Keys to a Search Optimized WebsitePublished by
Claire Wilson on 3/18/2011
CASTING OUT TO SEO
Your website is finally finished! You think, "This will do the trick! It’s time to sit back and watch the traffic (and profits) roll in!” Well ... not quite yet. Just having a website to promote your company isn’t going to help you rake in the profits or land you a spot in the coveted Google "top seven search” results. Search engines are evolving everyday to provide you the best and most relevant search results; keeping up with the ever changing search process would benefit you!
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complicated process but not difficult to master. This article will give you an idea of the importance of optimizing your site to increase your chances of appearing on higher ranking search results. That’s a good thing!
So let’s get started! First thing to do is to learn about search engines and how they work. Search engines operate by ranking sites according to their relevance to your search inquiry and presenting them in order of their relevance rank. For example: if you type in "camping gear,” you’d expect to get results like sporting goods stores like REI and Sports Authority. You wouldn’t expect to get links to a blog pertaining to someone who just bought their kids a play tent, right? The blog is way less relevant than links to sporting goods stores! Because the blog is less relevant, it’s link wouldn’t appear in the first few page of results.
Relevance isn’t just awarded to sites with bang-up content; it includes but is not limited to the following:
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Meta tags
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Links (within the site and to outside sources)
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Keywords
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Types of content and the amount
Landing a spot in the top most relevant results is a lot like fishing. The high ranking spots are the big juicy sport fish and there are thousands of "fishermen” (websites) vying for those spots. Each dangle different lures, some elaborate; some simple. However, the fishermen armed with a healthy understanding of the task at hand are more likely to take home the prize catch – the highest ranking spots.
Optimizing your website is not just a one stop shop, where you finish optimizing, leave it and cross your fingers. It takes patience, dedication and routine maintanence to keep up with the ever evolving search process. A smart fisherman doesn’t stay in the same spot nor does he use the same type of bait; he wouldn’t be very successful if he did! Knowing what makes a search engine tick is a very strong foundation to build an online empire upon!