Quite simply, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of enhancing a website’s ranking on a search engine. Search engines are accessed by 80% of internet users with Google leading the search engine popularity race. Due to the amount of traffic that can be generated from a high ranking on a search engine, optimizing your website just makes sense to any webmaster or blogger. After all, your website or blog was designed and developed for traffic and the more readers that visit your website, the greater the chance of making a sale or generating an income through other methods.
To SEO or not to SEO?
The complexity of search engine algorithms, those funny little equations that determine rankings on a search engine results page (SERPs) for a specific query, is changing constantly. What was extremely effective SEO practices a few years ago may now just be mediocre in assisting with high rankings. Nevertheless the basic principles will always be relevant and should be adopted by every website developer or SEO consultant.
Applying good SEO practices when developing and designing your website is like building a store in an area with good passing trade. More traffic, more exposure, greater sales. By ignoring general SEO practices, you can rest assured that your website will be lost in the “online jungle”. SEO creates exposure. SEO brings traffic. SEO leads to sales. SEO makes sense.
Many webmasters still swear by pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to bring traffic to their website. It may require a constant investment to maintain a PPC campaign for your website but it usually yields good results. However 80% of search engine users are more likely to click on a natural search engine listing than on a PPC advertisement. With proper SEO, you can enjoy good rankings and long term targetted traffic via the search engines at no cost.
Broadly, SEO processes can be divided into on-page and off-page factors. On-page factors include those development and enhancement processes that are undertaken on your website itself. Off-page factors pertain to those processes that do not occur directly on your website.
On-page SEO factors include :
1. Content – keywords, format, frequency and quanity
2. HTML Tags
3. URL Rewrites
There are other on-page factors but the list above covers the main on-page factors. Keywords, research and their usage, is a topic on its own but in the context of on-page factors, it is most relevant in your content – within the body of an article or as title and heading tags.
Off-page SEO factors include :
1. Link building
2. Anchor text optimization
3. Search engine ranking – Google Page Rank
The third factor may have many SEO’s up in arms, protesting that Google Page Rank is not relevant to search engine optimization. We say both yes and no. But it should be considered. The factors that determine your Page Rank will often be the same factors that determine your position on the SERPs. If you cater for good Page Rank (PR) and receive a good PR for your domain then you will very likely see your website rank high in the SERPs.
Either way, in most popular search queries, the higher ranking websites also have good PR. Google would not be continuing with its Page Rank system if it was redundant. While none of us know the exact Google algorithm that is currently utilized for ranking a website, it is useful to take all factors into consideration.
The future of SEO
The evolution of search engines means that there are new factors emerging that will be pertinent to SEO. Some may enhance the overall process. Others will revolutionize it. Two such factors which are currently under the spotlight is website traffic and average user time on the website. The latter is known to be relevant to search engines like MSN and their Web Rank system. It is in our opinion that average user time on your website is also pertinent to Google although some SEO consultants may disagree.
What does this mean for the webmaster or blogger? Well, the longer the period of time that a visitor spends on your website, the more ‘brownie points’ your website earns in the ‘eyes’ of the search engines. In later posts, we will be covering some interesting tips to maintain your visitor’s attention from image mapping to flash animation and videos. We will also provide you with the snippets of Javascript code to assist you in developing these methods even further.
None of us can predict the future of search engine optimization. Some SEO consultants believe that the practice of SEO will be redundant in the long term. However the need to access information accurately and easily will never wane. As long as internet users are looking for information, the search engine will continue to dominate the library of online content.