SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) as a subset of search engine marketing seeks to improve the number and quality of visitors to a web site from "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. The quality of visitor traffic can be measured by how often a visitor using a specific keyword leads to a desired conversion action, such as making a purchase or requesting further information. In effect, SEO is marketing by appealing first to machine algorithms to increase search engine relevance and secondly to human visitors.
Search engine optimization is available as a stand-alone service or as a part of a larger marketing campaign. Because SEO often requires making changes to the source code of a site, it is often most effective when incorporated into the initial development and design of a site, leading to the use of the term "Search Engine Friendly" to describe designs, menus, Content management systems and shopping carts that can be optimized easily and effectively.
A range of strategies and techniques are employed in SEO, including changes to a site's code (referred to as "on page factors") and getting links from other sites (referred to as "off page factors"). These techniques include 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 . Some industry commentators classify these methods, and the practitioners who utilize them, as either " white hat SEO ", or "black hat SEO". Other SEOs reject the black and white hat dichotomy as an over-simplification.
An SEO tactic, technique or method is considered "White hat" if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and/or 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 make that content easily accessible to their spiders, rather than game the system. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility, although the two are not identical.
"Black hat" SEO are methods to try to improve rankings that are disapproved of by the search engines and/or involve deception. This can range from text that is "hidden", either as text colored similar to the background or in an invisible or left of visible div, or by redirecting users from a page that is built for search engines to one that is more human friendly. A method that sends a user to a page that was different from the page the search engined ranked is Black hat as a rule. One well known example is Cloaking, the practice of serving one version of a page to search engine spiders/bots and another version to human visitors.
Search engines may penalize 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 review of a site.
SEO and Marketing
There is a considerable sized body of practitioners of SEO who see search engines as just another visitor to a site, and try to make the site as accessible to those visitors as to any other who would come to the pages. They often see the white hat/black hat dichotomy mentioned above as a false dilemma. The focus of their work is not primarily to rank the highest for certain terms in search engines, but rather to help site owners fulfill the business objectives of their sites. Indeed, ranking well for a few terms among the many possibilities does not guarantee more sales. A successful Internet marketing campaign may drive organic search results to pages, but it also may involve the use of paid advertising on search engines and other pages, building high quality web pages to engage and persuade, addressing technical issues that may keep search engines from crawling and indexing those sites, setting up analytics programs to enable site owners to measure their successes, and making sites accessible and usable.
SEOs may work in-house for an organization, or as consultants, and search engine optimization may be only part of their daily functions. Often their education of how search engines function comes from interacting and discussing the topics on forums, through blogs, at popular conferences and seminars, and by experimentation on their own sites. There are few college courses that cover online marketing from an ecommerce perspective that can keep up with the changes that the web sees on a daily basis.
SEO, as a marketing strategy, can often generate a good return. However, as the search engines are not paid for the traffic they send from organic search, the algorithms used can and do change, there are no guarantees of success, either in the short or long term. Due to this lack of guarantees and certainty, SEO is often compared to traditional Public Relations (PR), with PPC advertising closer to traditional advertising. Increased visitors is analogous to increased foot traffic in retail advertising. Increased traffic may be detrimental to success if the site is not prepared to handle the traffic or visitors are generally dissatisfied with what they find. In either case increased traffic does not guarantee increased sales or success.
While endeavoring to meet the guidelines posted by search engines can help build a solid foundation for success on the web, such efforts are only a start. SEO is potentially more effective when combined with a larger marketing campaign strategy. Despite SEO potential to respond to the latest changes in market trends, SEO alone is reactively following market trends instead of pro-actively leading market trends. Many see search engine marketing as a larger umbrella under which search engine optimization fits, but it's possible that many who focused primarily on SEO in the past are incorporating more and more marketing ideas into their efforts, including public relations strategy and implementation, online display media buying, web site transition SEO, web trends data analysis, HTML E-mail campaigns, and business blog consulting making SEO firms more like an ad agency.
In addition, whilst SEO can be considered a marketing tactic unto itself, it's often considered (in the view of industry experts) to be a single part of a greater whole.Marketing through other methods, such as viral, pay-per-click, new media marketing and other related means is by no means irrelevant, and indeed, can be crucial to maintaining a strong search engine rank.The part of SEO that simply insures content relevancy and attracts inbound link activity may be enhanced through broad target marketing methods such as print, broadcast and out-of-home advertising as well.
Search Engine Optimisation - Tips Tools and Techniques
Search Engine Optimisation - or SEO - refers to the act of improving a website`s rating with the most popular search engines. Sites with higher ratings will be more likely to appear in searches, so receive greater volumes of traffic. SEO has evolved into a considerable industry, and one which has come to replace many more traditional forms of marketing. To gain an understanding of SEO it makes sense to start with the search engines themselves.
Search engines such as Google use a process of indexing to provide the most relevant results for any particular search. Using programs called "spiders" the search engine accumulates information from each individual website, page and document. When a query is received, it searches through the millions of pages in its database then ranks the results using algorithms, according to a number of different criteria.
Search engines want to find the right results, so above all they are most interested in content. Unique, original, relevant content delivered in a form which works with the search engine. Only after the site contains a good quantity of quality content do the following techniques truly come into play.
Perhaps the most significant techniques in optimising the search engine performance of your site`s content relate to the location and frequency of keywords. A query relating to "student credit cards" for example, will first search for this text at the best locations on the page. This is most often in the title of the page, but also in the first sentences and paragraphs on each page of the site. Google, or any of the other major search engines, quite rightly expects pages which address the query to mention it from early on.
Similarly the frequency of the phrase is a good indicator of relevance, so ensure that important keywords and phrases are repeated regularly, ideally without affecting the flow of content. Account for variations on a particular phrase, and perhaps give a moment`s thought to potential spelling mistakes. Take care though, as search engines are aware of potential spammers. Words and phrases which are excessively repeated, or part of long lists, for example, will not produce such good results. An overall keyword density of around 2-4% is widely considered to be appropriate.
Other important on-page elements include the effective use of the so-called meta tags - title, description and keywords. Although the major search engines no longer place much emphasis on the contents of the keywords tag as a positive scoring mechanism, its abuse on incorrect use can be detrimental to you overall score so care should be taken. Further important on-page elements include th heading tags, particularly H1 and H2 and the use of appropriate anchor text in internal links. Make sure you have a site map and that all important pages are no more than one step away from the home page.
When it comes to off-page factors, link building is probably the most important. Establishing relevant links with sites complimentary and close to the theme and focus keywords of your own site is essential. There are a number of means by which link relationships can be established but in a competitive market it may make sense to use a specialist service. Also ensure that your site is hosted in the country you are targeting. Cheap US hosting may seem appealing but could be detrimental if you are trying to achieve rankings in the UK.
SEO is a vital element of most online strategies, above all because it can be tailor designed to fit any particular business or campaign. It excels as a tool for building brand awareness, increasing visibility and generating sales. The process of optimising a website is in itself free, and even on a larger scale SEO affiliate marketing can represent excellent value for money.