Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization is a broad definition for the various methods in which web sites can be created, designed, and maintained with the intention of being indexed and ranked within search engines and online directories.

2. Why should one go for Search Engine Optimization?

The primary objective of creating a web site lies in making the various products and services accessible to the customers online thereby building our own market.

In order to achieve this objective, it is not just sufficient creating a web site but to ensure that it is available and accessible to the customer with a click of a button thereby generating traffic and simultaneously developing the business.

Recent studies have shown that 60% of the business is generated from the web site being listed in the search engines where in the customer types in the relevant keywords and phrases that best describe his requirements and not from banner advertisements or other means.

In this context, it has become imperative for any site to get listed in the search engines. A lot of effort and money goes into making a good website. The additional investment on search engine optimization services is a must as your website will never get noticed if it does not rank in the first twenty results of any major search engine.

A good website is akin to a billboard in an obscure place. Search engine optimization services help you position the billboard in the most prominent place. With decreasing effectiveness of banners, search engine optimization is perhaps the only way a website can get popular on the Internet.

The following two factors need to be taken care of if one has to reap the benefits of search engines.

1. The primary need is to get listed or indexed by the search engines.

Simply getting listed in the search engine serves no purpose, unless your website is in the top positions in the search results.

2. Therefore, the second aspect is to achieve a high ranking in the search result.

Achieving top search engine rankings is not a one-day affair and is not as simple it seems to be.

Here is where our friend, search engine optimization comes to our rescue. Search engine optimization optimizes the pages in our web site so that they are listed and ranked high in the search result.

How high should be my ranking?

Obviously topping the charts always helps. However, it is not always possible to have top search engine rankings, especially if the domain you are operating is extremely competitive. Being in the top ten will boost your website traffic a great deal as surfers rarely view listing beyond the first two pages. Select a good company offering search engine optimization services to help you achieve this goal. Search engine optimization is not a complicated process, but is a very involved and effort intensive affair. For a small price, a good search engine optimization services company can ensure you top search engine rankings.

3. How to go about Search Engine Optimization?

Now that we are well aware of the need for Search Engine optimization, let us concentrate on the processes involved in formulating an effective search engine optimization strategy.

Search engine optimization is a vast subject in its entirety and there is no specific formula defined for optimizing a web site. SEO is specific for each web site and a multitude of factors determine in achieving the end result.

Search engine optimization services can be broadly divided into the following categories

• Identifying the right Keywords
• Formulating a Meta content strategy
• Designing a search engine friendly Layout
• Creating search engine friendly Content
• Taking care of Images and Links
• Ensuring Link popularity
• Formulating a Submission strategy

Identifying the right Keywords

This is the starting point of any search engine optimization strategy. To achieve top search engine rankings, you need a thorough understanding of the likely keywords a surfer may use to locate sites similar to yours. There are a lot of tools on the net, which help you identify, grade and evaluate keywords. Your entire search engine optimization strategy revolves around keywords, so ensure that you identify the right keywords.

To begin with, identify all your competitors and examine theirs sites carefully. Use popular search engines to search for your competitors. Record the keywords, which yield the most relevant results.

Identify your organization's USP. Are you in the business of delivering quality, speed, and efficiency or are you concentrating on price? Use these adjectives along with your keywords to arrive at key phrases.

Use tools found on the net to identify the popularity of your keywords and phrases.

You have crossed a major milestone once you have identified the relevant keywords for your site.

Creating Title and Meta content

Your URL tells the world what your site is all about. Choose your URL so that it reflects the nature of your business, ideally your URL should contain keywords you have identified. Do not despair if your domain name does not have the requisite keywords. Ninety five percent of the domains names are not made up of keywords. There are a number of sites with non-keyword based domain names that achieved top search engine rankings. Companies dealing in Search engine optimization services have found effective methods to over come this situation.

The next step towards achieving top search engine rankings is to have a relevant title. The title of a page simply describes the content of a page and is listed on the title bar located at the top. As most search engines consider the text of the title while indexing, it is recommended to include the important keywords in the title tag of the page.

Many popular search engines take into consideration the content of the Meta tags while indexing. A brief overview of the important Meta tags (description, keywords and robots meta tags) will help you prepare a better search engine optimizations strategy.

Firstly, let us discuss about the description tag. The content of the description Meta tag is visible in the search engine result when a visitor types in a keyword or key phrase and executes a search. The description tag should include the keywords and key phrases relevant to that page. The objectives of the description are to evoke the user's interest about your site, describe the page in question and ensure higher ranking in the search engine (more keywords and phrases). Consider all these factors while formulating the description.

Secondly, the Keywords Meta tag is used to encompass all the keywords and key phrases that best describe the page. Search engine spiders rank a page looking at two terms Keyword density (Number of keywords per page) and Keyword frequency (Number of times each keyword is repeated). List all the keywords and phrases in an alphabetical manner and in lower case.

Another tag, which is important, is the robots Meta tag, which includes a robots.txt file. The robots.txt file is a text file, which states whether a particular page can be indexed or not. Basically it acts a filter, notifying the spider, which pages to index. One can also inform the search engine spider to index specific type of files, by giving the file extensions.

Designing a search engine friendly Layout

Your website's layout can affect your search engine optimization strategy significantly. Having layouts, which have little scope for content and links, will seriously undermine your placement in search engines. Your layout should have a provision for multiple themes more so in your home page. This will give you the opportunity of increasing your keyword density without jarring the content. Formatting of content using header tags enhances your search engine placement. Make provisions for these elements while deciding on your layout.

Creating search engine friendly Content

The fundamental and the most significant element to achieve top search engine rankings is the Content of the web site. Content is the king any day. A site without relevant and search engine friendly content will not be able to make any head way in its rankings.

The content of a website should reflect the enterprise functions, products and services. A customer gets attracted to a site that best suits his needs and that is rich in content. Littering a page with unnecessary images and flash movies will not aid your search engine optimization strategy. Identify a few key phrases / keywords for each page and ensure that these keywords appear regularly in the content for that page. For example the key phrase for this page is 'top search engine rankings'. We have used the phrase 'Top search engine rankings' eleven times in this page.

Taking care of Images and Links

Image names, links, names of html pages and alt text have a significant bearing in search engine placement. A good way to achieve top search engine rankings is to name your images, links and html pages to accommodate your keywords. These elements may make up for your deficiency in content and will increase your keyword density.

Ensuring Link popularity

Link popularity is another significant aspect that many search engines consider while indexing. Link popularity is defined as the number of links from other relevant web sites pointing to the site. In other words it best describes how popular our web site is. The key to achieving top search engine rankings in sites like Google and Wisenut is link popularity. Include the primary keywords in the site name and title, as many sites use the title text as the link text. Always use good content in the site, so that other sites treat the content as a valuable resource and link to your site. It is also necessary to link to other relevant sites that share the same subject from our site. While doing so, include the keywords in the link text. Link popularity can be achieved only if your site is relevant and popular. There are no obvious short cuts to link popularity; only sites with good content and services will be able to increase link popularity.