Search Engine Optimisation Auckland NZ

Case study www.Time2Dine.co.nz - Online Restaurant Booking

Search engine optimization is the process of fine tuning (otherwise referred to as optimising) your web site to reflect specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business and for which you want to attract visitors to your site who are searching for such words.

Getting to the top of the Search Engines is both an art and science. With over 100 parts to the Google algorithm it takes a lot of skill to get it all right. Get the search engine optimisation right for Google, and you get high rankings on the other search engines. It is a combination of correct html page design, good literary skills and intelligent internal and external linking.

Why Search Engine Marketing? Why get to the top of the search engines? "Quite simply, search engines are the doorways to the online world for most consumers, with IDC estimating that 84% of surfers gain access to Internet content through a search engine." SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals - Searching for results. Because searchers are looking for a specific topic, they are more likely to be buyers for that topic. Therefore, paying to optimise your existing site rather than paying for banner ads, traditional newspaper or other offline advertising is a very good strategy.

Only ethical methods are used. The use of "doorway pages" is not supported. However, full use is made of creating information filled sites. Sites broken up into specific topics that can be individually found on the search engines. See the SEMPO article for some discussion on what it means to be an SEO professional

- It can take two months or more for the search engines to find/maximise your listing. It can take longer with MSN.
- Approximately once a month Google goes on a "dance" as it updates its servers. Search results can be different and
  unpredictable. Sometimes different results for the same search term five minutes apart.

It has been interesting optimising Oh Calcutta's website - now it ranks ahead of me for both "Oh Calcutta", "Oh Calcutta Restaurant", "Auckland Indian Restaurants", and even "Indian restaurants".

Google is in a constant state of flux as it works to constantly improve its algorithms in light of Microsoft and Yahoo pouring millions into their own search engine development. It is only just returning to more relevant results with the Brandy update (14-19 February) after having two disastrous updates - November 2003 (Florida Update) and January 2004 (Austin Update). Many websites have not been able to be found using their targeted search terms since November 2003. My pages have remained relatively stable due to the intensive linking strategies used.