SEO – What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which a website becomes more visible to potential visitors. It increases that web page's relevance to the keywords queried by the user. As opposed to paid or sponsored sites, SEO gives visibility through organic, natural, non-paid, text-based and algorithmic means. An important note is that Search Engine algorithms change constantly. A good SEO company will track these changes regularly and incorporate them into their services. Another issue is that there are certain SEO techniques for which websites are penalized and driven to the back of the search results.

Search Engine Optimization is basically an action plan to maximize the probability that people will click on a site using specified keywords and keyword phrases. The closer a website is to page one, the more visitors it will receive. A site will also attract more visitors if it appears more than once. SEO also has an effect on your user base as people perceive websites in the top 5 as being industry leaders.

Search Engine Optimization is one of the most efficient ways to drive visitors to a webpage.

Just Because Someone Knows How to Build a Website Doesn't Mean They Know How to Market One!

Make no mistake about this quote. It's true. If you just want to "have a website," there are literally thousands of people who can do this for you at a VERY low price. However, when you want to compete for search engine rankings, choose your design company carefully.

Building a website is NOT just a bunch of pretty pictures and text. Not only does marketing your website take time, it also requires research of your business and research of the products or services you have to offer. A quality website also requires getting into the mind of your users who are looking for what you have to offer.

Search Engines are the "Phone Books of Today"

More people turn to the Internet for information than any other medium currently on the market today. Why? Because the Internet provides a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips allowing users to find what they want within a matter of seconds.

Since 2010 - More money is being spent on Internet marketing than Radio, Television, and Newspapers combined - BECAUSE IT WORKS.

People who want to buy from you are out there – they WANT to do business with you. They just don't know you exist!

SEO Takes Time

Understand that when you want to compete, search engine optimization is like a diet and exercise plan. You have to stick with it and there are no shortcuts, no matter what you may have heard.

SEO is a 2 phase process

1. The first page is how your website is built – this is called "On-Page Optimization"
2. The second phase is how your website is marketed – this is called "Off-Page Optimization"

On-Page Optimization is About Points

The way a website is built plays a large role in how effective your Search Engine Optimization campaign will work. Without a solid on-page optimization strategy, what happens off page will result in a much more difficult task to complete. Keywords have evolved away from being part of the HTML code known as META KEYWORDS. Instead, keywords should exist as part of your content. "Content is King" is a popular phrase being used in today's world of Search Engine Optimization. Because it's TRUE!"

Search engines (unofficially) have a type of point system in place when evaluating your website. Think of these points like a grading system from 0 to 100. If your website is missing important elements that make your web pages relevant, your grade might be a lot lower. You can most certainly have a failing grade if you have none to very little on-page optimization.

There are too many factors that come into play when discussing on-page optimization. Listed below are just a few of the many important factors that search engines look for:

• Page Content – This is by far the most important part of your website. Content should always be text based and contain the proper keywords people are searching for. Search Engines still rely on text to index pages in their search algorithm. Hiding text inside images or Adobe Flash will keep search engines from finding out what your page is about.
• Naming of pages – Search Engines don't understand pages that are tagged as "Home" or "Start" as they have little to no meaning to a search engine. Instead, the name of each page should give an indication as to what the page is about. Naming each page consists of two parts – the name of your website's title tag and the name of your URL. If you have a page about carbide drill bits, a URL that is named: "www.yourbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&viewid=12408"
  will not hold much value to a search engine while a URL that has a name like:
  "www.yourbusiness.com/carbide-drill-bits.html"
  will allow search engines to better understand what your page is about.
  
• Tagging Images – Images play a role in Search Engine Optimization but too many times, people overlook them. Search Engines don't know what the image is about which is why HTML has code to tag images. Images should also be named accordingly. Search Engines will not know what IMG00134.jpg means but they will know an image of your CEO exists if the name of that image is "president-ceo.jpg"
• Heading Tags – Just like an outline written up for your college thesis, tags such as H1, H2, and H3 are important for determining the importance of your website content. They allow search engines to log important parts of each page and create the relevance for the products and or services your business offers.
• Keywords and Keyword Density – In order for search engines know what keywords you are trying to attract, you must have content that uses specific words that people are searching for. However, just throwing keywords into sentences used over and over again may trigger alerts for search engines that you are "keyword spamming" your website content. Density of keywords should be no more than 3-4% per page.
• Page Loading Times – It's true. Search engines also evaluate how fast your pages load. Remember, search engines are now looking for quality and relevance. Pages that take a long time to load do not provide a quality user experience.
  

There are many books written about how to properly optimize a website. In most cases, it may be easier or more effective to start from scratch to properly market a company website rather than trying to salvage a poorly built one. Google, Yahoo, and Bing will first evaluate your on-page optimization before looking at your Off-Page Optimization.

Off-Page Optimization is about Votes

What happens after your website is launched is often referred to as off-page optimization. This is the "meat and potatoes" of your Internet marketing campaign and it is also the most time consuming. Search Engines are constantly crawling the Internet using programs called "Spiders." These spiders look for links to follow because links allow them to find new websites for their index. Links also provide valuable information about the page it points to. For every link a spider finds that relates to your website, that link can be considered as a vote. However, not all votes are counted equally.

Google PageRank – Why it's important

Google has a link analysis algorithm used by their search engine named after Larry Page called "PageRank." PageRank is not where your website sits in the search engine results (i.e. Page 3 of Google) but rather a logarithmic scale of how important or "relevant" your website is on a scale of 1 to 10. Brand new websites are always assigned a PageRank of 0. While well established and heavily trafficked sites such as Google and Facebook are awarded with a PageRank of 10. Again, PageRank is not linear, it is logarithmic. A PageRank of 1 could quite possibly be 10,000 times more valuable than a PageRank 0 while a PageRank 5 website would be an exponentially higher value than a PageRank 1 site.

Using the example of carbide drill bits mentioned earlier, if you were to get a link from another website, you would want the link to use the phrase, "carbide drill bits" rather than "yourcompanyname.com" because "carbide drill bits" is a keyword you are trying to attract. Also, you want to make sure you are getting a link that comes from a related site in order to add relevancy. A link coming from a pet store for "carbide drill bits" is not going to hold much value while a link coming from a hardware store will. Getting a backlink from a hardware store with a PageRank of 5 will hold even more value than a link coming from a PageRank 1 hardware store website although, because it's relevant, it's still important and you can link from both!

Quality of Links vs. Quantity of Links

Getting websites to link to yours plays a valuable role in off-page optimization but once again, it's about quality, not quantity. Participating in methods that "trick" search engines known as Black Hat SEO tactics (link farming, mass article submission, link spamming) will hurt your website rather than help it. You may see instant results, but you may also see your website banned for breaking the rules of major search engines.

There are no overnight methods that will generate quality links, no matter what people may tell you. Link building is a strategy that should be done by humans over a span of several months to be effective. For every keyword that needs to be marketed, building a natural set of inbound links (400+ links a month) takes time. A single person manually building links may take 33-48 hours or more each month to generate the amount of links needed to catapult your business into the top 10 which is why it's better to work with a link building team. Just make sure your link building team knows what they are doing!

Hiring someone to go out and just point links to your website could have a negative effect on your search engine optimization campaign if performed improperly. Remember, not all "votes" are equal!

Success with SEO Does NOT Happen Overnight

Marketing a website can be like producing a tv commercial. You must first pay for the commercial to be put together but if you do not air the commercial, nobody will see it and you will not get a return on your investment. A good SEO campaign can be like airing the commercial. Time must be spent each month on building your link campaign which also builds up your website reputation. Links build naturally over time (usually over several years of being active on the Internet) and search engines know this. In order to speed up this process, a good link building campaign is important for marketing your website but there is a limit to what is natural and what is not. Instantly generating thousands of backlinks in an un-natural fashion will get your website banned by most major search engines. You do want a large amount of links but the links should be quality links built over long periods of time.

This goes back to the importance of hiring a team that is experienced in the art of SEO.

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About the Author:
Darren Eiswirth is the founder of Woodlands Ad Agency, a Houston advertising agency and Internet marketing company. With over 10 years of experience in online marketing and advertising, he has helped many businesses and corporations succeed online.

Copyright ©2011 Woodlands Ad Agency.
Publishing Rights: You may republish this article in your web site, newsletter, or ebook, on the condition that you agree to leave the article, author's signature, and all links completely intact.

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