SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of fine-tuning your website content to help that site achieve the best possible search engine rankings. There’s something of a consensus in the web marketing world that there’s no magic bullet that will help you win those coveted higher rankings. Rather, adopting a range of SEO tactics, as part of a carefully planned strategy, tends to be the preference.

One such tactic is to ensure that your web presence becomes an established authority in its field. Strange as it may seem, Google and the other major search engines have developed ingenious ways of incorporating seemingly abstract concepts such as “authority” in to their algorithms.

Should you be in any doubt, enter “space exploration” in to Google, and you will find NASA, Wikipedia, and the BBC website high in the results list.

There are a number of practical steps you can take in developing an authoritative web presence.

First, provide plenty of fresh, genuinely informative text to your readers. If you are citing other websites or social media posts, then use generally trusted sites. The Daily Telegraph and the New York Times, for instance, are well-known for having stringent fact-checking procedures. The BBC website is another well-recognised source.

Second, write regularly and to a consistently high standard, since search engines relish regular content updates. If you run a small business, this can be a particularly challenging task. In this regard, here at Pressroom, we can take some of the strain, producing an agreed set of posts for you, including doing all the required research.

Finally, become a public animal. Try to get speaker slots at conferences, for example. This can be particularly beneficial, since conference presentations are usually distributed on the web after the event and indexed by Google – a real win in terms of SEO.

Steven Morris