Search Engine Optimization is a key to any successful internet marketing strategy. There are numerous definitions and interpretations as to exactly what Search Engine Optimization means. It is the process in which the careful and strategic placing, analysis, and wording of keywords of text on a particular website to enable optimum search engine rankings, this definition comes from www.pixelphoria.com/glossary.php. There are several ways in which this process can benefit internet marketing strategies.
When creating or updating a commercial website, the reason is typically to make the products more attractive to viewers, while at the same time creating the ability to gain more exposure with a broader audience. While most websites have a target audience, it is this ability to gain a larger, broader audience that they are all searching to gain. The Search Engine Optimization process allows for the creation of a higher page ranking when a potential viewer is using a search engine to find specific websites based upon the searchable keywords they will enter. This process identifies those keywords that will benefit a particular website and uses them in such a way that it gets a higher page ranking when those keywords are searched. For example, if "internet marketing" was searched for in Google, the more times the phrase "internet marketing" is included within the website, potentially the closer to the top the page will be displayed.
In this time of maximum Internet usage, many searchers only use first page displayed websites on their searches because this is where the pages with those higher page rankings are displayed, which translates into these pages find the highest relevance to their keyword searches. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that these websites are the only ones out there that will have the relevant search information, it just means that these websites have better marketed themselves to be located when specified keywords are searched, which is the exact benefit of Search Engine Optimization. This makes it even more critical that each website understand the importance of and the knowledge necessary to adapt their websites to benefit from Search Engine Optimization.
As should be understood by this point, it is imperative that an understanding of and taking advantage of Search Engine Optimization will provide the website a higher profile in the world of search engines. By taking advantage of optimization techniques, more searchers will gain faster access to the particular website. If the website has something worthwhile to offer in the world of ecommerce, then Search Engine Optimization is a strategy that should be employed immediately.
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© John Doetsch 2005. Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is published in its entiretyFree Articles, including links and resource box.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Doetsch is SEO specialist at Websition.com where you will find additional articles and free web content written by the Internet's most gifted authors. Visit his web site at http://www.websition.com/
Monday, May 14, 2007
Black & White - The Philosophies of SEO
Search engine optimization otherwise known as SEO is a popular form of search engine marketing. The main goal of which (as its name would suggest) is to improve the ranking of the site in various search engines. An entire industry of consultants has sprung up around the idea of search engine optimization. It’s important to note that when it comes to SEO there are two distinct methodologies at work when it comes to optimization.
In fact, the SEO consultants themselves as well as their methods can be subdivided further into two different groups. The categories are best known as "white hat SEO" (which is aimed at improving overall site quality, and increasing the site’s ranking through approved methods), or "black hat SEO" (often use methods such as cloaking and spamdexing to increase rankings. However, using such methods can lead to your site to being removed from search engine listings). Those in the white hat camp charge that black hat methods are not only giving SEO a bad name but are also attempting to manipulate and undermine the search rankings. The black hatters counter that argument by saying that in truth all SEO is an attempt to manipulate rankings, and therefore the particular methods one uses to increase rankings are irrelevant. In other words they take the more Machiavellian approach of using the end results to justify the means they use. So what more specifically are the methods being employed by the two camps?White hat methods:
These methods typically involve following the search engines' published guidelines as to what is and what isn't acceptable. The advice typically given by the white hat SEO experts is to create more user-friendly content, and not focus so much on the search engines. That is if your site is well put together and presents something users need it will naturally climb in the rankings. Also by making content that is easily accessible to the search engines spiders it will be properly read and therefore properly indexed in the search engines. The white hatters are needed most often because a webmaster has made critical mistakes in either the design or the set-up of their websites, inadvertently "poisoning" them so that they will not rank well. The SEOs then attempt to discover and correct these mistakes, which may include unreadable menus, broken links, temporary redirects, or simply a poor navigation structure.
Here are a few examples of SEO activities which the search engines find acceptable:
• Using a reasonably-sized, accurate description meta tag without excessive use of keywords, exclamation marks or off topic terms
• Optimizing tags, titles and other parts of the code as necessary
• Using WordTracker or a similar database to find popular and relevant keywords and phrases to use for your site
• Monitoring the various search engines to ensure that your URL gets indexed
• Increasing the amount of unique content on the site
• Writing quality content for the website visitors instead of the search engines
Black hat methods:
Whereas the white hat methods follow search engine guidelines "Black hat" SEO methods to try to improve rankings by any means necessary. Most of these methods are disapproved of by the search engines, typically because of their deceptive nature, but also hamper the ability of the search engines to provide quality content to site visitors. Search engines often penalize the sites they discover using black hat methods, by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from the search engine results altogether. These penalties are usually applied automatically by the search engines' algorithms, because the Internet is too large to make manual policing of websites feasible. However once they are discovered, search engines may take action against those found to be using unethical SEO methods. Take for example Google’s removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany in February 2006 for use of these practices.
One common black hat method is known as Spamdexing. Spamdexing is the promotion of irrelevant, chiefly commercial, pages through various deceptive techniques and the abuse of the search algorithms. Unfortunately it often gets confused with white hat search engine optimization techniques, which do not involve deceit. Spamming involves getting websites more exposure than they deserve for their keywords, leading to unsatisfactory search results. Optimization involves getting websites the rank they deserve on the most targeted keywords, leading to satisfactory search experiences.
One example of spamdexing is link farming. Link farming can be basically defined as any group of web pages that all link to every other page in the group. Another common practice is listing popular keywords in fine print or in the same color as the background so they can’t be seen by users. These were only a few examples but there are many other deceptive practices that may be employed by black hat SEOs. So how can you tell the difference between Black and White SEO practices? A very easy way to distinguish between the two is though the amount of time involved in getting the desired results. White hat SEOs use methods that produce results slowly over time and only after a good deal of effort has been put into the site. Black hat SEOs offer you quick and easy results most, if not allPsychology Articles, of which will obtained through deceptive practices.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Kothe is the talented marketing coordinator at Internet Traffic Solutions (http://www.itsontarget.com) which is a full service marketing agency that offers clients a profitable way to get the attention of their target audience online.
In fact, the SEO consultants themselves as well as their methods can be subdivided further into two different groups. The categories are best known as "white hat SEO" (which is aimed at improving overall site quality, and increasing the site’s ranking through approved methods), or "black hat SEO" (often use methods such as cloaking and spamdexing to increase rankings. However, using such methods can lead to your site to being removed from search engine listings). Those in the white hat camp charge that black hat methods are not only giving SEO a bad name but are also attempting to manipulate and undermine the search rankings. The black hatters counter that argument by saying that in truth all SEO is an attempt to manipulate rankings, and therefore the particular methods one uses to increase rankings are irrelevant. In other words they take the more Machiavellian approach of using the end results to justify the means they use. So what more specifically are the methods being employed by the two camps?White hat methods:
These methods typically involve following the search engines' published guidelines as to what is and what isn't acceptable. The advice typically given by the white hat SEO experts is to create more user-friendly content, and not focus so much on the search engines. That is if your site is well put together and presents something users need it will naturally climb in the rankings. Also by making content that is easily accessible to the search engines spiders it will be properly read and therefore properly indexed in the search engines. The white hatters are needed most often because a webmaster has made critical mistakes in either the design or the set-up of their websites, inadvertently "poisoning" them so that they will not rank well. The SEOs then attempt to discover and correct these mistakes, which may include unreadable menus, broken links, temporary redirects, or simply a poor navigation structure.
Here are a few examples of SEO activities which the search engines find acceptable:
• Using a reasonably-sized, accurate description meta tag without excessive use of keywords, exclamation marks or off topic terms
• Optimizing tags, titles and other parts of the code as necessary
• Using WordTracker or a similar database to find popular and relevant keywords and phrases to use for your site
• Monitoring the various search engines to ensure that your URL gets indexed
• Increasing the amount of unique content on the site
• Writing quality content for the website visitors instead of the search engines
Black hat methods:
Whereas the white hat methods follow search engine guidelines "Black hat" SEO methods to try to improve rankings by any means necessary. Most of these methods are disapproved of by the search engines, typically because of their deceptive nature, but also hamper the ability of the search engines to provide quality content to site visitors. Search engines often penalize the sites they discover using black hat methods, by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from the search engine results altogether. These penalties are usually applied automatically by the search engines' algorithms, because the Internet is too large to make manual policing of websites feasible. However once they are discovered, search engines may take action against those found to be using unethical SEO methods. Take for example Google’s removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany in February 2006 for use of these practices.
One common black hat method is known as Spamdexing. Spamdexing is the promotion of irrelevant, chiefly commercial, pages through various deceptive techniques and the abuse of the search algorithms. Unfortunately it often gets confused with white hat search engine optimization techniques, which do not involve deceit. Spamming involves getting websites more exposure than they deserve for their keywords, leading to unsatisfactory search results. Optimization involves getting websites the rank they deserve on the most targeted keywords, leading to satisfactory search experiences.
One example of spamdexing is link farming. Link farming can be basically defined as any group of web pages that all link to every other page in the group. Another common practice is listing popular keywords in fine print or in the same color as the background so they can’t be seen by users. These were only a few examples but there are many other deceptive practices that may be employed by black hat SEOs. So how can you tell the difference between Black and White SEO practices? A very easy way to distinguish between the two is though the amount of time involved in getting the desired results. White hat SEOs use methods that produce results slowly over time and only after a good deal of effort has been put into the site. Black hat SEOs offer you quick and easy results most, if not allPsychology Articles, of which will obtained through deceptive practices.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Kothe is the talented marketing coordinator at Internet Traffic Solutions (http://www.itsontarget.com) which is a full service marketing agency that offers clients a profitable way to get the attention of their target audience online.
How To Optimize Your Website For Google
Expert Google search engine optimization have increased exponentially, because of the proven search engine optimization and search engine positioning techniques.
A group of Google employees have recently filed a patent application (#20050071741) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office which gives insight into how to optimize one's website to do well in the Google rankings. The filing of the patent gives verification that Google uses or intends to use historical data in its ranking algorithm. This patent also gives credence to the Google Sandbox Theory for new websites.
Under the Google Sandbox Theory, new websites are placed in a sort of holding tank for observation for a period of time (6 - 9 months at present) until the website has proved that it's not a fly-by-night operation.
Once the Sandbox period is over, then new websites will climb rapidly in the rankings. The Google Sandbox Theory is an unofficial theory based on observation and anecdotal evidence from those within the search engine optimization industry.
Based on the new Google patent here are the top 5 suggestions to better optimization for Google:
1- Build links slowly to your website. Websites that put up a bunch links quickly send up a red flag that links are being added in order to boost rankings. According to Google, natural links happen slowly over time, so one's link-building strategy also needs to include link-building slowly over time.
2- The anchor text in the back links to a website also need to be natural as well. If a website has lots of great content of interest to visitors, other Webmasters will naturally link to the website. Content is still king when it comes to building natural links.
In fact, having great content is the best natural linking strategy.
3- If content is king, then fresh content is prince. Google thrives on websites that are constantly adding fresh content. Websites with stale content erode in value over time.
4- When adding fresh content, make sure it is substantial. According to the patent, Google measures substantial versus insubstantial content that is being added to a website.
Don't try to trick the search engines with lots of minor content updates.
5- Outbound links to trusted, authority sites help in the rankings. As a reputable online business, it makes good business sense to refer customers to other reputable businesses as well. Referring customers to disreputable websites only hurt a business's reputation and credibility and Google takes this into account when deciding how to rank websites.
There are more insights to be gained from the patent application, but these are the highlights that will help Webmasters and SEO's focusing on Google to achieve higher rankings. Many of these ideas have been stated before as theory and now the patent application verifies these theories.
Historical data has always been thought to play a significant role in the Google rankings. So now that it has been confirmedPsychology Articles, taking action seems to be the next logical step.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Biehn, SEO Consultant.Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services.comProfessional And Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services Trought Natural Search Engines Results.
A group of Google employees have recently filed a patent application (#20050071741) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office which gives insight into how to optimize one's website to do well in the Google rankings. The filing of the patent gives verification that Google uses or intends to use historical data in its ranking algorithm. This patent also gives credence to the Google Sandbox Theory for new websites.
Under the Google Sandbox Theory, new websites are placed in a sort of holding tank for observation for a period of time (6 - 9 months at present) until the website has proved that it's not a fly-by-night operation.
Once the Sandbox period is over, then new websites will climb rapidly in the rankings. The Google Sandbox Theory is an unofficial theory based on observation and anecdotal evidence from those within the search engine optimization industry.
Based on the new Google patent here are the top 5 suggestions to better optimization for Google:
1- Build links slowly to your website. Websites that put up a bunch links quickly send up a red flag that links are being added in order to boost rankings. According to Google, natural links happen slowly over time, so one's link-building strategy also needs to include link-building slowly over time.
2- The anchor text in the back links to a website also need to be natural as well. If a website has lots of great content of interest to visitors, other Webmasters will naturally link to the website. Content is still king when it comes to building natural links.
In fact, having great content is the best natural linking strategy.
3- If content is king, then fresh content is prince. Google thrives on websites that are constantly adding fresh content. Websites with stale content erode in value over time.
4- When adding fresh content, make sure it is substantial. According to the patent, Google measures substantial versus insubstantial content that is being added to a website.
Don't try to trick the search engines with lots of minor content updates.
5- Outbound links to trusted, authority sites help in the rankings. As a reputable online business, it makes good business sense to refer customers to other reputable businesses as well. Referring customers to disreputable websites only hurt a business's reputation and credibility and Google takes this into account when deciding how to rank websites.
There are more insights to be gained from the patent application, but these are the highlights that will help Webmasters and SEO's focusing on Google to achieve higher rankings. Many of these ideas have been stated before as theory and now the patent application verifies these theories.
Historical data has always been thought to play a significant role in the Google rankings. So now that it has been confirmedPsychology Articles, taking action seems to be the next logical step.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Biehn, SEO Consultant.Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services.comProfessional And Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services Trought Natural Search Engines Results.
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