Number one in Google

Good listings across multiple search engines can make or break a website, at Kyan we believe there are no real secrets to search engine optimisation (SEO).

Transparency with our clients is key, we don’t keep our techniques behind lock and key as we believe SEO is not just the responsibility of the web developers, but also of the content creators & writers.

Read on for a few SEO tips to help your website get to number one in Google.

Update (27/04/09)

This article is number one in Google for the search term “number one in Google” (View screenshot). We practiced what we are preaching and optimised this page to prove how SEO works.

Content

Producing good, meaningful content is absolutely critical. We recommend focusing your content on a few key phrases that people are likely to use in search engines. Keep it fresh and relevant to your target audience. Choosing which key phrases to target is essential part of the process. There is little point in being number one in Google for a phrase which is going to generate no traffic. By using Google’s Keyword Tool and Ranktracker software we are able to see what terms are returning results and how competitive they are.

Maintenance

We monitor the key phrases using Ranktracker, tweaking the copy to achieve the best results. In our experience SEO has to an on-going commitment in order to maintain a high position, but with a website built with SEO in mind this can be achieved with little effort.

Incoming links

The more websites that link to your website, the more of an ‘authority’ you are considered. Each link is an endorsement that your content is useful. It is worth noting that links from other highly ranked sites carry more weight than those with low rankings.

Page titles

Matching your page title with a search term tells the search engine that your page contains the content the user is looking for. We also match the first heading on the page as closely to the page title as possible as this re-enforces that the content on the page is likely to be relevant to the search term.

Rich media

Flash videos, graphics, animation and the like are notoriously difficult to index. We use image replacement techniques and alternative text content for flash and images so that your content can still be indexed. This is also great for people using screen readers and mobile phone users.

In summary

This list is by no means exhaustive, but these are the key points to good SEO practice and achieving that elusive number one in Google.