It didn't take long before businesses started to realise the benefits of having a website so they could reach their customers or potential customers at any time in any part of the world. However, with this new progression in modern technology came a downfall. With everyone catching onto the fact that having a website was the best thing since slice bread, everyone got one. This means that the competition for businesses in the same sector is now absolutely huge.



So how have businesses overcome this problem? Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a tactic that has been adopted by many as they fight for the top spot in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic going to a website from search engines via 'natural' search results. The reason why everyone wants to be at the top is because normally the higher a site is positioned the more likely people are to click on the link.

Search engine optimisation looks at what people are typing in when they look for something in a search engine. The content of a website can then be altered in order to increase the sites relevance and get high rankings. Search engine optimisation works because it involves a site's coding, presentation, structure and fixes problems that might prevent search engines from finding a site.

One of the most important things that a company can do when trying to get business through their website is to make sure that their content can easily be indexed by search engines. If they can't then chances are people are never going to know about the site because they can't find it.

Typically, most people classify search engine optimisation into one of two categories; white hat and black hat SEO. White hat search engine optimisation employs techniques that search engines recommend as part of a good design and produce results that last for a long time. Black hat search engine optimisation is not approved by search engines and is a short term measure as sites that use this method will be banned when they are discovered.

Eye tracking studies have shown that searchers scan a search results page from top to bottom and left to right when looking for a relevant result. Placement at or near the top of the rankings therefore increases the number of searchers who will visit a site.

Search engine optimisation can have a massive effect on any website and if used effectively can dramatically increase the traffic going to a site. For this reason it is important to use this technique as it can mean the difference between whether a company is successful or not.