In October, we wrote of a search engine optimisation self-test we thought worth your taking, and suggested it could help sort out some of the issues with your own web site for future planning. This is another effort along those same lines with a slightly different slant – - nonetheless worth considering, though.

We’ve written so many times about basic SEO concepts, and yet it’s still the most common question we get asked everywhere we go. “I’ve got this new web site, take a look, let me know what you think,” are some of the most often spoken words to us.  And, “I rank #1 on Google for our site’s name” is another.

The purpose of this test today, though,  is to see how well you know your own site,  and not what we think of it. So, let’s get to the questions, and we’ll see your degree of self-awareness:

1.  For which keywords have you optimised your web site?

2.  Where does your site rank on Google, Yahoo and Bing for those keywords?

3.  Which search engines are sending visitors to your site and in what numbers?

4.  What searches are your visitors conducting on those search engines that bring them to your site?

Four questions, a pretty easy test.  How did you do?  How many could you answer?  Let’s review the importance of the answers and let you know your grade.

1.  One of the concepts many don’t yet get is that you choose the keywords for which your site will be ranked.  You choose those keywords based upon your product or service and the keyword inventory of how many searches are being conducted for those keywords on search engines now.  You write your home page copy, your page titles, your meta description, to incorporate those keywords in a good density that will insure a good search engine indexing.

In short, you choose, and you optimise based upon your choices.  So, if you don’t know what keywords your web site has been optimised for, you didn’t do your work properly.  For those of you who do know, though, we say “Well Done.”

2.  Assuming you got a “Well Done” on the first question, and your site has been optimised for the right keywords and in the right way, the rank results on Google, Yahoo and Bing should be good.  That will mean your site is easy to find in a search at one of those engines, and perhaps is in the top 20, or even the top 10.  Simply go to one of them and enter one of the keywords for which your site has been optimised – - and then scroll through until you find your site listed.

If you don’t find it in the first two or three results pages, then perhaps you optimised it for the wrong keywords; or, your keyword density is too low for a good rank.  This means you have more work to do on your site.

3.  Your site should have some statistical gathering tool for you to review, whether it be one provided by your hosting company, like Webalizer, or perhaps Google Analytics or Yahoo Web Analytics.  Any one of those will be able to tell you which search engines are sending visitors to your site, and in what number. This data is helpful in determining the success or failure of your optimisation efforts, and should be reviewed at least monthly.  How else will you know whether you are on the right track?

4.  This is the second part of question #3, actually.  Those statistical gathering tools will tell you what searches your visitors actually conducted that lead them to your site.  Once again, the word or phrase used in a search for which your site is a relevant result is called . . . . a keyword.

It’s important to know how visitors are finding your site.  The data tells you whether your efforts in creating optimised content were successful.  The data also tells you what adjustments in your content might help improve your rank position to make it even easier for people to find your site.

So, how did you do?  How many could you answer?  What did your answers tell you?

These are only four questions, four basic questions.  There are many more that should be asked on a regular basis.  Search engine optimisation is not once-off, no matter what anyone else tells you.

When you open a “sticks and bricks” store, you don’t simply open the door and expect to find a queue already.  You hang a sign, place adverts in the local papers, perhaps consider radio spots, neighborhood leaflets.  Even these are not once-off efforts – - they continue from month to month, season to season, and that’s how you grow your business.

On the Internet, it’s the same.  You don’t just launch your site and have a queue form the next day.  SEO is ongoing, or at least it should be if you wish to be successful with your online presence.

If you couldn’t answer those four simple questions, that success is not likely to happen.

We’ve written so often about basic search engine optimisation (SEO) practices, and maybe it’s because they seem so simple that so many overlook them. Page titles, word count/keyword density, headings, paragraphs, as well as the research that precedes the actual writing – - these aren’t the whole of it, but they do matter. Web site owners ignore them at their peril.

Perhaps an example might help. I hesitate to tell the story because I don’t want to create the impression it’s SEO lightning that will strike the same place time and time again. There’s no magic to it, and just taking the time to read the Webmaster Guidelines Google offers will tell you that. And, SEO efforts achieve varying degrees of success at different speeds depending on the web site, its subject matter/products/services, and a site owner’s dedication to engage in ongoing best practices.

With that said, let’s look at Inuit Images. John and Victoria have been operating an Inuit Art Gallery for thirteen years, and their web site was ten years old when they called KISS. The Inuit sculptures, carvings, drawings and master works are beautiful, authentic, and both prehistoric and contemporary.

Yet, even with that tenure on the Internet, the web site did not rank well for keywords associated with their art. We were asked to give their site a face lift and help them be found a bit easily in searches. We performed our due diligence on keyword inventory research, assembled a list of keywords to target, wrote new page titles, meta description and structured copy, helped them find a new look and feel for the site, and launched the new version in early October.

Last week, we reviewed the site’s first month performance and were delighted to find that its rank position for the targeted keywords, which for the old site was not in the top 50 results in any instance, had improved into the top 25: “inuit art” has them ranked #25; “inuit art sculptures” at #8; “inuit sculptures” at #13; “inuit art books” #24; “eskimo art” at #6; and, “inuit art gallery” at #18.

These are keywords for which their site wants to rank well – – they all have to do directly with their gallery offerings and the pieces they present. There’s no mystery here, either. You assemble the list of keywords, craft the copy around it, and review the statistical data periodically to see how the content is performing.

Results are not always this quick, to be honest, and not often as dramatic. We always assume the first month will simply establish a baseline performance for the second month’s stats, and hope for some movement by then. The basics don’t change, though, and the exercise is still the same.

Of course, there is more to the work than these steps. There’s link building strategies, social networking (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), as well as content growth and refreshing, to mention a few. Websites are perpetual works in progress, frankly.

But, that’s where it all begins: compelling content that targets the right keywords; words in all the right places; keywords in the right frequency; page titles; headings; main body text; all coordinated for a solid and strong indexing by the search engines.

It does work.

My partner in Dublin, Ireland, Micheal O Donnabhain, was asked to make a presentation to his business networking group recently, and the subject he was to present was search engine optimization basics. Three group members had volunteered their websites for a quick review, and we evaluated their sites using just four of the far more than four SEO considerations – Micheal had to keep his remarks to about 20 minutes.

Those four site elements were: page title, meta description, headings, and word count/keyword density. So that we could make sure everyone was on the same page, we offered a definition of “keyword”: a word or phrase a person was likely to use when searching for a web site’s product or service for which the site would want to be a high-ranked result.

Past columns to this blog have addressed the importance of page title, meta description, headings and word count/keyword density, and they can be reviewed in the Web Copy Writing/SEO category if you’re interested. What I want to talk about today is the self test we gave the group at the end of the presentation – – our idea for a good “take-a-way” from the meeting. I’d like to offer it for you to take on your own, and don’t worry – – it’s easy, quick, and there’s no follow-up quiz for you.

Pretend for a moment you are not you, and you don’t know your web site exists. Instead, you are a person looking for the real you and your web site, and the product or service you sell. You are that person sitting in front of your computer ready to conduct a search on Google or Yahoo or Bing or one of the other search engines to find the real you.

Make a list of the words or phrases you would enter in the search field to find the product or service you promote and sell on your web site. Write three or four search phrases that occur to you. Remember, now, you aren’t you, and you don’t know your web site exists – – all you know is the product or service you want to find.

Then, with that list in front of you, go to your web site and look at your page title, your meta description, your headings and your home page content. If you don’t find the keywords from your list in any or all of those places, and in the right frequency, you have some serious work to do on your site. If those keywords aren’t there, it’s not likely anyone is going to find you in their search.

There’s a lot more to SEO than this simple test, but it’s a good start. It’s a worthwhile exercise, and it will be very instructive for you.

As we’ve written so often in the past, search engines are word value-based systems. They do not “see” images or colors, graphics or photos. They scan the words they find, run those words through their algorithms, determine how a site should be indexed (stored in their data bases), and for which searches it should be presented as a “relevant” result.

Their little “robots” scour the Internet from site to site, examining what they find, and reporting back to the “mother ship” those findings. They recognize the words they scan, but without any understanding of their meaning. After all, those “robots” are merely pieces of software, and not sentient beings.

Let me offer a simple and simplified illustration of one thing this means.  We’ve all seen it, and you’ll know exactly what I mean.  You are at Google or Yahoo or another of your favorite search engines running a search.  The results page pops up in response, and you notice some of the sites given, both in the organic list and in the sponsored results list, don’t really seem appropriate to your search.  The sites listed don’t have much to do with exactly what you are looking for, and you wonder why they’re listed.

There are two reasons for this.  First, the site has likely played a little with its keywords, taken some liberties with content or copy that has little, if anything, to do with their products or services.  The site has nonetheless been indexed for those keywords and “fooled” the robots into thinking that is what the site is about.

The second reason is that robots, so far, only recognize the words, and not their meaning. That may change someday.

Search engine algorithms have evolved mightily over the years, and the way search engines work will always be dynamic.  The most important concept for them is relevancy – - delivering search results matched exactly to the search.  This is how they help their brand loyalty build, believing that searchers who are given the most relevant results for their search will return to that engine for all future searches.

Imagine, then, a search engine algorithm that understands the meaning of a phrase, rather than simply recognizing the word(s).  How much more relevant, then, would search results be?  I’d say pretty darn relevant, and searchers would be given “just the facts, Ma’am” every time.

This is one of the directions Google and Yahoo and the rest will be moving toward, if they are not already doing so.  In the meantime, though, you can probably expect them to assign greater value to “brand” in order to combat those web sites who play games with their content in attempts to “fool” the robots.  The better known the brand, the more likely it will be presented as a high ranked search result.

Search engines are fighting for their own brand loyalty, if you will, in their efforts to grab a large share of the billions spend on sponsored results.  Recognizing a “brand” name is one way to fight for market share, because it has the best chance of presenting relevant results.

It also means the little guys will have a harder time achieving high rank positions.  Longer keyword phrases, or “longtail” keywords, will still have high value.  Searchers have learned that if they drill down their searches with longtail phrases, they are likely to be given more relevant results to their search.

Simplified, but a good example:  “hotels” gives you hundreds of millions of results; “hotels Dublin” gives you tens of millions of results; “hotels Dublin Leopardstown area” will give you far fewer, and if that is where you need to stay on your trip to Dublin, you’re going to get the most relevant results for your search.

Yes, search engine algorithms undergo regular changes and updates.  Some day, the robots are going to recognize the meaning of the words they find, and not just the words.  For the time being, though, us “regular” folk should simply continue to drill down our searches for the best and most relevant results.