What is Search Engine optimization

Search Engine Optimization

As we know Search Engine Optimisation is a major part of digital marketing as well as a major component in business success. Search Engine Optimization abbreviated as (SEO). It is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines like google.com, yahoo.com, Bing.com. Search Engine Optimisation is web advertising or web promoting that employs strategies to enhance the volume of visitor traffic to a site. More visitors will come to think about the page by bringing the website page over the search results. The effectiveness of Search Engine Optimisation is measured by the position of a website on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) when searching for a certain keyword. The following blog explains you in detail about what is Search Engine Optimisation and the factors affecting it.

SERP-Inevitable part of Search Engine Optimisation SEO

Users search information using keywords(often using specific terms and phrases known as keywords) in google, bing etc. The search engine presents that piece of information with a search engine result page.

SERP's typically contain two types of content :

1. Organic results

2. Paid results

Organic results — These are results that originated from natural placement in the search engine hierarchy. If you have good content on a helpful page with links pointing to it, that page may appear high in the search results for people seeking on a relevant term or phrase.

Paid search results — As the phrase implies these are purchased ads. You purchase text advertisements that appear at the best or upper right section of the page. They are generally known as "pay per click ads" because most of the time the advertiser pays only when someone clicks on the advertisements. In Google, these are called Ad Words. In Microsoft’s Bing, they are called Bing Ads.

Search Engines

A search engine is a software system that is intended to search for data on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results generally known as search engine results pages (SERPs). The data might be a mix of site pages, pictures, and different type of documents. Some web indexes additionally mine information accessible in databases or open catalogs. Unlike web directories, which are kept up just by human editors. Search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler. Commonly using major search engines now usually using are Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler.

How do search engines work?

Typically, Web search engines work by sending out a spider or crawler to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program called an indexer then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.

Major functions of search engines:

• Crawling

The crawler, or web spider, is a vital software component of the search engine. It essentially sorts through the Internet to find the contents of a website for storage in the search engine database. Crawling can scan brand new information on the Internet or it can locate older data. Crawlers have the ability to search a wide range of websites and collect large amounts of information simultaneously. This allows the search engine to find current content on an hourly basis. The web spider crawls until it cannot find any more information within a site, such as further hyperlinks to internal or external pages.

• Indexing

Once the search engine has crawled the contents of the Internet, it indexes that content based on the occurrence of keyword phrases in each individual website. This allows a particular search query and subjects to higher easily.

• Storage

Storing web content within the database of the search engine is essential for fast and easy searching. The amount of content available to the user is dependent on the amount of storage space available. Larger search engines like Google and Yahoo are able to store amounts of data ranging in the terabytes. They offering a larger source of information available for the use

• Results

Results are the hyperlinks to websites that show up in the search engine page when a certain keyword is queried. When you type a keyword, the crawler runs through the index and matches what you typed with other keywords. Search engine designers creates algorithm, for the arrival of the most relevant data first. Each search engine has its own set of algorithms and therefore returns different results.

Keywords

Search Engine Optimisation keywords are nothing more than what a person types into a search engine. When choosing the Keywords to optimize for, you need to consider not only the expected monthly number of searches but also the relevance of these keywords to your website.

Types of keywords:

There are two different types of keywords: broad keywords and long-tail keywords. Broad keywords are short words or phrases. While they may apply to your own industry and company, they might also apply to every company in your industry or even to those in other industries. Long-tail keywords tend to be longer words or phrases that are more specific to your company or industry.

Where do we get all of this knowledge about keyword demand and keyword referrals? From research sources like these listed here:

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Google Insights for Search
• Keyword Planner
• Google Trends etc

On-Page Optimization

The area of search engine optimization that applies to the structure and content of the site. Getting a higher positioning in a web crawler hasn't been the simplest thing for many. Search engines are getting increasingly more brilliant and smarter each day. So now it takes something beyond great content to compete for your rivals.

On-page optimization is one of the initial steps of Search Engine Optimisation which each website admin should investigate. It usually won't take you an hour to learn and execute these on-page improvement procedures. Now there is a probability to ask a question, why it is so vital? Well truly, If you could possible to do your on-page optimization for your site effectively, that is good. Then you can rank well in search engine and increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors. The most significant on-page optimization techniques are here for you. You can execute it for your sites better growth to the search engines. Moreover for increasing your general CTR (Click-Through-Rate) proportion too.

• Title Optimization: A site’s title tag is by far the most important website optimization element. A title tag should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify you and your business. The title tag is the first thing that is shown & indexed by the search engines. Naturally,  it's importance is very high. Out of thousands of results that a searcher sees, your site’s title has to be appealing enough for him to want to find out more information. On the other hand, your title has to be appealing enough to the search engine in order to rank you above thousands of other similar websites like yours.

*Important things to include in your title: Your Name/ Business Name / Site Name. This is very important for breading propose. If your customers may search by your brand name then it’s also useful to put it somewhere in your title.

*Keywords: If you want to rank for a certain keyword it is always good to place some of them in your title tag. A Title tag represents the whole flavor & content of your website. So if you are selling pizza online you can include keywords like – order pizza, home delivery pizza etc in your title tag. Don’t use too many keywords in your title. Write a title which is readable to humans & also good for the search engine. (e.g. Domino’s Pizza, Order Pizza Online for Delivery – Dominos.com)

• Meta Tags Optimization: A site’s Meta tags may not be as important as it used to be before, however, I feel that Meta Description is something you can’t just ignore. A site’s Meta description should contain a brief description of your website focusing on the areas and services that your business is specialized in. This small piece of text can be considered as a selling snippet if a searcher finds it appealing he is likely to click and go inside your page to find out more information.

Important things to include in your Meta Description: Include your Selling Point– Tell your customers what they want to hear through your site’s Meta Description, and you will definitely get some advantage over others in the SERP. For instance – if you sell ‘cheap web hosting’ then including a phrase like “hosting starting from only $0.99” may result in more clicks and visitors because your description will exactly match the flavor of a search performed by the user.

*Keywords – Including some of your keywords will give you some advantage in Google’s relevancy algorithm.

• Important HTML Tags
• Keyword Optimization & Synonyms: Your site’s content needs to be optimized in such a way that it can suit both search engines & your readers. Stuffing your site with too many keywords can make your site unreadable. So you will need to have some sort of balance between your keywords & your content.

Important elements of Keyword Optimization:

*Research: Do proper research before you decide on your keywords. There are plenty of free tools out there that can help you to do keyword research. Some of my personal favorites are Search Engine Optimisation book Keyword Suggestion tool, Google Ad words Keyword Tool & Overture Keyword Tool.

*Keyword Density: Try to have a moderate keyword density so that it can help the search engine to determine that your page is indeed related & relevant to the keyword that you are targeting.

*Synonyms & Related Keywords: I personally like to use synonyms instead of having a high keyword density. This helps to make my content sound natural but still helps in Search Engine Optimisation.

*Long Tail Keywords: It’s often good to target some long tail keywords as they are comparatively easier to rank for. During your keyword research, you should be able to gather some good long tail keywords that you can optimize your site for. But you can also come up with your own long tail keywords; for example, try adding some common words like – ‘best’, ‘free’, ‘cheap’, ‘top’ etc. along with your actual keyword and you might eventually get some good long tail keywords.

• Link Optimization: Internal links are links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. It is important to optimize your internal & external outbound links for search engines as well as to give your visitors better navigation.

Important elements of Link Optimization: Try using good Anchor Text when you are linking to other people. Include the appropriate keyword in the anchor text which gives the outbound link a ‘proper meaning ’ and value.

• Image Optimization: Image optimization is significant to search engine optimization. The image optimization process involves:

1. Image selection
2. Size determination
3. Compression
4. Defining length and width of the image
5. Alt-tag (alternate text) generation

Off-Page Optimization

The activities you can perform outside the limits of your website is generally known as Off-page optimization. Social media promotion plays a major roll in Off-page optimization. The factors should be carefully considered and executed to accomplish a higher web search engine ranking. These components are fundamentally attached to the site's linking (inbound and outbound) methods. This is usually known as link popularity.

• Rich Media Submissions: Rich media is an Internet advertising term for a Web page advertisement that utilizes advanced technology, for example, streaming video, downloaded applets (programs) that interact instantly with the user, and ads that change when the user's mouse passes over it.
• Link Building: Linking is one of the most significant components of increasing traffic to your site. Here are the simple methods to get links to your site:
• Submit to Quality Directories: Pick quality directories, Like Yahoo, DMOZ and the Open Directory Project (ODP), and submit listings to them. There are others that are good too. Ask for Links from other Sites (Link Exchange): Make a list of sites that you would like to links from. Keep them highly relevant to your business. Contact them and show them why linking to your site would be beneficial to their visitors.
• Article Submission: Article Submission is one of the best ways to get links from various directories and also it helps us to move traffic from directories to our website. First of all, before submission, we must check the Page rank of the Directories and choose the directories likes Ezine Articles, Article Base, Article Alley etc.
• Social bookmarking: It is a method for web users to store, organize, search, and handle bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of tags or keywords on sites such as Digg or Del.icio.us. These bookmarks can either be public or private. If public, your favorite bookmarks visible for others to view and follow as well, hence the social networking aspect. Social bookmarking has become a popular tool in building a web presence and promoting a business on the Internet. Moreover, if you place your links wisely and know which social bookmarking sites offer do follow links, this strategy will also help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
• Classified sites: Online Classified advertising is an effective means for business owners to market their product or service based websites on the World Wide Web. Classified submission increases the traffic level to your website.
• Blog Submission: Start a Blog: Blogs are an effective way to recruit links. Also, make sure you learn how to use tags, and link to pages.
• RSS Feed/Atom creation: If you have a blog, or publish article regularly, you can syndicate the articles or synopses of the articles (better) using an RSS feed. This helps increase your exposure. Also, you can submit to 20 or so RSS feed directories, each of which is good for a link.
• Blog Comment Posting: Blog commenting is one of the search marketing strategies that help websites improve online visibility and link popularity. Blog commenting involves the process of posting comments in the blogs as a response to a post.
• Image submission: Image submission is part of Social media optimization and its importance in perspective of Search engine optimization but there are some important things to keep in mind while submitting the images in directories which I am describing over here.
• Video Promotion: Online video promotion is one of the best way to showcase your services in a video format. There are a huge number of videos available on the web, however some are optimized to promote videos with a characterized technique to build traffic from search engines. We create profiles in video sharing websites and manage your profiles, updating them with the latest, viral/information videos relevant to your industry/brand/product. Apart from creating a profile, we upload your videos using keyword rich descriptions and tags to gain good positions on a search made within video sharing websites.
• Document submission: Document submission is generally acceptable at some exclusive websites such as Google Docs, Scribd, Docstoc, and SlideShare. All these sites boast a huge community of readers to deliver maximum possible advancements to the uploaded documents. Document submission service has gained prominence nowadays and got into the growing repertoire of Internet promotion techniques adopted by Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals.
• Forum Posting: Forum Posting is the most popular way to bring traffic to your website by providing quality links. It is a service in which the provider employs posters to post in your forums along with your website.
• Q&A Participation: Q&A sites such as Quora, LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo! Answers and Answerbag can be extremely useful for online marketing efforts. Even though it may excite you to hear this, the atmosphere at the top Q&A sites such as LinkedIn Answers and Quora is highly professional. Participating in Q&A sites is a good way to increase variety in your backlinking profile. As you may already know, variety in link building is one of the keys to staying powerful in an SEO world monitored by Pandas and Penguins.
• Banner Creation and promotion: Banner ad is a divine wellspring of driving traffic to your site. Don't forget that online banner advertising is only one approach to creating traffic and visitors. On-line ads promote your business promptly and boost your website traffic. Following is a quick list of some of the best internet advertising techniques.
• Local citation listing: A citation is a mention of your business name with another business information, such as your firm name, phone number, address, website, or a combination of the three. Submitting your business to the sites on this page is likely to improve your rankings.