Basic Search Engine Optimisation Concepts

There are countless resources on the web that include basic search engine optimisation concepts. The difficult component is separating fact from the fiction. Many of the concepts provided are out-dated at best and can hurt SEO efforts at worst. Devoting the time to understand a few basic concepts is thus important when attempting to implement the techniques yourself or electing to hire a professional SEO company.

Keyword Rich Domain Names to Improve SEO

There are many debates on the web about the value of owning keyword rich domain names to improve the SEO of a website. Most of the information is inaccurate. Why is there such a widespread belief that simply owning keyword rich domains helps? The answer is actually quite simple once exploring this basic concept.

Most individuals believe that a domain name that contains keywords will automatically rank highly in the search engines for those words since the SERPs often contain results with keyword rich domain names. This leads to the misconception that these domains appear at the top of the rankings solely as a result of the fact that the URL contains keywords. The reality is that keyword rich domain names tend to obtain links with target phrases in the anchor text from external websites and therefore such a domain indirectly benefits SEO. For example, the Yahoo directory along with many others will link to a site using the name of its URL. The Web Showroom would then receive a link with the keywords ‘the’, ‘web’, and ‘showroom’. A site with the URL search-engine-optmisation.com.au will end with a link containing the keywords, ‘search’, ‘engine’, and ‘optimisation’. The result is that keyword rich domain names indirectly can help a site rank for specific phrases. Thus it is often simpler to obtain top rankings for a domain with the target keywords than one without.

One can easily see how this is not the only one factor by using The Web Showroom as an example. Despite the fact that the Top Level Domain (TLD) is not keyword rich, the search engine optimisation page of the website still appears at the top of Google for a variety of SEO terms in spite of the common misconception this article dispels.

The More Links the Merrier

This is another half-truth that circulates the blogosphere and forums. Obviously, everything else equal, the more links pointing to a webpage from external websites the better. However, the quantity of links is not the most important determinant. Many people already know this and hence the reason it is included in this article about basic search engine optimisation concepts. However, there are still a large number of companies and business owners in the learning stages who do not know this. Theoretically one link can provide more value to a website than 100,000. Generally, this is not the case unless the 100,000 links are dubious and the one link is from one of the most authoritative sites on the internet, but it is possible. This concept hammers home the point that quality not quantity is what matters when it comes to links. One SEO tip is therefore to focus energies on acquiring those links that fall into the more valuable camp and not wasting time on attempting to gather ones from dodgy neighbourhoods.

These are Basic SEO Concepts

The two concepts mentioned above are only a couple of the more basic SEO concepts. Please keep in mind that there is an array of other rudimentary components that are worthy to understand. Rather by highlighting a couple components, this piece attempts to illustrate the multitude of signals that search engines take into account when determining the best results for a particular query. Those attempting search engine optimisation without professional assistance should first firmly grasp these and other basic concepts in order to stand a chance of obtaining top results. Since there are far more advanced techniques than those outlined here it should not come as no surprise why most enterprise level companies hire an SEO expert to keep abreast of all that is involved in obtaining and maintaining top rankings.