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SEO - Search Engine Optimization
Search engines primarily want to give the most relevant findings to the person doing the search. They also want to avoid duplicated results. So searching for someone to cut your hair in Green Bay will typically not bring up a hair stylist in the San Francisco bay area. The key then is to determine what techniques should be used. A simple way to understand the process is that the search engines send out critters known as spiders to run about the web. They spend nanoseconds checking out a website and bringing the information back to the search engine which then determines its relevance. Once you consider what the spider sees and what the search engine goals are, then you have a better idea how to make your site more searchable.
Website developers also know that there are white hat and black hat optimization techniques. This is not a racial thing, but similar to the old west when hats helped the viewer to determine who was the good guy and who was not. Because of the value of being high in the rankings, some will try to bend rules to get there. You may have seen some in the past.
Black hat SEO can include items like keyword stuffing. Stuffing keywords is when many keywords are used repeatedly on purpose to slant the sites results. It could even be invisible text. This is where the text is the same color of the background making it invisible to the reader, but not to the spider that the search engine sent out to check on the site. Buying links or using link farms to artificially create incoming link are another tactic. There are more, but you get the idea.
Search engines have evolved to the point that they can figure out many of these banned techniques and your site could be penalized or even banned! In an ideal world the best site will come up first each time. Since everyone is gunning for that number one spot, it becomes competitive. The key then is how to get your website in the best shape possible to compete.
The earlier and more prominent your website appears in a search engine, the more likely someone is to click on it. Just consider your habits when searching the website and it all makes a bit more sense.
Google, Yahoo and other primary search engines do not readily disclose what the formulas are that determine actual ranking. When a ranking method is determined many website owners work to take advantage of it since increased exposure will lead to increase sales. Therefore, the formula is always being secretly changed.
Good solid content cannot be stressed enough. There are some techniques that you can use such as adding phrases with latent keywords. If your site is about a dog obedience school, you may consider words such as: Dog, pup, puppies, mongrel, collie, spaniel, obedience, discipline, training and so on. These are all keywords that relate that are still unique.
You can tell the search engine what your site is about by using things called META tags. These go in titles, keywords and descriptions. Have you ever saved a website and found that the page name is called 'home?' A huge loss could have been saved right there. If a search engine asks what you want to be known for, why would you not want to tell them.
Sitemaps are a must. Your visitor will not see them when visiting your website, but they are like candy to the spiders. When a spider gets to your site, sitemaps are the first thing they are looking for. Site maps make their job faster and more efficient. Text links in footers was another item that used to help spiders as well as visible sitemaps with text links.
Attaching an alternate text message to an image creates more definitions and is an accepted way to add keywords. They are also helpful when a person is using a device that replaces images with text. They are important because the spiders crawling your website can read text, but not interpret images. It just knows that an image is there. By adding an alternate text message, the spider now can report back the image it found.
There is also SEO done offsite that can greatly help to improve your rankings. They include submission to search engines, directory listings, map listings, industry listings, press releases, article submissions and more. But that is a whole new lesson and Packerland Websites would be happy to share those with you and develop some strategies.
A great example was once given at a conference. If you built a website which sold left handed scissors for lesbians, it would probably have more unique and focused content than any other site out there. The challenge becomes to be less narrow and rank high with a broader set of search words. Often times you can check your competitors site and see how focused it is when it outranks yours.