Articles

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization or SEO is a process in which an attempt is made to increase the traffic in a website. This is achieved by attaining a better or a high rank in the search result or search engine. If a site occupies a high position in the search engine, the chances of it being frequented by visitors will be much higher.

SEO or search engine optimization is also used for “search engine optimizers”, which means a group of consultants/consultation firms who help to carry out optimization projects on behalf of their clients.

Remember! Only a properly optimized website has the ability to attain a high rank in all the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. So, however attractive or informative your website may be, nothing, matters if it does not:

• Give the search engines what they want
• Provide the visitors with the information that they are looking for

A search engine uses numerous factors to calculate the rankings on its SERPs. These factors differ widely from one another – thus a web page carrying a rank number 1 in one website can be ranked as low as 100 in another. The big search engines like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask.com and MSN do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages. Quite a few SEOs have conducted a search and have agreed that the following components influence the page rankings to a great extent.

• Placing of the keywords in the title tag

• Placing the keywords in the links pointing to the page.

• The keywords must appear on a visible text.

• The link popularity, like PageRank in case of Google, of the webpage.

The role of the search engine is to assemble data from your optimized web pages to fathom the content of the site and the kind of product and service that is being offered. These facts are then utilized by the leading search engines to determine the relevancy and also the ranking of the webpage in their results page. These on-page SEO factors help determine how your web pages rank against your competitors. A few of these ‘on-page’ search engine optimization factors are as follows:

• The key word phrases of the website

• The anchor text

• The keywords in the title tag

• The use of Meta Tags (in case of some engines)

• How well does it support HTML

• An optimized web copy

• The density of the keywords

• Placement of some words in Headers

• The internet link structure

• The spider ability of the web pages

• Information on directory listings

There are numerous reasons as to why your web pages need optimization. For example, if you are holding a very high rank, you need the help of a SEO to maintain the position; if your web site is holding a not-so-high position, perhaps due to the use of wrong key word phrases, SEO will help you o correct it. In a nutshell, using SEO will help you with the following:

• Remarkable improvement in the traffic

• Holding a good ranking

• Improving the conversion ratio

• Enhancement of the market share

• Lowering of the acquisition costs

• Strengthening of the brand and its credibility.

If SEO is employed as a marketing strategy, it can bring forth very good results. Unfortunately, search engines do not get paid for the amount of traffic that they steer from the organic search; thus the algorithms used can and often goes through lot of changes which poses problems to the Search Engine when it is being ranked on the website’s pages – there is no guarantee of success, either in the short term or long term. Due to this uncertainty, SEO is very often compared to traditional Public Relations, with PPC advertising closer to traditional advertising.