SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it ranks, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as addressing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users.
SEO can also refer to search engine optimisers, terms used by consultants, such as Hunt Online, who carry out optimisation projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO. Search engine optimisers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term search engine friendly may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, URLs, and shopping carts that are easy to optimise.
The leading search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Some search engines, notably Yahoo!, operate a paid submission service that guarantee crawling for either a set fee or cost per click. Such programs usually guarantee inclusion in the database, but do not guarantee specific ranking within the search results. Yahoo's paid inclusion program has drawn criticism from advertisers and competitors. Two major directories, the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project both require manual submission and human editorial review. Google offers Google Webmaster Tools, for which an XML Sitemap feed can be created and submitted for free to ensure that all pages are found, especially pages that aren't discoverable by automatically following links.
Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled.
SEO techniques are classified by some into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design and those techniques that search engines do not approve of and attempt to minimize the effect of, referred to as spamdexing. Industry commentators have classified these methods, and the practitioners who employ them, as either white hat SEO, or black hat SEO. White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing.
An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see.
White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways like web development that promotes accessibility, although the two are not identical.
Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception. Search engines may penalise sites they discover using black hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. Such penalties can be applied either automatically by the search engines' algorithms, or by a manual site review.
One infamous example was the February 2006 Google removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for use of deceptive practices. Both companies, however, quickly apologized, fixed the offending pages, and were restored to Google's list.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Search engine optimisation (SEO) 101 for Hunt Online clients.
In launching this new blog Hunt Online aims to inform clients, and all of those interested in SEO about the process. Search Engine Optimisation is all about smart work, not just keyword and search engine directory bombing!
1. Search Engines control their indexes and ranking algorithms, so don’t try to fool them. The way to improve your Search Engine Ranking by following the rules. And these rules are relatively very simple. Web content is primarily for the site visitor and not crawlers.
Good organic search engines results take time and hard work is necessary on the content on your website and the links to your site.
2: Ranking for the right keywords (keywords used by your target audience) is paramount.
3: Search engine ranking is relative position and more so in the Search Engine’s natural results. How well you do in the Search Engine Results is a function of how much hard work you have put over competition. Hunt Online analyzes competition’s keywords, links, keyword density and spread.
4: A search and visitor friendly website design is must for success. Your website should have Search Engine friendly urls and avoid long URLs with query strings and ? symbols.
5: You must research the keywords before targeting. It is important to know the number of searches for a keyword how many web pages are targeting the search terms. Start a campaign with keywords with moderate competition and high number of searches.
6: Great content brings repeat visits and increases visibility. Great content is factual and appealing to the target audience, and has a call to action embedded in the content. Ensure that the content is fresh and keep adding and editing the content regularly.
7: Hyperlinks make the content accessible and contextualised, both the context within the website and through links with other websites. Good links are appreciated by the search engines and by human visitors.
8: Meta content tells who you are and what you do. Meta content tells the search engines the relevance and context of a web page. Don’t be tempted to include everything in the Meta content, but make it detailed.
9: The Links you acquire are the roads to your web page for Search Engine Bots and visitors. Good links increase your webpage’s visibility on the web. Both reciprocal and one way links work, if you are careful in selecting the links. Submit your website to the relevant sections in relevant directories.
10: There here are two ways to undertake SEO, learning from one’s own mistakes and learning form other’s experience … so for experience choose Hunt Online!
For more information about Hunt Online see: http://www.huntonline.com.au/
1. Search Engines control their indexes and ranking algorithms, so don’t try to fool them. The way to improve your Search Engine Ranking by following the rules. And these rules are relatively very simple. Web content is primarily for the site visitor and not crawlers.
Good organic search engines results take time and hard work is necessary on the content on your website and the links to your site.
2: Ranking for the right keywords (keywords used by your target audience) is paramount.
3: Search engine ranking is relative position and more so in the Search Engine’s natural results. How well you do in the Search Engine Results is a function of how much hard work you have put over competition. Hunt Online analyzes competition’s keywords, links, keyword density and spread.
4: A search and visitor friendly website design is must for success. Your website should have Search Engine friendly urls and avoid long URLs with query strings and ? symbols.
5: You must research the keywords before targeting. It is important to know the number of searches for a keyword how many web pages are targeting the search terms. Start a campaign with keywords with moderate competition and high number of searches.
6: Great content brings repeat visits and increases visibility. Great content is factual and appealing to the target audience, and has a call to action embedded in the content. Ensure that the content is fresh and keep adding and editing the content regularly.
7: Hyperlinks make the content accessible and contextualised, both the context within the website and through links with other websites. Good links are appreciated by the search engines and by human visitors.
8: Meta content tells who you are and what you do. Meta content tells the search engines the relevance and context of a web page. Don’t be tempted to include everything in the Meta content, but make it detailed.
9: The Links you acquire are the roads to your web page for Search Engine Bots and visitors. Good links increase your webpage’s visibility on the web. Both reciprocal and one way links work, if you are careful in selecting the links. Submit your website to the relevant sections in relevant directories.
10: There here are two ways to undertake SEO, learning from one’s own mistakes and learning form other’s experience … so for experience choose Hunt Online!
For more information about Hunt Online see: http://www.huntonline.com.au/
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