Search Engine Optimization – Basic Terms

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Search Engine Optimization refers to the collection of techniques and practices that allow a site to get more traffic from search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft). This is the process of editing a web site’s content and code in order to improve visibility within one or more search engines. When this term is used to describe an individual, it stands for “Search Engine Optimizer” or one who performs SEO. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.

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Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is term that describes marketing a web site using various techniques to make it more visible on search engines. SEM techniques include search engine optimization (SEO), buying Pay Per Click (PPC) ads or using a combination of both of these options. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the best way of getting your products and services seen by people who want to buy them.

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SEO Users:

• Webmasters
• Art directors
• Graphic artists
• Business owners
• Teachers and students
• Coders and programmers
• Marketing and sales professionals
• Aspiring SEO and SEM professionals

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Goals of SEO:

• Achieve high rankings on SERP’s (Search Engine Ranking page)
• Ensue that website is easily accessible to potential customers
• Making a search engine friendly webpage
• Getting searchers to click on your listing and not on your competitors website
• Optimize websites by ethical means only

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Keyword Research:
Keyword research is the process of determining what keywords are used in search engines by potential customers. It enables site owners to choose keywords when constructing and optimizing a website (page). Keyword research is also extensively used to manage PPC advertising campaigns or if you are looking to research and identify profitable niche markets.

Keyword research consists of at least three major steps:

1. Discovery – finding as many keywords as possible relating to your web site. Online tools exist to speed up the discovery process by allowing marketers to search for related keywords and their relative search popularity.
2. ROI Analysis – finding the most valuable keywords for your web site. The most generic keywords are the most widely searched, but also the most competitive, and sometimes bring mediocre conversion rates. Generally, phrases that most accurately describe specific qualities of a site yield the highest ROI.
3. Competitive Analysis – analyzing the strength of competitors for potential keywords. Competitive factors include how attentive sites are to optimization issues and the number of relevant inbound links they have received.

Google offers a Keyword research tool for free.

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Goals of Keyword Research:

• Identify the broadest possible set of keywords used by potential customers.
• Determine which keywords are most popular and thus represent the primary targets for SEO and keyword advertising.
• Identify keywords whose search engine ranking is realistically obtainable by SEO.
• Determine what negative keywords will make keyword advertising most cost effective.
• Identify customer language that can influence branding and messaging.
• Develop additional content based upon user terminology.

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PageRank (PR):
PageRank is Google’s ranking software that calculates the relevance of a webpage to the search keywords entered. The software analyses both the number of incoming links and the ‘quality’ of the referring webpage to generate a relative measurement between 0 (low-relevance) and 10 (high-relevance). The ‘quality’ of the referring webpage is an abstract measure of how authoritative it is on the subject matter. It provides a rough estimate of the overall importance of a web page. PageRank is the heart of Google’s algorithm and makes it the most complex of all the search engines. The name PageRank™ is a trademark of Google.

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On Page Optimization:
In terms of search engine rankings, on page optimization refers to changes made to your physical website which are designed to promote improvements in ranking. This includes but is not limited to HTML tags, content – including proper paragraph structure, page layout and hierarchy. Even the efficiency of page code and loading time of your website, and the way you link between pages (often called internal linking) can impact the relevancy that the search engines place on your documents. On page optimization techniques involve optimization of web pages on your website. It involves adding keywords, meta-tag and descriptions, site maps and resource section to all the web pages. A website is designed to navigate and be search engine friendly.

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On Page Optimization Techniques:

• Title Optimization: This should be the first tag in the Head section of the page. There is evidence that search engines give more weight to factors higher up the page.
• Meta Tag Optimization: Both Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search will use the text they find on the page as a description so make sure your first header and sentence describe the contents.
• Content Optimization: The content should be properly structured with the use of Heading (H1, H2, H3 etc) tags bold containing relevant keywords. Search-engines will only index a limited amount of text in HTML tags and using too many keywords will dilute the focus.
• Image Optimization: Some major search engine did not recognize images. Image alternate-text tags (ALT tags) are only indexed where the image is part of a hyperlink. However ALT tags are useful for non-graphical browsing and should be in use correctly.
• Keyword Density Optimization: Keyword density means the ratio of the number of occurrences of a particular keyword or phrase to the total number of words in a page. 3%-5% keyword density is fine for major search engines but more than 10 % keyword density treated as keyword stuffing or keyword spanning by the search engines.
• URL Rewritings: In dynamic website URL`s contain a lot of special character (E.g. @, #, $, % and more…) that is not recognize/supported by the search engine. In that case rewrite search engine friendly URL.
• Link Structure Modification: Create anchor text to related internal pages. Keep the number of links to fewer than 50, and probably less and don’t repeat identical outbound-links. Theme related pages should be at the same level in the site hierarchy and be linked through the site’s menu structure and site map.

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Off Page Optimization:
Off-page optimization techniques involve placing your website’s links on other websites. Few websites offer one way links while others ask for link exchange or three way links. Back links are generated using various off page optimization techniques such as search engine submission methods and link exchange methods. Search engine submission methods involve submitting blogs, articles and links to various websites. The other method involves exchanging links or sharing hyper-links with other websites having relevant information or services. Off page optimization methods are used to attain and retain top positions. It is noteworthy that on page optimization is useful only if off page optimization for websites can drive some traffic to your website. It is generally agreed that the links that point to a website are one of the most powerful way of climbing Search Engines results pages. For why off page optimization brings traffic meant for your website.

The best inbound links have three main qualities to them:

1. They are from higher ranked sites than your own
2. They are relevant to the topic you are writing about
3. They link to you using relevant keywords to your page

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Off Page Optimization Factors:

• Directory Submission
• Reciprocal Link Building
• One way Link Building
• Article Submission
• Press Release
• Bookmarking
• Blog Submission
• Participate in Forums
• Build a Blog