Optimising For Good Results In Natural Search

What is natural search and how do
you optimize a website for good
results? Natural search refers to a
web visitor using a search engine to
conduct a search. Sometimes, this is
also known as organic search. The
terms natural search and organic
search are often used
interchangeably, for they refer to the
same thing.
Before learning how to obtain good
results for natural search, let's first
try to understand why such traffic is
valuable.
All Internet websites, assuming they
are there for commercial reasons,
want to make more sales. In order to
make more sales, they must drive
targeted traffic to their websites.
Targeted traffic means that the
visitors are pre-qualified in some
way. Natural search traffic is
considered to be targeted traffic
because something can be said about
the intention of the visitor.
For instance, if someone is searching
for "Canon Digital Camera", we know
that this person may be thinking
about purchasing a digital camera
(preferably a Canon camera). So if
the website has this product for sale,
the visitor can be converted into a
paying customer. That is why many
businesses that used to operate
offline are trying to rank well in the
search engines. Those who manage
to obtain high rankings get to enjoy a
free and steady stream of highly
targeted traffic. Of course, more
traffic eventually leads to more
profits.
So how do you optimize a website for
better natural search results? There
are two components you need to
work on.
First component: On-site
optimization.
On-site optimization means that your
website must be search engine
friendly. Different search engines
have their own set of webmaster
rules. However, the fundamentals
are similar. For example, all search
bots like your site to have a clear
structure. Navigation should be easy,
and links should be easily
identifiable. Whenever possible, try
to include a site map. A site map
helps the search bots to find all the
web pages within the website. In
addition, always add target keyword
phrases in the page titles. If possible,
use search engine friendly URLs (e.g.
static html files with keyword rich
file names). Avoid posting duplicate
content (web pages that appear
similar) on the website.
Second component: Off-site
optimization.
Search engines determine the
importance of a website based on
incoming links. But not all incoming
links bring the same value. Avoid
posting links on link farms. Your back
links should be coming from relevant
websites that are similar to the
theme of your own website. For
instance, if you are promoting a
credit card website, your incoming
links should ideally be coming from
other credit card related sites. The
problem is, how do you get external
sites to link back to you? There are
several methods you can adopt.
Article marketing - post relevant
articles to article directories. You may
then include two or three links in the
author resource box.
Guest blog posting - post a guest
blog entry in a relevant blog. Of
course, your blog post should be
unique and contain valuable
information.
Press releases - issue press releases
about your website. For paid releases,
you are usually allowed to add your
own links.
Blog commenting - join in the
discussion and leave comments on
other people's blogs. Remember, your
intention is not to spam but to
participate. That will increase your
approval rates.
Social bookmarking - have something
valuable to share? Bookmark your
own blog entries and share them
with others. These bookmarks count
as incoming links as well.
Article Source: http://
www.eArticlesOnline.com

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