Wednesday, 07, May 2008 10:37
Search engine optimisation (SEO) offers "clear benefits" to businesses as the majority of people will click on the first link offered by such portals, it has been suggested.
Writing for the Sunday Times, James Ashton noted that optimisation is one of the fastest-growing areas in marketing, forecast to be worth as much as £400 million during 2008.
He explained that it can be hard for companies to ensure their pages rank highly within search engine results.
"Google - which with 85 per cent of the search-engine market in Britain is by far the dominant player - keeps tweaking how its algorithms read web pages and index them," Mr Ashton added.
Although Google will not release information on its algorithm - the equation which selects where sites rank - it makes recommendations to webmasters to webmasters keen to boost their position.
It suggests they fill their websites with useful information and use keywords in their natural context.