Basics of Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a method of improving ranking in search engine results, is a process that improves the density or quality of traffic to an internet website from various search engines through organic or algorithmic search results. Generally, when a website appears earlier in the search results list it attracts more and more visitors from the search engine. For example, when a user searches for sports news on a search engine, he is most likely to access the first site appearing on the result list, a human tendency to access what you see first.
SEO is fairly a contentious issue and virtually the one that most internet marketers would have an opinion on. It is a marketing technique to popularize your website and who would not want his/her website to be popular, because it is only popularity that attracts business and eventually more money.
SEO may target various kinds of search which include image specific, industry-specific and local search engines. This provides web presence to a web site. The more specific a search, the more specific its results. Content is what search engines look for. Originality and freshness of the content is the key to stand up with the big ones. Basically search engines are indexers of material content. The search engines might not judge the quality of content available but the users surely will.
As part of a web based marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines operate and what people actually search for. To avail a better SEO ranking web site owners may ply with effective strategies. Following are a few of those:
Long Tail Keywords – Long keywords are more targeted than the shorter ones. For example “camera mobile phones” is preferred over “mobile phones”
Easy Navigation – An easy to browse and user-friendly web site is always more preferred by an internet user than a complex one. Thus easy navigation provides more hits.
Relevant and Appropriate Content – Content focused on specific detail is often preferred by the search engine. Plus it is something often taken for-granted and which is always advisable to have relevant and appropriate content in the articles.
Key-word Rich Title – The most important part of an article is its title, something which shall never be ignored. It is the first impression of the article and the most appealing part of it. It should thus be impressive.
SEO may also be categorised as White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO. White Hat SEO are those that tend to produce better results that last longer and are usually in conformity with the search engines’ guidelines usually free from any deception whereas Black Hat SEO are those which operate in a disapproved way and operate in anticipation of getting banned on discovery of their methodology of operation. Black Hats are also liable to get penalised by search engines by way to reduction in rankings or permanent elimination. Such penalties may apply automatically or after a manual review.