Search Engine Optimisation can be sectioned between two segments on-site optimisation and off-site optimisation. A webmaster will focus most of their time initially improving on-site optimisation and once it has been completed to a high standard will then dedicate most of their time into off-site optimisation. On-site optimisation will account for around 15-20% of your online visibility if successfully implemented however in order to obtain solid long term rankings the majority of the strategy will be based around off-site optimisation which is the remaining 80-85% of your online visibility. 
Common process of Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation tends to follow a standard plan however depending on which industry you are in it will deviate accordingly, for instance if you work within the Search Engine Optimisation industry this will entail rankings are harder to achieve and will need more stress on segments such as link building.
First Segment: Website Design
Search Engines have guidelines in terms of website design for instance, a common occurrence of advice from Search Engines is to build websites with visitors as the main focus and consider Search Engines. Most Search Engines can read almost any website from HTML to PHP so the likelihood is, the Search Engine will have seen your website structure, code and usability before. One of the largest Search Engines is Google and they have constructed a list of guidelines on how to build your website;
- Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
- Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map has an extremely large number of links, you may want to break the site map into multiple pages.
- Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number.
- Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
- Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
- Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images. If you must use images for textual content, consider using the “ALT” attribute to include a few words of descriptive text.
- Make sure that your <title> elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.
- Check for broken links and correct HTML.
- If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a “?” character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.
Google for good reason can not reveal exactly how to build your website but it can be used as a good indicator as to what they look for within a website. Most people focus on exactly what Google wants from their website however to get any good answer you need to turn the question around, you need to ask yourself, what do users want out of Google? Once you realise that users want a good search experience you will incorporate this into your website design. To read all of Google Webmaster Guidelines you can see them here.
Second Segment: On-page Optimisation
On-Page Optimisation is the process of improving your website based around data collected from tools such as SEOmoz, Google Analytics and Webmaster tools. On-page Optimisation is looking at your website in order to improve conversion, algorithm satisfaction and overall user experience. You can read our full introduction on On-site Optimisation here. The Search Engines will only award you 15-20% of the rankings you have based around how well optimised your website is, how relevant it is and the authority you have build up within the Search Engines. The main segment of improving your rankings if Off-site Optimisation.
Third Segment: Off-page Optimisation
Off-page optimisation is normally referred to as link building. This is the process on which will offer the biggest reward for effort as it is the main segment of your visibility within the SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages). Link Building is having a link from one website to another which passes some of the authority over to your website, formally known as Link Juice. Backlinks are generally judged upon Page Rank (exclusive to Google). In the eyes of a Search Engine a backlink is a vote from one webmaster to another, indicating that the linked website is relevant to a particular key phrase. The most common link on which webmasters want to achieve is an anchor text link for example:
“Free SEO Training has had great customer service from Apple!.”
If the bold text related to a link to the Apple store, it would indicate to the Search Engines that Apple is a relevant result for the keyword “Apple”. Most webmasters will try and obtain this type of link from highly ethical websites however links can come in many forms such as affiliate links (Images/banners from one website to another), Static URL links and nofollow links. To read our full guide on off-site optimisation click here.
Final Segment: Review and restart
One of the main overlooked sections of Search Engine Optimisation is sitting down and going through all the aspects which have worked well and those which has not been so successful. A good SEO Consultant will not only execute a good strategy but they will constantly revise it as the market changes and new updates either algorithm updates to market changes. The key is to stay up to date with all the latest news and updates as any company which manages to do this successfully will be one step ahead of their competition.
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