Search engine optimization is the process of improving your site to increase a search engine’s ability to understand the code structure, specific theme and overall importance of each page of your web site. Search engine programs, referred to as spiders, crawl from site to site collecting data that is used to evaluate how relevant your site is to terms that people type into the search engine. For example, if you go to Google and search for “chocolate flavored popcorn,” you will get back Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) that look similar to the image below. The site listed in the 1st position for “chocolate flavored popcorn” has been determined to be more relevant and/or better optimized for that phrase than the site in the 101st position.
Natural Listings
The left hand side, called natural, organic or “free” listings, are the search engine company’s ranked list of who knows more about a particular topic or key phrase. Search engines each develop their own mathematical formula, or algorithm, to determine these listings and how each site will rank. The idea of being a search engine optimizer is about trying to lift the reputation of a site in the algorithm and the resulting search engine result pages (SERPs).
Basics of Search Engine Optimization
How do you make all those different engines happy with just one site? In theory, all search engines are trying to deliver relevant results to their users, so their algorithms should all work the same way, right? In reality, every search engine company has developed their own opinions as to what factors make a site relevant. Currently, however, Google holds the title as the most popular search engine out there. In many ways, the other large engines tend to emulate Google’s standards.
In English, that means the requirements are pretty close to the same for each of the major search engines, though rankings will likely vary between them on even the most optimized of sites. There are a few components of good SEO that the major search engines all look kindly on: good, quality content; clean and well-formatted site structure; and the number of links you have from other quality sites on the Internet. In most cases, working on these three areas is enough to produce significant lift in the natural listings.
Content is King
That phrase has become a mantra for a lot of ethical search engine optimization professionals. While there are ways to get high rankings for a site temporarily without developing readable, high quality content, very rarely is there anything as effective in the long run. Having a site that visitors have a desire to read and come back to creates a natural tendency toward linking to your site, which then brings more visitors, who put more links, and round and round the cycle goes. Quality content also has the distinct benefit of including a lot of key terms and phrases that people might use to find a site like yours in a search engine, thus making your site more reputable in the eyes of the search engines.
Site Architecture and Code Structure
No two programmers will write code structure in exactly the same way. While this is not a bad thing, sometimes search engines have a hard time following along. By ensuring the presence of a few key elements behind the scenes, search engines can be helped to understand the uniqueness and value of your site. By including unique page titles and meta information, properly using head tags, and employing a healthy internal linking strategy, you can help the search engines understand what you consider to be important, give them marketing text to help get people to your site, and increase your position in the SERPs.
Inbound Links
Every link to your site is scrutinized by search engines. Good links from quality sites in your industry will help you, while too many links from unrelated sites or sites that sell links can actually hurt your chances of ranking well. At Stay Above the Fold, we like to see links built naturally, through quality content and eye-catching articles.
Holistic Optimization
Search engine optimization involves so many different aspects of a web site, that often the easiest way to ensure long-term rankings is to do some training with everyone involved in creating content, developing code, or maintaining products. Adding SEO principles to the mindsets of your marketing team, for instance, will allow them write more effective copy for advertisements by knowing which words customers use to describe your products. Merchandising managers can learn to mine keyword data looking for products that customers are looking for that you may not offer.
In the end, search engine optimization is what you want it to be. At Stay Above the Fold, we believe search engine optimization should be about improving your web site, and your company, by focusing on the needs of your customers. If you have clean code, use easy-to-read content with some keywords thrown in, and generally focus your site around answering the needs of the visitors you receive…9 times out of 10, rankings will follow.