What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the use of certain methods to earn a website a higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERP). There are two main kinds of search engine results, organic results and pay-per-click. Search Engine Optimization is mainly associated with organic search results. With good Search Engine Optimization, a site which appears in organic listings has the potential to generate the same amount of traffic as pay-per-click, but without the additional costs. In addition, listings located in the organic results receive 70% of user clicks. Search Engine Optimization aims to increase the number and relevancy of visitors to a website. The greater the number of quality visitors from the targeted market, the greater the chances of boosting the conversion rate, the percentage of visitors who turn into sales. Search Engine Optimization is a highly valuable marketing tool due to its potential to increase free traffic to a site.

When creating a website, the developer should ideally incorporate Search Engine Optimization strategies into the site’s initial design. However, optimization is also possible and important at any point in the life of a site. Like any good marketing campaign, Search Engine Optimization is a continual process, and requires periodic updating to keep the site optimized and rankings high.

What will get me the best ranking on a search engine?

Because search engines make an effort to keep their search algorithms secret to prevent unfairly aggressive Search Engine Optimization, it is difficult to determine the precise formula for a high ranking. We can however identify several important factors which search engines consider.

SEO Methods

Search engines constantly modify the algorithm by which they rank sites. It is wise to make sure your site ranks well based on several SEO methods, instead of relying on just one or two. While is it difficult to determine the precise formula by which search engines determine rankings, some of the most important methods that can impact rankings are listed below.

Keyword Selection: Keywords are words a user will type into search engines to locate websites containing specific information, products, or services. A search engine will respond by ranking websites based on a formula that includes keyword relevance and density. Selecting effective keywords is therefore crucial for a higher ranking.

There are a couple of places on a site where keywords should appear. The first is in the keywords meta tag and in the title tag. Because of websites unfairly attempting to cram an excessive volume of keywords into their meta tags or content, known as spamdexing or keyword stuffing, some search engines claim that they now ignore meta tag keywords. However, having a keyword meta tag with a few keywords in the code wont hurt one’s ranking and can work to one’s benefit. Each page should have its own unique, descriptive title tag, so that crawlers can identify each distinct page. Another place keywords should to appear is in the site content. Search engines also consider keyword density, how many times a keyword appears relative to the number of words on a page. Again as a result of unfair keyword stuffing, search engines often have keyword stuffing filters for when a keyword appears too many times. General recommendation for a keyword to appear per page is 5% or less, but this number can vary per search engine and shift over time. Adding Alt tags to images on the site is also a good idea.

Site Indexing: When a user searches information on a search engine, he or she is only searching through information that the specific search engine has accumulated and indexed, rather than the entire internet. If a web site is not indexed into a search engine, the site will not appear in their search results. One of the best ways to get pages indexed is an in-bound link from an already indexed site pointing to one’s site. Periodically, search engines send out crawlers which follow links from established sites. Once a crawler visits and reads a site, it will send data back to its central database to be indexed. The amount of data a crawler reads from a site depends on several factors, including well organized code, a clear directory, keyword density, and number of in-bound and out-bound links. For optimal traffic, it should be a goal to have several pages from a site indexed, not just the home page.

Linking: In-bound links are links from external sites to one’s own site. In-bound links from quality, established sites increase the value of a website and can improve the site’s rankings. The best method for good link building is article marketing, publishing articles of quality, dynamic content related to one’s website content and posting them on the site. By offering unique and useful information, a website becomes a valuable resource to users and will being to receive in-bound links on its own. Article marketing will also help with deep linking, receiving in-bound links from established site to pages deeper in your site than the home page. A site receiving links to multiple pages is more valuable than a site only receiving links to the homepage. Also important are out-bound links, links from one’s site to external sites. Out-bound links demonstrate that a website is making an effort to be an active presence on the internet, and help increase a site’s credibility. Internal links, links between pages within one’s own site, are also important.

Load Time: Load time is the amount of time it takes for a page to open within a browser. The average amount of time a user will spend waiting for a website to load is 7-10 seconds. Fast load time is essential for creating a positive user experience and improving conversion rates. A quickly loading website is important for increasing visitors to one’s site, and to keep them coming back.

Content Building and Continued Updates: It cannot be stressed enough that SEO is a continual process. Site rankings change daily, even hourly, as new websites are created, existing sites update and add content, and search engine rank algorithms are revised. SEO is by no means a one-time process that can be employed then forgotten. This is because search engines and the internet are always changing. The one factor that a site depends on for its rankings today may no longer be considered important by search engines a week from today. One of the best ways to maintain good rankings amid constantly changing search engine algorithms is to keep a site updated and content rich. New information, that is valuable to users and therefore valued by search engines, should be added on a regular basis.

Site Map: Site maps help crawlers easily navigate through a website. Crawlers are often programmed to have time limits or to move on if a site’s code is too complicated or disorganized. A site map will help crawlers better navigate through the site. A site map will also help make a site user friendly. Any site should have a site map, or a navigation bar, that remains constant no matter what page a user is visiting. The site map is a way for users to view a summary of the entire site’s content, and helps them find specific information without navigating through the entire site.

Why is Flash bad for SEO?

A common mistake webmasters make that hurts Search Engine Optimization is a site designed entirely in Flash, or an all-graphic site. Search engine crawlers can only read text, and are designed to ignore graphics. Therefore, an all Flash website will not be indexed. If using Flash is important to creating a certain look for the web site, an option is to create two web pages, a Flash site and a static HTML site under the same URL. A rich text splash page is recommended. Search engine crawlers are then able to read the static html site and the website will still be searchable. The other option is to create a hybrid site where the html loads first with elements of flash that load after such as advertisement areas or site headers.

- By Kristin Ige of Atak Interactive, Inc.