SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION - Tourism Western Australia

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION 

What is Search Engine Optimisation and what you can do to 

ensure your website ranks well in search engines?

TUTORIAL 19 SEARCH ENGINES 101 

INTRODUCTION 

The Tourism e-kit is an initiative of the National Online 

Strategy Committee and is funded by the Australian 

State & Territory Tourism Offices. This tutorial has been 

produced by the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse 

as part of the complete online education program – 

Tourism e-kit. 

DISCLAIMER 

All content on this website and publication [both audio 

and visual] is protected worldwide by copyright and 

all other relevant laws. As each business situation is 

different no responsibility or representation is accepted 

or given for the use of content in this document and 

each user should take their own professional advice 

accordingly. 

TOURISM E-KIT | Tourism Western Australia 

tourism.wa.gov.au 

V.0610 Tutorial 19.1

SEARCH ENGINES 101 

Reading Time: 10 Minutes 

Prerequisite: N/A 

This tutorial will explain how search engines work and why a website needs to follow a search-engine–friendly 

format. 

1) WHAT IS SEO AND WHY DO I ABSOLUTELY NEED IT? 

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo! MSN and Bing are the Internet stakeholders. Search engine optimisation 

(SEO) is the process of designing and improving a website so it ranks high in search engine results when someone 

who doesn’t know your business searches for the services or products you offer. 

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION IS NOT AN ELECTIVE BUT A BUSINESS PREREQUISITE. 

If your website is not optimised for search engines there is little chance that it will appear high in the search 

engine results list. Since more than 95% of people start their search on search engines your website needs to 

meet key search engine requirements. 

a) How do search engines operate? 

One of the objectives of search engines is to rank the most trusted, usable, functional and informative sites first. 

They want to provide the user with the most relevant information. 

It comes as no surprise that SEO has become an integral part of web development and needs to be first 

considered at the planning stages of your online strategy or website project. 

Lets first review how search engines operate. 

They send their robots to crawl your site to: 

1. Understand what your website and business is about 

2. Index all your pages in their database 

3. List your website’s pages on the first pages of results when a potential visitor 

enters keywords that describe your offer 

4. Increase targeted visitation to your website and eventually grow your bottom line 

Photo credit http://flickr.com/photos/brucewang/ 

If your business is a luxury bed and breakfast along the Great Ocean Road, you will need to 

optimise your website so it appears in search engine results for words such as “luxury bed and 

breakfast”, “romantic getaway” and/or “great ocean road” instead of just appearing for its 

business name. 




) What can I expect if I have an optimised online strategy? 

Having an optimised website means that you are growing its online visibility. Accompanied with quality 

content, the online visitor will be enticed to contact you and book your product. 

With an optimised website, relevant inbound links and a sustainable strategy you can expect to: 

• Rank on the first pages of search engines for the keywords your target market uses to search for you. 

If you are a transport company providing airport transfers to a coastal destination such as Byron 

Bay, you want to also list on search engines when people search: “how do I get to Byron Bay 

from Brisbane” and not only when people search for “transfer to Byron Bay”. It often pays to 

optimise for the “symptoms” instead of the “solution”. 

• Be visible on other sites that are often used by your target market to research and share holiday experiences. 

Do you have a YouTube account (video sharing site) where you have personalised videos about 

your product and area? If set up properly, people will stumble upon your video whilst searching 

travel related videos on YouTube. 

Are you a member of your local or regional tourism organisation? You will be 

able to get a listing on their website. 

2) BEFORE I START – WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW? 

• Search engine optimisation takes time. Allow up to 3 months for search engines to pick up your new 

content. 

• Search engine optimisation and web design are two different professions but they need to work hand in 

hand for your project to be visible on the Internet. 

The following questions will allow you to assess the level of expertise of the SEO company you hire: 

- Assess if they are small-business specialists 

- Ask them for case studies of projects (if the clients do not want to be named, ask for tactics, results, site 

type) 

- Ask for detailed outlines of how projects are priced 

- Ask for a clear list of services (keyword research, how many keywords optimised on how many pages, how 

many hours will they spend on sourcing quality inbound links) 

- Ask them how you will be able to measure the effectiveness of the optmisation they will perform on your 

site(s). 




• Work hand in hand with your search engine consultant; provide them with as much input as required, just 

like you would with an architect that would design your new house. 

• Be cautious if the company tells you they will “submit” your site to numerous search engines. Sites do not 

get submitted nowadays but search engines crawl and index the site if the content is accessible and relevant. 

Keep in mind that Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Bing are still the main key players. 

• Ensure your website’s content management system (CMS) is search engine friendly. 

a) Is my site in its current state traffic-worthy? 

Before you start optimising your site, you need to ensure that optimising it in its current state is not going to be 

a waste of money. Your content might be dated, the format of your website might not be search engine friendly 

and you may be using a content management system that may limit your future search engine efforts. 

When shall I really consider a site-reconstruction? 

This question can be difficult to answer. However, if you do not have access to your files, if your site is dated, if 

integrating a content management to your existing website is not worth it or if search engines cannot see the 

content of your website, you should definitely seek assistance from web professionals. 

START BY ASKING FOR THE OPINION OF YOUR LOCAL TOURISM E-MARKETING EXPERT (YOUR 

REGIONAL TOURISM ORGANISATION SHOULD HAVE A SPECIALIST STAFF ON BOARD) OR 

ATTEND ONLINE MARKETING WORKSHOPS. 

Then write a brief and ask for proposals from at least 3 web specialists. 

Keep in mind that a site reconstruction could take approximately 3 months. If you are promised a turnaround of 

2 weeks or less, there is little chance that the content of your site will be improved. Since content is key for search 

engine optimisation warning bells should start ringing. 

It is a good project to do during the low season, as you will need to be fully involved and (re)write (or work with 

a web copywriter) your new content! A website is not something you have on the side but it is one the most 

important component of your marketing strategy. 

3) RELATED MATERIAL 

a) Related tutorials 

• Target market 101 

• What is a content management system 

• Search engines 101 

• Critical components of optimising a website 

• Google tools 

b) Related websites 

• Google basics: www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=70897 

• Search engine optimisation: www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291 




TUTORIAL 20 

CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF OPTIMISING A WEBSITE 

INTRODUCTION 

DISCLAIMER 













accordingly. 




CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF OPTIMISING A WEBSITE 

Reading Time: 25 Minutes Prerequisite: Search engines 101 

The previous tutorial reviewed the role of search engines. This document will take you through the steps to 

successfully optimise your website for search engines. 

1) THE TWO SIDES OF OPTIMISATION 

There are 2 sides to search engine optimisation. Both 

are equally as important: 

• On-site optimisation: activities that need to be 

performed on your site’s content and structure 

• Off-site optimisation: refers to search engine 

techniques that are not performed on your own 

website. 

This section will focus on on-site optimisation. 

2) CONTENT THAT SEARCH ENGINES CAN 

ACCESS 

You can have the nicest looking website but if search 

engines can’t see it, the return on investment is going 

to be insignificant. 

This highlights the importance of programming your 

website in a search engine friendly manner, respecting 

the “grammar” of the web. 

3) GOOD LINK STRUCTURE 

The Internet is made of millions of pages that are 

linked to one another. These links are the essence of 

the web. They are referred to as hyperlinks. 

Imagine many fishing nets joined together. The knots 

within each net are internal hyperlinks. The knots 

joining two nets together 

are external hyperlinks. 

Search engines navigate 

knots in each net. If they 

can’t find the knots linking 

your webpages together, 

they won’t be able to move 

to the next page, and the 

next one, and so on. They 

won’t be able to index each 

page and therefore make it available to users searching 

for what you are offering. 

Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/solaara/194320189/ 

• Sites that use a lot of Flash technology will not 

be as successful as well-coded HTML sites. Even 

though Google is making significant progress 

in reading Flash content, it is still far from being 

optimal. 

• Sites that use HTML “Frame” technology are not 

search engine friendly. 

Run your site through www.seo-browser.com and see 

if all your text content is visible to search engines. Can 

you see all your text in a structured manner and the Alt 

tags of your images? If not, contact a web professional 

who is proficient at search engine optimisation. 




a) Anatomy of a standard HTML hyperlink 

The above image shows how a hyperlink is formed using HTML. On a webpage it will look like this: 

Tours for the 18 to 35 year olds 

If you have programmed your website yourself you will be familiar with the above HTML. If you edit your website 

with a content management system, you won’t need to learn HTML. 

b) Correct structure of hyperlinks on my website 

• The navigation bar of a website is its main suite of hyperlinks. Users and search engines should be able 

to access every single page of your website using your navigation and sub navigation menus. Is this 

the case on your site? If not, search engines will not be able to crawl all your pages and index them. 

• What is also important, especially on the homepage, is to have hyperlinks within the content of your 

site. This will inform your readers and search engines that such and such pages are more relevant than 

others. 

• The text of the hyperlink should indicate what the page you are linking to is about. In the blue Contiki 

example above, you can see the text is “Tours for the 18 to 35 year olds”. This summarises the subject matter 

of the page. Having the page’s keywords within the hyperlink text is crucial. Avoid the “click here” as they 

would only inform search engines that the topic of the page is “click here”! 

4) TITLES, HEADINGS, DESCRIPTION, KEYWORDS, HYPERLINKS, ALT 

a) Title tag 

The page title is a one-line description of each page of your website. It is displayed at the very top of the Internet 

browser window: 

• For Windows users, it is displayed on the top left of the browser window. 

• For Mac users, it is displayed at the very top of the browser window but justified in the middle. 

In the Lonely Planet example below, one can see that the title of the Lonely Planet homepage (www.lonelyplanet. 

com) is Lonely Planet | Travel guides, advice, tips and information. 

Screen capture copyright: Lonely Planet.net 




In web jargon, this title is known as title tag. Search engines give immense 

importance to the title tag of each page as it identifies the content of a web 

document. 

Title tags are not only important to search engines but also to humans as they 

attract their attention in search engine results. Note the title tag of the Lonely 

Planet homepage appearing in the Google search for “lonely planet”. 

Screen capture copyright: Google 

How to edit title tags 

Title tags are located in the header section (top section) of each webpage. As a website owner, you will be able 

to edit the title tags using your content management system or in your HTML page itself if you do not have a 

content management system installed. 

Example of the location of the title tag in a 

content management system 

Example of the location of the title tag in the HTML 

code 




If your website was built by a web professional who has poor knowledge of search engine optimisation, there is 

a large chance that they did not pay any attention to your title tags. Example of non-optimised vs. optimised title 

tags: 

Imagine you own a backpacking business called Coconut Shack in Broome: 

Page address Non-optimised Title Tag Optimised Title Tag 

www.coconutshack.com.au 

www.coconutshack.com.au/ 

about-us 

Coconut Shack Home 

Coconut Shack About Us 

Coconut Shack | Backpackers 

accommodation in Broome 

Affordable overnight 

accommodation | Hostel in 

Broome WA 

www.coconutshack.com.au/prices Coconut Shack Prices Budget accommodation| Broome 

In the non-optimised version, there is no mention of what the Coconut Shack actually is (backpackers) and no 

mention of other keywords to describe the business offer. 

In the optimised version, the search engine sees the keywords (and keyword combinations) “backpackers”, 

“accommodation” “Broome” “affordable” “hostel” “budget”. 

Guidelines to search engine friendly title tags: 

Unique: 

Keyword: 

Readability: 

Length: 

Each page must have a unique title tag. 

It is important the title tag of each page holds the main keywords for that page (as seen in 

the Coconut Shack example above). Experts also recommend placing important keywords 

at the beginning of the title. 

Aim for meaningful page titles and avoid making title tags that are simply a long list of 

keywords. 

Favour Coconut Shack | Backpackers accommodation in Broome over Backpackers, 

cheap, accommodation, Broome, hostel, budget 

Search engines will only display the first 65 characters of the title tag. If you require more 

characters because of your keywords you may go over 65 characters. However, be aware 

that only the initial 65 will display in search engine results. 

An excellent source of information on title tags is the SEOMoz blog: 

www.seomoz.org/blog/best-practices-for-title-tags. 




) Headings 

Just like chapters in a book, headings are used to structure content in a reader-friendly and hierarchical 

manner. They describe the section of information that they introduce. It comes as no surprise that search engines 

rely on headings to understand the weight and relevancy of each section of your page. 

In HTML, headings are organised from 1 (H1 - the most important) to 6 (H6). Unless you are writing a webpage 

that is extremely rich in content - such as a book - there is no need to use H4 to H6. 

It is recommended to use headings H1 to H3 in this order, and not to skip levels. Experts also advise to limit 

the number of H1 to two maximum. 

Below is an example of the heading structure for the homepage of the Coconut Shack using one H1, two H2 and 

one H3. 

Quality backpacker accommodation for travellers 

Welcoming visitors of all ages. Located in the centre of Broome 

Booking and cancellation policy 

Just like title tags, headings can be changed using your content management system. In the HTML document 

itself, they are represented by to . 

Research has shown in the past year that search engines do not seem to place as much value as they used to on 

the keywords held within the headings. However, it is still important to use them appropriately as they provide 

paragraph summary to the users. 

c) Meta Description 

The description is the snippet of text displayed below a listing 

in the search engine results page. Search engines do not use 

it to rank your page but it is a chance for you to stand out 

from your competitors on the search engine results page. 

Screen capture copyright: Google 

Use it as a teaser for your webpage content. It will encourage the visitor to click on your listing. Ensure 

it also holds your page’s keywords as the keywords used by the user in the search field (travel advice lonely planet) 

will be bolded in the description, thus drawing the user’s eye. 

The description tag, just like the title tag, is also part of the page header. It is referred to as the Meta description 

tag. It is generally located in the same area as the title tag within your website’s content management system. In 

the HTML files, look for 




Guidelines to search engine friendly description tags: 

Unique: 

Keyword: 

Each page must have a unique description tag 

It is important the description holds the main keywords for each page (they get bolded 

when they match the query of the user) 

Readability: 

Make the description enticing (so they click!) 

Length: 

Length: Descriptions can be any length but search engines generally will only display the 

first 160 characters. 

d) Meta Keywords 

The Meta keyword tag was a location where your web developer used to place your webpage’s keywords to tell 

search engines what a page was about. This tag was crucial when search engines could not read the content (or 

body) of a webpage. Now that their robots can feed on almost every piece of content, the Meta keyword 

tag has become obsolete and useless. It is no longer used by Google to rank pages. 

However, there are still many uninformed developers who use the old Meta keyword method. Pay attention to this 

when you hire a web developer. 

e) Image Alt tag 

Alt tags are for images. Since search engines cannot see images as such they rely on the Alt tag to understand 

what the image is about. 

f) Structure of the page address (the URL) 

Each web document or page has a unique address that can be typed in a browser to access it directly. This address 

is called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). 

Example of a URL: www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/australia 

URLs appear in many locations: 

• In the web browser’s address bar 

• Below the description in the search engine results 

• In the content of other webpages as a hyperlink (as illustrated on the right) 

Screen capture copyright: Tourism Australia 

Since search engines do not reveal their secret method to rank websites, one will never know the extent of the 

relationship between the URL structure and the search engine rankings. However, following the below guidelines 

will help you improve your visibility: 




Guidelines to friendly description tags: 

Which of the below URL is nicer for your customer to see, and could in turn affect the 

number of clicks the website gets? 

Readability: 

www.tours.com.au/Id=227#4302&countryId=445#984 or 

www.tours.com.au/china/great-wall 

Keywords get bolded in search engine results: if someone searched for “tours great wall of 

china” the above URL would become: www.tours.com.au/china/great-wall and attract 

the eye of the web searcher. 

Used as links: 

Length: 

Separate 

words: 

URLs are often used as links by other users. Keeping the structure simple and keyword-rich 

will encourage clicks on the URL. 

Shorter is best. 

Use a hyphen to separate words (not underscore or space) 

www.tours.com.au/china/great-wall instead of www.tours.com.au/great_wall and instead 

of www.tours.com.au/great wall (with a space between great and wall). 

5) SUBMITTING TO SEARCH ENGINES 

Once your website is search engine optimised, and only then, your site is ready to be crawled by search engines. 

To request search engines to crawl your website you need to “submit your site”. Doing it if your website is not 

optimised will not make any difference to your search engine rankings. 

• Google: 

• Yahoo!: 

• MSN: 

www.google.com/addurl 

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit 

http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx 



• Website 101: usability and technology 

• Images 101 

• Keywords 



• Google basics: www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=70897 

• Search engine optimisation: www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291 




TUTORIAL 21 

KEYWORDS 

INTRODUCTION 







DISCLAIMER 







accordingly. 




KEYWORDS 



Keywords are the key to a successful web strategy. This tutorial will cover everything you need to know about 

keywords from research to implementation on your website. 

1) WHAT ARE KEYWORDS? 

Keywords, by definition, are words used as reference 

points for finding other relevant information. 

In the online space, they become the link 

between users and search engines. Combinations 

of keywords are often referred to as keyphrases. 

2) WHY UNIQUE KEYWORDS ARE 

CRUCIAL 

Google reported in 2007 that 25% of searches 

conducted every day are unique searches that they 

had never seen before. 

For your business, they are the password to online 

marketing success. 

Imagine you are the owner of the “Sand 

Castles Motel” in Manly, Sydney. Your 

pages should contain a mixture of the 

following keywords: accommodation, 

beach, overnight, Manly, 

budget, family etc. 

Search engines determine how relevant 

webpages are to user queries by looking 

at how keywords are organised on each 

webpage. It is vital to ensure that you 

use keywords in appropriate places 

throughout your webpage, as this is 

fundamental to how search engines 

rank your site. 

Getting into the mindsets of your 

customers by researching what words, 

terms, or jargon your everyday customers 

use is first and foremost. Remember, 

your potential clients do not know 

industry jargon so speak to them in their 

language. 

Copyright: UntangleMyWeb.com 

“The Long Tail” theory, when applied to search, 

highlights that the majority of the world’s demand 

for information through search engines originate 

on rare, unique keyword combinations. 

The Internet has revolutionised the way in which 

consumers shop. There are more and more choices 

that have resulted in consumers becoming more 

selective and demanding in their choices in products 

and services. The fact that unique queries are 

becoming more common highlights why they should 

not be ignored. Successful online businesses use these 

Long Tail keyword combinations to their advantage 

by researching their target market and using the 

information to create content-rich websites that cater 

to specific consumers needs. 




Below is a brief example of Popular vs. Long tail keywords for an accommodation property in Darwin 

Popular keywords 

• Hotel Gold Darwin 

• Accommodation Darwin 

Long tail keywords 

• Romantic getaway in Darwin 

• Weekend escape in Darwin 

3) KEYWORD RESEARCH STRATEGY 

The Long Tail paragraph above demonstrated the importance of keyword research. This section will go through 

the steps you should follow to find your keywords 

a) Brainstorm and competitor analysis 

My business 

First start by identifying the core offerings of your business, these are the offerings that you do best and what sets 

you apart from your competitors. You should try to really pinpoint these offerings and have no more than three or 

four keyword combinations. 

Example: if you were a small hotel in Queenstown New Zealand, one of your core offerings 

would be “ski accommodation Queenstown” 

If you have an existing site, go through its pages and identify at least 3 offerings (3 x combinations of 3 to 4 

keywords). Do not just focus on your main activity (e.g. accommodation for the Queenstown example above) but 

also what other services you offer (ski hire? ski tours?) 

Fill out the table below with each of your offerings and list related keywords using the bullet points provided: 

Core offering 1: Core offering 2: Core offering 3: 

• 

• 

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My competitors 

Repeat the task above. However, this time use a competitor’s or another website that provides a similar service. 

Do as above but with your competitors or other websites that provide a similar service. If you are unsure of your 

competitors, Google your three core offerings and look for someone similar to you in the search results. Try and 

identify 3 more keyword combinations (that differ from your own). 

Core offering 1: Core offering 2: Core offering 3: 

• 

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You can also use the Google AdWords keyword tool to extract the keywords held in your competitor’s website. 

Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and select “Website content” when asked “How 

would you like to generate keyword ideas?” 

Doing so will not only provide you with a selection of keywords that your competitor has been using in their site 

but will also suggest you many other related keywords. You don’t have to use all these keywords within your site’s 

content but they are a great indication of what your target market is interested in. You may therefore want to 

consider using them when developing new content using a blog for instance. 




When provided with the results of the Google AdWords keyword search focus on the “Local Search Volume” 

column and change the Match Type from Broad to Exact. 

b) Broad search 

You should have 6 keyword combinations as well as their respective list of keywords. It is now time to broaden 

your search and run your core offerings through two free online tools to complete your list: 

Quintura 

Quintura.com is a visual search engine that allows you to 

see what words are related to your search query: 

www.quintura.com 

We ran our core offering “ski 

accommodation Queenstown” through 

Quintura (see image on the right). 

Quintura returned related words to our core offering. Many 

of which we hadn’t thought of! 

Screen capture copyright: Quintura 

How can I complement my initial research? 

Your head should now be buzzing with a growing list of keyphrases that you previously hadn’t thought of. 

Use the keywords you discovered using Quintura and AdWords to complete the diagram below. Only keep the 

keywords and keyphrases relevant to your business. 

Core offering 

Keyphrase 1: Keyphrase 2: Keyphrase 3: 

Type of service 

you offer 

accommodation, 

tour, etc) 

E.g. ski 

accommodation 

Queenstown, ski 

lodge accom 

Related keywords: 

• 

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Accompanying 

activities 





What 

supplements or 

facilitates your 

core offering? 

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E.g. ski hire, ski 

tours, pick up 

on arrival 

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Local tourism 

icons 


Are there 

any wellknown 

icons/ 

monuments/ 

attractions 

nearby that your 

target market 

might search? 

E.g. lake 

Wakatipu, 

Cadrona, the 

Remarkables 


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Reason behind 

trip 





What is the 

theme behind 

the holiday? 

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E.g. snow trip? 

Honeymoon? 

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4) WHERE TO USE KEYWORDS 

You now have an optimal list of keywords and keyphrases to use in the content throughout your website. Decide 

on the focus of each individual page of your site and then attribute the relevant keywords or keyphrases to its 

content. 

This section will show you exactly where to put the keyphrases in the structure of your page’s content. 

a) Title tag 

Use your keyphrase in the title tag and complement it with related keywords. 

E.g. Luxury ski accommodation in Queenstown 

b) Headings 

Use your keyphrase or its related keywords in the H1 (header 1) and use related keywords in H2 and H3 when 

possible. Remember that you do not want your content to be overloaded with keywords and sound unnatural. 

E.g. Chalet accommodation for your ski or snowboarding trip 

c) Image Alt tag 

Aim to use an image that is related to the page’s theme and use your keyphrase or its related keywords in the text 

of the image alt attribute. 

d) URL 

Use the keyphrase or the main keyword in the page address (the URL). If your content management system 

doesn’t allow you to do this, ask your web developer to see if some necessary changes could be made in order to 

reach the style of the address shown below (using keywords and hyphens). 

E.g.www.mylodge.co.nz/ski-accommodation-queenstown.html 

e) Page copy (content) 

Use your keyphrase and its related keywords at least 2-3 times in the page’s content itself. Try and bold the 

keyphrase or appropriate keywords once at least. 




f) Meta description 

Even though it has been established that the Meta description (the information below the site’s listing in a search 

engine) doesn’t primarily affect search engine rankings, you should still include your keywords in it, as this will 

gain your customers’ attention because it usually reinstates what they have searched for originally. 

g) Hyperlinks 

Keywords should also be used in hyperlinks. However, the keywords used in links to a page should be the 

keywords indentifying the linked page and not the theme of the page the link originates from. 

E.g. Imagine I am on a different page than www.mylodge.co.nz/ski-accommodationqueenstown.html. 

For instance, I could be on the page about prices. If I want to add a link 

within the prices page that takes customers to the accommodation page, I would use the 

accommodation keywords in the link. It could look like something like this: 

Visit our page about our skiing accommodation offer in Queenstown 

5) KEYWORD RANKING IN SEARCH ENGINES 

Once you have optimised your site for your most profitable keywords it is important to continuously assess how 

they are ranking on search engines. You could “Google” these keywords once a month however this wouldn’t 

be the best use of your time. There are free tools such as the SEOBook RankChecker that allow you to set up a 

search which you can save and run once a month (or whenever you wish). 

The SEOBook RankChecker tool is available as a plugin for your Firefox browser. You can download it from 

SEOBook.com by following this link: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/. If you wish you may also 

download the SEOBook toolbar which will provide you with RankChecker and a series of other search engine 

optimisation tools. Ensure you watch the introduction video which is on the same page. 




• Critical components of optimising a website 

• Understanding inbound links to my site 


• Better understanding keywords: www.searchengineguide.com/keywords/ 

• SEO book: www.seobook.com 




TUTORIAL 22 

UNDERSTANDING INBOUND LINKS TO MY SITE 

INTRODUCTION 

DISCLAIMER 













accordingly. 




UNDERSTANDING INBOUND LINKS TO MY SITE 



This tutorial will review the different types of inbound links and what influences the value they bring to your 

website. 

15) WHY LINK BUILDING 

The previous tutorial discussed why links are important and reviewed their primary role of connecting webpages 

together. Search engines also use inbound links to a website to gauge its popularity and importance. 

Seomoz.com, a renowned search engine optimisation community says that links 

correspond to votes of web users. 

Since links are an important factor to search engines, it comes as no surprise that 

growing the quality and number of links to your website is critical to increase your 

online popularity and thus improve your search engine rankings. 

This discipline is referred to as “link building” or “off-site search engine 

optimisation” and is one of the most important tasks required to succeed in the 

online space. 

Links are the online version of word-of-mouth. 

Many search engine optimisation firms offer link-building services. However, this is something you can do yourself 

as the key ingredient is quality content people will want to link to. 

Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/alx/ 

16) TYPES OF LINKS 

There are two main categories of links: editorial links and acquired links. 

a) Editorial links 

Editorial links express the opinion of the editor. In this instance, it is the opinion person linking to you from their 

website. When checking who links to you, you might realise that there are a few businesses already linking to your 

site. These websites have decided to reference your content because they find it informative and trust that making 

it accessible to their users will enhance their online experience. 

Editorial links take time to get because they are earned as a reward for providing good, citation-worthy content. 

They are the links that search engines will favour and therefore have the biggest link value. 




) Acquired links 

In this category fall all the other links (paid or unpaid). Getting these links necessitate either: 

• Making contact with another organisation to entice them to link to you. 

For instance, as the website owner you establish contact with other organisations to convince 

them that your content is worthy enough to be linked to. 

• Self creation 

For example, you have created links back to your website by participating in online discussion 

forums or by leaving comments on Blogs. 

• Reciprocal links, also known as link exchange 

“Link to me and I will link to you”. Reciprocal links are links to another website placed on your site in 

exchange for links back to your site from theirs. Search engines condemn this practice if both sites have nothing 

relevant in common. However, if you have identified a relevant website and that you both share informative and 

complementary content, reciprocal links are a good opportunity as both your readers and search engines will be 

pleased. 

Acquired links have less search engine value than editorial links because they bypass the feeling of trust 

that editorial links have. 

For instance, not all acquired links (especially those acquired by leaving comments on blogs) will be followed by 

search engines; the website where the link originates from might have used special HTML commands to prevent 

search engines from following the links and improving your website’s search engine placements. These HTML 

commands are known as “nofollow” attributes. 

Even though some links might not pass search engine value, they are still valuable to readers who might follow 

them and contact you if they find your content informative and useful. 

17) STAY AWAY FROM MALICIOUS ONLINE DIRECTORIES 

When starting to build inbound links to your site, the first idea that generally springs to 

mind is directories. Most of the time you can submit your site to online directories there and 

then. Read below why you should consider this practice with caution. 

The purpose of directories is to group information in categories that a user can 

browse when searching for something specific. However, people have soon 

realised that having their website listed in a directory creates an inbound link to their 

site, thus possibly providing a positive “vote” for their website and improving their 

search engine rankings. This has given ideas to many web savvy entrepreneurs and 

directories started to flourish. There are now millions of directories on the web but the 

majority have a dubious intention. Their priority is not to help humans find relevant 

websites but to make money by selling links that may improve search engine 

rankings. 

Photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/mildlydiverting/ 

TIP 

Delete all dubious 

emails asking you to 

purchase a link 




Google, Yahoo! and other search engines are well aware of these practices and have recently started removing 

malicious directories from their search engine rankings. This implies that there is absolutely no point in spending 

money to be listed in a directory whose purpose is to simply improve search engine rankings. 

Stay away from directories that: 

• Offer to increase your site’s rankings 

• Offer you a premium membership with even more links 

• Offer you the possibility to put hyperlinks in your keywords 

• Talk to you using web jargon confirms their intention of helping search engines and not the end user 

There are still thousands of genuine directories. Below is a list of safe directories: 

• Yahoo Directory http://dir.yahoo.com 

• Librarians Internet Index www.lii.org 

• Open Directory Project www.dmoz.org 

• Nature.com www.nature.com/nrg/info/info_links.HTML 

• About.com www.about.com 

a) How can you tell if a directory is dubious? 

• The directory’s purpose is generic (indexes anything and everything) instead of niche 

• It tells you straight away that purchasing a link will help your search engine rankings 

• You can choose what text will be used as a hyperlink to your site 

• Try “Googling” the name of the directory. If it doesn’t appear in search engine results then it has already been 

banned by Google 




18) VALUE GIVEN TO A LINK BY SEARCH ENGINES 

Paragraph 2 about the different types of links highlighted that editorial links the type of links that search engines 

prefer. However, there are other factors that influence the value of inbound links that your website might receive. 

No one but the search engines themselves know in full depth the weight of each factor but the following 

assumptions can be made: 

Characteristics of the site linking to you 

Popularity: 

PageRank: 

Relevancy: 

Trust: 

Number of links on 

the page: 

If a website is popular, in search engine terms, it means that it already has relevant 

and high quality links pointing to it. This infers that links from popular website will 

provide your site with a better link value than least popular sites. 

Google bases the popularity of each individual webpage on a scale from non-existent 

to 10. This scale is called PageRank (PR). Even though this measure remains relevant 

in certain cases, you should consider it with caution as it only gets updated a few 

times a year. You can check the PageRank of any of your webpage on your Google 

toolbar or on www.checkpagerank.net 

Sites that are related to your industry or sector provide greater link value than nonrelated 

sites. 

For instance, if you are a hot air ballooning business, a link from a well-known 

balloon manufacturer is going to be of greater value than a link from your friend’s 

national lawn-mowing business. 

Trust refers to trusted domain names and extensions such as .edu.au, gov.au. 

Obtaining a link from a trusted domain generally positively increases your page’s 

placement amongst search engine results. 

Think outside the square: is there any way you or your business could obtain a link 

from an education provider or a government site? Are you involved in an alumni 

committee? A local council? 

The value of the link will be diminished if the page linking to you has many other 

links. This demonstrates that the link value from a directory is demised as directories, 

by definition, list many businesses on each page! 

When possible, ensure that the site linking to you uses your keywords in the 

hyperlink to your page. 

Hyperlinks: 

For instance, ask the balloon manufacturer to link to you in a similar manner: 

If you are in North Queensland, our partners doing hot air ballooning in Cairns will 

provide you with an unforgettable experience. 

Avoid this: for hot air ballooning in cairns click here 

Remember that the above rules also apply when you link to other sites. Help the websites you link to by 

adding the link within you content, and create a link using the keywords of the person you are linking to. 

Finally, keep in mind that it is better to have a handful of quality relevant links than tens of thousands of low-value, 

inappropriate links. Search engines focus on quality and relevancy. 






• Target market 101 – Tutorial 12 

• Search engines 101 – Tutorial 19 

• Critical components of optimising a website – Tutorial 20 

• Keywords – Tutorial 21 


• www.ask-kalena.com/articles/editorial-link-building-with-article-marketing/ 

• www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66356&query=link+exchange&topic=&type 




TUTORIAL 23 

SOURCING INBOUND LINKS TO MY SITE 

INTRODUCTION 

DISCLAIMER: 













accordingly. 




SOURCING INBOUND LINKS 


Prerequisite: Understanding inbound links my site 

This tutorial explains how to check the inbound links to your site and help you source new links. 

20) HOW DO I CHECK WHO LINKS TO 

MY SITE? 

The very first thing to do is to check who is already 

linking to your website. Yahoo! has the best tool to 

do so. Follow the five steps below to discover the 

addresses of the websites that link to you. 

Screen capture copyright: Yahoo! 

1) Go to www.yahoo.com 

2) In the search box, write: linkdomain:www. 

nameofyoursite.com 

3) Click “Web Search” 

4) In the “show Inlinks” drop-down menu, select 

“Except from this domain” to remove the internal 

links to your site from the list. 

5) You can now see all the sites linking to your 

website and visit the referring page by clicking on 

the green web address. 

21) CHECKING COMPETITORS’ LINKS 

Go through the same process as above but use your 

competitors’ website instead of yours. You can also use 

the address of sites that rank well in search engines 

for your keywords. You will discover a lot of doors to 

knock on to acquire new links! 

22) WHAT ABOUT MY BUSINESS NAME? 

Yahoo! will show you which sites link to you. However, 

there are many other people or businesses that might 

have mentioned your business name online but who 

haven’t linked to you using a hyperlink. Google your 

business name to find these webpages. Pick this low 

hanging fruit first. Contact them and ask if they could 

kindly put a hyperlink on the article in order to allow 

the reader to access your site for further reference. 

IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY ESPECIALLY 

THERE IS A LARGE CHANCE THAT YOUR 

BUSINESS HAS BEEN REVIEWED IN A 

MEDIA RELEASE (TRAVEL MAGAZINE, 

LOCAL OR NATIONAL NEWSPAPER, 

OTHER). DIG FOR YOUR NAME AND 

BUSINESS NAME ON SEARCH ENGINES 

AND CONTACT THE EDITORS! 



V.0610 Tutorial 23..2

23) DIFFERENT LINK BUILDING 

TECHNIQUES 

The first focus when building links should be on 

writing informative website content. If the content is 

not worth linking to, you can try as hard as you 

want but no one will link to you. Content is key. 

Unfortunately many amateur search engine 

optimisation companies will focus all their efforts on 

acquiring links without first looking at the bulls-eye: 

the content. If the content is compelling enough, many 

sites will start to naturally link to you or will happily link 

to you once you establish contact and show them the 

value your website’s copy could bring to their users. If 

you intend to work with a SEO company, ensure that 

they provide guidance on how to best improve your 

content. 

Turn your computer off, and think about: 

• Your past clients 

• People who you know 

• Existing or past connections through a client, 

through a friend 

• Suppliers 

• Associations you are a member of 

• Charities you regularly donate to 

• Universities you collaborate(d) with 

• Regional councils you are part of 

a) Customers, suppliers, industry 

contacts 

Go through your entire existing supplier list and do 

the same for your customers. There is a significant 

chance that your past customers own a business 

that is related to your main offer or to another 

service you provide to your clients. As mentioned 

above, they could already have written about you but 

they might not have created a hyperlink. 

Before we start reviewing all the techniques, it is 

important to clarify that it is the individual pages 

of a website that are linked to and not the website 

itself as a whole. Therefore, you should direct your 

newly acquired links to your website’s most relevant 

page and not to the homepage (unless the homepage 

is the most relevant one in that instance). 

Once you have checked your existing inbound links as 

well as your competitors’, print them out and put them 

aside. Then get a blank piece of paper and a pen. 

Are you part of an association, chamber of commerce, 

tourism association? Establish contact and ensure you 

are being linked to from their site. Often all you might 

need to do is upgrade to the next membership level 

and you will be provided with a link. Because these 

organisations are generally themselves a member of 

more relevant, popular, and larger organisations, the 

value of their link will be maximised. 

b) Regional partners or cluster 

Identify regional partners who could link to you 

providing they complement your offer. 

Do you offer massage therapy services 

to complement your bed and breakfast 

accommodation offer? Ask your therapist 

to link to you. Work out an arrangement if 

you cannot link to them directly from your 

website (you wouldn’t want your clients 

to calculate the mark-up you make from 

their site!). Think about including the link 

as part of your contract even. 




Think about setting up a meeting with your regional tourism partners to discuss how you could work together to 

improve both your own and your region’s visibility. Setting up a joint blog for instance is a very simple way to add 

fresh content that shows clients how they can maximise their experience in your tourism region. Brainstorm ideas 

offline and find a way to market them in a web environment. 

Tourism operators can have very different levels of Internet-readiness but working in clusters is a sustainable way 

of making positive changes to the online visibility of your region. 

c) Safe, relevant directories 

Consider submitting your site to safe, genuine directories. Be prepared to write a compelling description of your 

business and to wait for up to 6-12 months sometimes for your listing to be reviewed and accepted by the search 

engines. Your application can however be fast-tracked if you pay a certain sum of money. 

This article from search engine watch 

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.HTML?page=2167881 

offers good guidelines to follow when submitting to both the Yahoo! and the DMOZ directory. 

Try to also identify some niche directories. To find directories, go to Google and search for: allintitle: “the name of 

your sector” directory. 

Avoid dubious travel directories, as the majority are only there to make money by selling links. Their purpose is 

not to genuinely help the traveller. Think outside the square, what other activities apart from tourism does your 

business offer? What other sectors do you tap into? 

• Arts? Look for specific arts niche directories 

• Music? 

• Bushwalking? 

• Adventure? 

google: allintitle:arts directory 

google: allintitle: music directory 

google: allintitle:bushwalking 

google: allintitle: adventure directory 

d) Blogs and forums 

Using other people’s blogs 

Identify blogs and forums about your main and secondary industry sectors. Leaving comments on other people’s 

blogs and participating in forums will not provide link value as such. However, you are going to soon start 

developing an online profile. Participating in discussions about the development of your industry will also develop 

your brand and you will soon see new opportunities and contacts develop. 

• Start with a search engine and search for blogs relevant to you. 

Search for a blog about luxury travel, a blog about bed and breakfasts in Australia, a blog about 

small tourism businesses, a blog about hot air ballooning, a blog about white water rafting etc. 

• When appropriate, leave comments on blog articles. Also make a note of the name and website of other 

people who left comments. Run their website through the Yahoo! links analyser tool and see if there is a link 

you haven’t thought about. 

• Forums are another way to interact with your industry. Think of them as a lively online discussion group where 

people ask questions and others help by providing answers. TripAdvisor.com hosts a highly regarded travel 

forum where you can advise visitors on things to do in your region! 




The screen capture from TripAdvisor on the right shows a forum 

page asking if Australia Zoo is worth a detour. A user replied and also 

mentioned Underwater World at Mooloolaba in their response. 

Screen capture copyright: TripAdvisor 

Starting your own blog 

One of the main search engine optimisation benefits of blogs and forums is the generation of new content. 

Advancing the world’s knowledge will allow you to maximise your online presence and attract many passers-by 

who will opt to naturally link to you. 

e) Press releases 

Press releases are also a great way of generating interest in your business, especially since they can now be 

distributed for free online. The link value of the online press release itself can be trivial. However, the press release 

will be indexed by search engines and increase awareness of your business in the long run. 

www.pr.com, www.newswiretoday.com and www.prlog.org are three sites that will distribute your press releases 

for free. 

24) ESTABLISHING CONTACT 

By now you should have a list of linking possibilities. Go and check the website of every company on your 

list. Look for pages that would be relevant to the content of one of your webpages. Write down the contact 

details (phone and email). 

The hot air ballooning company might have identified a hot air balloon supplier. The ballooning 

company owner visited the supplier’s website where he found a page describing the fabric 

used to make the balloon itself. He believes that this page would benefit from being linked to 

a specific page on his site where he has got photos of that fabric floating in the air! 

Now think about how to best establish contact with the website owner. Google them and find out what you 

have in common. Are they going to be more responsive on the phone? Or is email best? Do not mention that 

your end objective is to receive a link but focus on how your businesses complement each other and 

how fantastic their content is. 

Aim to develop an offline relationship. The Internet is only a medium and should never be the basis of the 

relationship itself. After having established contact and only when you believe the relationship has got a solid, 

concrete base, suggest that, since your sites complement each other so well, it would be a good idea for them to 

link to you. The company might ask for a link from you (link exchange). 




25) WHERE DO I ASK THEM TO PUT THE LINK? 

Special “links pages” are obsolete and should be avoided. You should ask the person linking to you to put the 

link within their text, where it would benefit the reader most. This also applies to your website when you link to 

someone else. 

For example: Before visiting our Alpaca farm, why not enjoy a morning breakfast amongst 

lorikeets in the beautiful Norman Park bird sanctuary? 

Remember to use the keywords in the hyperlink of the website you are linking to (for instance, lorikeets Norman 

park bird sanctuary) as search engines feed on it to understand what the page you are linking to is about. Avoid 

the “click here” link that doesn’t say anything about the destination. 



• Target market 101 – Tutorial 12 

• Search engines 101 – Tutorial 19 

• Critical components of optimising a website – Tutorial 20 

• Keywords – Tutorial 21 

• Understanding inbound links to my site – Tutorial 22 

• Bringing people to my website with e-marketing – Tutorial 24 

• Blogging – Tutorial 30 


• www.searchengineguide.com/link-building/ 

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwbW-lLkfjU&feature=user

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION - Tourism Western Australia

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