SEO? What Does It All Mean?
Search Engine Optimization, commonly known as SEO, is a series of tactics and methods used to make a website as search engine friendly as possible, while also ensuring prime placement for a targeted set of keywords pertaining to the site’s goals. Back in the day this was as simple as creating basic Meta tags on each page telling the viewing search engine crawler what sort of topics the web page covers, and an associated description to be used when displaying that website in search engine results. Because of the generic “honor code” type nature, web sites were able to “keyword spam”, or “keyword spoof”, and use keywords that did not actually apply to the content in order to appear in search results for a very broad spectrum of topics.
Since those days of “naïve crawling”, search engines have updated their processes to use methods which calculate the credibility of a web site comparing several different factors. This new method has been aptly named “organic crawling”. Web sites are still encouraged to use Meta tags because there are still several search engines who have not evolved their methods as quickly as some of the larger engines such as Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT). However, most search engines now compare the information found in the Meta tags against the actual content found on the page. They then compute a relevancy score wherein a percentage is generated based on how much of the content in the Meta content is replicated on the website, and not only that, but where in the page content the Meta information appears, and the associated colors used to display this content. This prevents websites from placing the Meta content into the page content at the bottom of the page in the same color as the background of the page thus making the text invisible to the naked eye, and again “keyword spamming”.
Hang on, it doesn’t stop there. Search engines also look at several other factors and compute the overall score utilizing a highly advanced algorithm. But what are these other factors? Several search engines will analyze the number of websites that link to the web site and factor in their credibility score as well. They will also take into account the amount of traffic on your site, and the effective density of your keywords on your site. The number of hyperlinks on your site can also have a huge effect. If you site has an inordinate number of outgoing links (pointing to other websites) and very few inbound links (links to your own pages) then the impression of your website will most likely be that of a landing page with no real purpose other than to direct users elsewhere. This effectively can lower your quality score since your website will appear to have no added-value to the general public.
So how do you fix all of this while balancing all of the different factors? Well, the best thing you can do is make sure your website fits the purpose for which it was created. What does that mean? If you started a website with the intention of reporting the lowest prices on computer equipment from various different sources, do not mix the content with other information such as the family beach vacation, or the pros and cons of weather stripping your house. Though mixing content can expand the reach of your website, it tends to confuse the purpose of your website with search engines and can also confuse your visitors if they stumble upon one of your articles and then are surrounded by computer equipment prices. Consistency, reliability, and credibility should always be of utmost concern. Of course, there are always times when mixing web content just happens to fit the goal and vision of the web site itself. In this case, just make sure everything flows. Search engines are not the only entities you need to worry about on your site. Effectively it is a balancing act trying not to alienate your human users and your search engine crawlers.
Here are some resources and reading to help get you started:
If you have any questions, or just don’t really know where to start, you are always more than welcome to contact me. I always love to hear from my readers and am here to help.