an increase in awareness of your brand or connecting visitors to information. Either way web analytic tools need to be part of the SEO process.
