Introduction to seo
Whenever you enter a query in a search engine and hit 'enter' you get a list of web results that contain that query term. Users normally tend to visit websites that are at the top of this list as they perceive those to be more relevant to the query. If you have ever wondered why some of these websites rank better than the others then you must know that it is because of a powerful web marketing technique called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is a technique which helps search engines find and rank your site higher than the millions of other sites in response to a search query. SEO thus helps you get traffic from search engines.
How Search Engines Work
First, search engines crawl the Web to see what is there. This task is performed by a piece of software, called as crawler or spider . Spiders follow links from one page to another and index everything they find on their way. Having in mind the number of pages on the Web (over 20 billion), it is difficult for a spider to visit a site daily just to see if a new page has appeared or if an existing page has been modified, sometimes crawlers may not end up visiting your site for a month or two.When a search request comes, the search engine processes it – i.e. it compares the search string in the
search request with the indexed pages in the database. Since it is likely that more than one page (practically it is millions of pages) contains the search string, the search engine starts calculating the relevancy of each of the pages in its index with the search string.
There are various algorithms to calculate relevancy. Each of these algorithms has different relative
weights for common factors like keyword density, links, or metatags. That is why different search engines give different search results pages for the same search string. to SEO, if you'd like to be at the top.
The last step in search engines' activity is retrieving the results. Basically, it is nothing more than
simply displaying them in the browser – i.e. the endless pages of search results that are sorted from the most relevant to the least relevant sites.
Search engine optimization (SEO in short) is basically comprised by two fundamental strategies:
1) On site SEO
2) Off site SEO
On Site SEOThe first step is to take a look at how the web site is designed. This is an extremely important factor in how the search engines can "read" and rank the site.
-The meta tags
Every page should contain meta tags. These are chunks of html code that contain descriptions of what the site is about:
The title tag. This is the most important tag. It is the one that shows in the top bar on the browser. we have to put our target key phrase in the title. A search engine will recognize this to be an important factor if a searcher looks for .
1.Description tag. The second most important tag. This is where you will see the description of a page when someone finds it in the search engine results. Please include your target words here as well. Make the description readable and non repetitive.
2.Keyword tag. This tag has become irrelevant. You can put your keywords in this tag if you wish. It will not do much as it has been abused and discounted by all the major SEs.
4.Keyword density and distribution
Once you have written the copy, it is time to conduct SEO on it. Spread the keywords in a sensitive and user friendly manner through the page. Employ header tags (H1, H2 etc) to define subtitles and use the keywords in them. Good places to position keywords are at the beginning and then in order of importance at the bottom and middle.
Density refers to the number of times a keyword should be present on a page. This varies from site to site. I would say no less than at least four times. Err on the side of caution. Some search engines can view high keyword frequency as spam
5.Copy/Content
Write as much content as you can, and keep the word count between 200 and 400 per page. Content should be written for users and optimized for search engines. Be informative and spread the keywords to make sense. Keep adding content on a regular basis. It is very important to keep the site fresh.
Off page SEO is the effort to create popularity and trustworthiness towards the site in the World Wide Web. |
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Off Site SEO-Linking Now that the site has been optimized for all internal factors, it is time to make it known by the search engines. There is no need to submit your company site to the search engines. A linking strategy will allow the SEs to find and index it. Find sites related to yours and see if they would like to reciprocate links. You will need to create a page or more where you will list links to other sites. After doing so, contact the site webmasters and ask for an exchange. You will put a link to their site and they will return the favor. Ask for a link from them with anchor text that contains the keywords targeted. If you sell car insurance, link with other insurance sites, even if they do not provide car insurance services. Car club sites would be another option. Do not link with a shoe store. It is totally unrelated and will carry little or no weight. -Submit to directories Directories provide what is called a one-way link. You do not need to reciprocate. Most good directories charge a fee to have sites listed. The most notable exception is www.dmoz.org, which is a very important and free. With paid directories, it is a step worth the money, especially with a lot of competition for the targeted keywords. Also, other high value related sites may charge for this type of link. It may be useful taking a look at these options as well. -Other ways to acquire one-way links If you are an expert in the field, write articles and post them on the many article web sites. For example, an online aquarium fish store could post articles about how to start an easy saltwater aquarium. The article should include a link to the aquarium site with the usual anchor text option. Press releases are also very valuable. PRweb is a favorite. Given the example above, why not release a PR announcing a new aquarium system that makes maintenance easier, or announcing that tank raised fish is offered as an alternative to wild caught? Creating informational sites or sections of a site devoted to information about products or services will drive many other sites to link to you. Offer the option of using your copy on other sites provided that a credit and link to you is offered. There are many creative ways to publicize your pages on the web. -What not to do There are techniques that may hurt your site. While it may be OK to pay for a link on a related and relevant web site, buying links just to increase numbers should be done with great caution. Let me explain: if you manufacture Ipod accessories and a site dedicated to informing readers of MP3 technologies and products has a featured paid link section for advertisers, it may be a good idea to pay. This is a relevant site, and if popular it will drive sales and possibly rankings. On the other hand, there are text link brokers who will charge customers to put links on other sites, related and unrelated. Usually these "Links for sale" sites are already tagged by the search engines. This could damage ranks and even ban your site. Obviously stay away from link farms. Link farms are built for the sole purpose to gather links, exchange with others to benefit third party sites. It is a sure way to get at least penalized. Do not reciprocate with sites that have a PR0. PR stands for Pagerank, a Google feature that is part of how the search engine ranks sites. A PR0 is the lowest possible score. New sites have PR0, which is OK. Some sites have a 0 score because of penalties. The Google Toolbar, once installed, will read the PR of every site and page you visit. To be on the safe side, do not exchange with PR0. | ||
