Search Engine Optimization

We’ve all had the experience of looking for specific information on the Internet, typing what seems like a pretty clear phrase into the search bar, and getting a mixed list of useful and not-so-useful websites on the results page. Wading through irrelevant sites can be very annoying, especially when they seem so promising from the description. Chances are good that the more useful sites are near the top of the list. So put the shoe on the other foot: do you want to be a source of irritation in your potential customer’s search efforts, or the knight in shining armor at the top of the page? What you need, my friend, is a strong SEO campaign.

SEO is about making your site as “findable” as possible in the vast sea of websites on the World Wide Web, which means configuring them so search engines like Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Ask, Lycos and others can find your information easily and index that information in their directories. Sites near the top of a search engine results page (SERP) are said to have high page rank, and they tend to be more relevant. Numerous studies - from eye-tracking to click-through rates – have shown that websites in the top few positions of SERP’s get the greatest traffic. Those lower down the list get lonely, and many users don’t even bother with page 2 or beyond. Think of it in retail terms. You can have the most stunning, well-stocked showroom in town, but if nobody can find it, you won’t sell much.

Making your website search engine friendly requires a fairly specialized and ever-changing set of expertise. Search Engines have evolved into sophisticated and well-oiled machines. There’s some truth to the jokes about Google’s search algorithms being more closely guarded than government secrets. A good SEO campaign takes a lot of attention, time and maintenance. Many businesses hire companies that specialize in SEO to design and monitor their campaigns, sometimes with multi-year service plans. It’s not a bad option for companies heavily invested in their websites.

The trick is finding the right combination of factors to make sure your site gets high page rank for relevant searches. The key concept in web marketing, like any other type, is “target audience”. An optimized site allows search engines to pair your site with web users who are looking for what you have to offer.

HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
Search Engines deploy little bits of code OR programs, called “robots” or “spiders”, that “crawl” the Internet scanning and archiving information from as many websites as possible. Sometimes called “organic” SEO, the basic principle is to put various elements in place that allow Search Engines to find your information on their own. A good web designer will take them into consideration when developing your site.

TEXT & KEYWORDS
One of the top SEO tactics is having a healthy amount of clear, well-written text. Search Engines exist to help users find relevant sites. Their first line of information gathering is to scan text. The more informative, organized and useful your content is, the more legitimate it will be to both users and Search Engines. You don’t have to write a book, but you should have enough content to get your message across and incorporate your keywords, another important text-based SEO tactic. Keywords are short phrases that pinpoint what your site offers. Search engines use keywords to pair your site with the terms people type into their search bars. Keywords should appear at least once, if not more, within the body of your web text. Keywords can also be coded on the back-end of your site, which makes them even more apparent to search engines.

If your site is text heavy, it’s best to go with HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) or similar computer languages because it’s more accessible to the spiders. Other languages, such as Flash, are image based and require a little extra work to make text “viewable” to the Search Engines. It’s doable, just make sure you discuss it with your designer/developer so they understand that SEO is important to you. If you want to see whether or not the spiders can read your text, see if you can select it using your mouse. If you can, you’re good to go. If not, you may need to re-think how text is incorporated in your site.

LINKS
Links are a crucial yet often abused SEO technique. Search engines view links to or from other websites, and to some extent between pages of the same site, as a sort of “popularity vote”. But a link to your Uncle Bob’s fishing trip pictures will actually work against you unless the website you’re optimizing has something to do with Uncle Bob, fishing, or the lake in question. Likewise, descriptive anchor text (the underscored or highlighted “hot” words you click on to get to a definition, article, or other website) is usually preferable to highlighting a nonspecific phrase (like “click here”) or long web addresses.

In short, links must be relevant. A link to your site is better than a link from your site, and the more popular or higher ranking the source of the link, the better. But link building is like any other relationship. It takes time to build effective links and the process has its own etiquette. A good web design or SEO company should know how to make links work for, not against, your page ranking.

CODING
Coding issues can also affect SEO. All websites should have a title, short description, and a few keywords properly placed in the back-end coding. These are known as metatags. Search engines vary in how much weight they put on metatags, but it’s a good idea to have them in place. It’s also worth noting that each page of your site can have it’s own set, depending on how specific they are and how serious you are about optimizing your site.

FUNCTIONALITY
Functionality (how well your website does what its supposed to) plays a significant role in SEO. As a rule of thumb, anything annoying to a user will probably annoy the search engines. Large image files that take a long time to load, sites that don’t work across multiple browsers, broken links, choppy or poorly formatted text, incoherent or missing anchor text, videos or audio files that don’t work, websites that are not properly maintained or updated, and a host of other functionality issues can have a negative impact on page rank.

SUBMISSION
One of the most direct ways to make sure your site gets indexed in the directories is to submit it manually to the individual search engines. This is particularly useful for new, redesigned or updated sites. Essentially, you’re taking the site to them instead of waiting for them to find you. Before you create or overhaul your website, review the submission policies and other information available on the websites of the major search engines. They’ll tell you what they consider good and bad form.

If SEO is important to you, and it should be, make sure your web designer understands how it works. There are other ways to improve your page rank that are more active. Blogs, online publishing and pay-per-click campaigns can also be effective, provided you know what you’re doing. These are often labeled Search Engine Marketing, and will be addressed in future articles.

• Oct 10, 2008 
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