Search Engine Optimization - SEO - For Dummies
Search engine optimization or SEO, as it is prevalently called has fast gained popularity with the increasing number of users going to the Internet to search for their topics of interest. It has become vital for the websites to be compliant to search engine standards. This not only helps them to create an online brand but also to leverage their positions in terms of product or service. The phase when websites were created just to have an online presence and to showcase the aesthetics is almost fading out. With so many websites of similar themes now flooding the internet space, it has become imperative that websites get self marketed on the Internet. Yes, SEO is a strategy that helps you market your websites and it has been widely accepted as a powerful online marketing strategy. Statistics and analysis prove that SEO has improved traffic to the websites both in terms of volume as well as quality.
So what exactly is SEO? It surely is not a software application or a tool that does any technological wonders to your website. SEO instead, is a simple application of certain rules to your website so that search engines can easily trace it. At the root level, search engine optimization works on keywords. Search engines use keywords to categorize websites and display such websites in the results when a particular keyword is searched for. However, this is not the only criteria for a website to get listed in the search results for that keyword. Though SEO process is not considered to be complex, it is somewhat algorithmic in nature. The natural search results are also sometimes termed as ‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’ search results. Apart from keywords that help categorizing a website, some of the other parameters used in SEO are as follows:
- Layout and structure of the website - this involves how well the content and links are placed on the webpage
- Coding standards - a lot of time unnecessary programming language code forms a part of the webpage that hampers the ranking of the website.
- Design standards - most of the times a search engine is not able to index a flash animation, flash links, and other dynamic links. This could possibly result in website not being recognized by the search engine.
- Content presentation - as already mentioned keywords are important for search engine optimization. Keywords usually form a part of the content and hence content should be well structured such that keywords appear frequently. This helps the search engine to crawl a website and categorize it into a particular theme. However, it must be noted that too many keywords can be dangerous and the content might lose on its appeal to the reader.
- Link exchanges - the popularity of a website is also determined using the number of websites linked to your website. This should also be considered when using SEO practices on your website.
It is interesting to know that SEO has been classified into two types - white hat and black hat. The difference in color just indicates their durability on the search engines. For e.g. a white hat SEO refers to SEO techniques that are fully compliant with the SEO practices and code of conduct. The web pages are designed such that they satisfy the target audience as well as the SEO guidelines. Black Hat SEO on the other hand is the technique used for spamming or spam indexing. It is more of an unethical practice which eventually proves to be deceptive and the search engines disapprove websites using this technique. Black hat SEO technique involves designing two separate web pages of the same context, one of which is for the target audience while the other is for search engine submission. It is evident that websites designed using White hat SEO tend to remain for a longer duration in the search results than its opposites.
The primary objective of SEO is to position the website at the highest rank and hence generate more audience which could eventually be a potential consumer. However, it is not advisable to look at SEO as a single source for generating business. SEO was once looked upon as close to traditional advertising and PR. However, it is an ongoing process that needs continuous monitoring and revamp so that search engines pick up the best optimized websites and rank them.
It may not be possible to summarize entire SEO principles and techniques in a single article. We will have a series of topics on SEO to learn more about this interesting methodology. Keep visiting this page regularly to get the latest trends, news, and information on SEO.