Search Engine Optimization

Although Search Engine Optimization, (or SEO), is widely used over the vast expanse of the internet today, it still ranks way up there on the scale of terms which internet users should know but don’t know.

Search Engine Optimization is defined as the practice of promoting a site by trying to increase its position in search engine results. These search engines mainly include Google and also Yahoo!, Bing, and a few more. The idea here is to make the website appear as high as possible in the list of search results compared to other similar sites. This is often referred to as organic SEO, which means that rank comes as a result of plain search results instead of having to pay to place your website on the search engine.

There is obviously a lot of value in trying to be successful as far as Search Engine Optimization is concerned. Firstly, it is free, and secondly, web searches are fast becoming the primary means of finding content.

The primary goal of all search engines is to bring relevant and accurate search results to the users. Whenever a user searches for a particular string of words, the search engine must ensure that the search results are the ones that the user was looking for. If the user does not get the required results then the search engine is considered ineffective, and will stop being used by internet surfers.

There is a specific way of ranking a website, and most search engines keep this technique secret so as to keep the search results honest. If the website owners ever find out about these techniques then they will manipulate them in order to get the maximum ranking possible in the search results.

There are a few general pre-requisites of a good website, and comprehensive SEO checklists are available on the internet. But it is ultimately the quality of your content that determines your website presence on the internet. SEO can only get you so far; it is the actual information that you show your target audience that decides if your products or services will sell or not.

The goal of a search engine is ultimately to return all relevant information to its visitors. Over the years search engines have become adept at figuring out whether the content is relevant to the search or not; and whether a human being would find it interesting or not. Search Engine Optimization can be a very fascinating subject to study, and search engines too are incredible samples of computer programming. They are in fact so good that the best advice one could get while looking to increase their ranking is to write the content for actual people and not search engines.

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Over the years since search engine optimization has taken centre stage in the way the internet ranks and filters its millions of websites, there have been many people fall by the wayside, simply left behind by the surging waters of the virtual world simply because they put too much hope on mere search engine optimization.

Yes, effective use of search engine optimization will see a website receive a high ranking on the search engines, yes if left in the hands of dedicated professional writers, the site may assume the top position thanks to its search engine optimization. However, this does not for one second proclaim that the website will be a success.

What search engine optimization does is improve the visibility of a company’s website, which should in turn generate an increase in sales and ultimately turnover. However this is not a guarantee. If the work behind the scenes, away from the virtual pages, isn’t up to scratch and pushing just as hard as the website then the business will not flourish or reach its potential. It may even fail completely should people hope for too much from simply working some keywords or popular search terms into some text as though they were the magic beans Jack traded his cow for.

The same thing can be said for those brave souls who take a chance, escape from the rat race and try to make it as a writer, quite often on a freelance basis with their emphasis being on their search engine optimization skills.

A great many people go into it thinking, “I can write well, I can construct sentences and download the free keyword generators. I can make millions within 6 months and retire by Christmas.” This is obviously however, not the case. If it were there would be a lot less search engine optimization writers out there because the majority would be retired sitting on a beach somewhere soaking up the sun.

The thing is it takes more than one good well crafted website to rank highly to make a good search engine optimization writer. Not only because the content you write will be out of date or out-done within a short period of time and then you have to start all over again, but it is a business where you have to build up a trust with those that purchase your writing skills. It takes a long time to build up a portfolio worthy of being given the chance to work for a well paying company. Even once you reach that height, one simple slip up, lack of judgement or one site written while feeling lazy that either slips into the dark grey area of keyword stuffing or poor choice of keywords will see a fall from grace. Not forgetting that one bad search engine optimization reference will outweigh a hundred good references because nobody wants to make an investment only to see their ranking decrease.

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Effective Search Engine Optimization is possibly one of the most difficult tasks to execute on the internet. To become an SEO master takes tons of practice and a thorough understanding of the mechanics of search engines. Moreover, a lack of practice can quickly lead to you losing your SEO skills. The principal reason for this is that search algorithms are changed constantly, and being well guarded secrets, you will never know what search engineers are up to.

It can thus prove to be extremely difficult to be a true expert in the field of SEO. The competition in this area is fierce, and just one mistake can cost you weeks of work. If you are working for a website, you should be certain not to get the site thrown into the sandbox so that it will never be found. This can be likened to being exiled to the remotest areas of the Internet where only the most intrepid users can ever find them.

And this is definitely not good for business. So for this reason, it becomes extremely important to choose the correct SEO Company if you are in business.

There are certain things to keep in mind in order to become a good SEO person. Try to administer five websites for a year and never link them to each other. You must try being scientific and technical about this, and develop new theories and then test them rigorously. It is imperative that you keep track of the results and note any changes in the way search engines index your website and the way your visitors find it. Then try and connect these changes to actions that you have might have taken like link building, social networking, etc.

You must learn how to find perfect keywords. This is certainly not as simple as just finding words that people search for that are not competitive. It requires an intuitive approach to the task. You must ask yourself questions like what keyword phrase is a potential customer most likely to use as opposed to a bored internet surfer?

Try and use various different kinds of tools until you finally find one that works for you. Try to get your website in the first 20 pages of search results for competitive keywords. Also, once you figure out the method of doing it, take a leaf out of the book of the people who write search algorithms and keep this technique to yourself. You also must train and improve continuously in order to keep your skills up to date.

Always remember that an SEO expert attracts the right people, and not just the most people. This knowledge will take you far ahead of others in the field of Search Engine Optimization.

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Originally Posted on October 11, 2010

Search Engine Optimization works by looking at a website, both the text content on the site and any links (both general links and backlinks) that are there, and then, based on the keyword density, a ranking is awarded on the main search engines.

Simply hosting a website and saying it is great isn’t enough to get it anywhere near the top on Google or any of the other search engines out there; and lets face it without a good Google ranking nowadays you really don’t stand much of a chance at success.

You may think that if that is the case, you just find out what your keywords are  (Keywords are set words or terms that are deemed in the ‘eyes’ of the search engine algorithm to be search words that people use when looking for a website such as yours) and then fill page after page with random keyword dropping, creating nonsensical text on hidden pages that people will never actually see, or by filling your website with a more popular phrase in order to get people to your site through the age old art of deception. While this may work in the short term, the algorithms and people behind the search engines are not stupid and will find any such shit and block it from their listings completely.

In fact, Search Engine Optimization runs on a ratio basis. The number of regular words against the number of Keywords, and for the best rankings there is a certain percentage or ratio range that it should all fit between. By creating a site that waffles along, simply packing the text with the respective keywords every few lines, will create a higher ratio and make hard reading for those who do find your site.

The best method is to simply speak the truth, talk to your visitors how you want to talk to them, explain yourself and what your services are. Be short and sweet and you stand a better chance of achieving a good ranking.

Search Engine optimization is a key thing in generating web traffic, and ultimately profit for the business that is associated with the traffic increase, however a website that is hard to read because of all the keywords that are crammed into the text, but ranked number one on Google, may attract more people but hold their attention less than a site that is ranked lower but uses concise English, a realistic use of the keywords, and actually conveys information that the visitors want to read. A website that is written with the nature of its business and the interest of its visitors in mind will always fare better than a website written with the sole purpose to be a good Google ranking.

Takeaway

Write for your audience, and don’t worry too much about keyword density — your readers will appreciate it more and the Search Engines will love you for it, and give you better rankings than if you try to stuff keywords into your article just to make the mythical ‘magic keyword density’ figures that some ‘Gurus’ suggest, and finish up with a crap article!

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