Saturday, January 20, 2007

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Many of you have asked me about Search Engine Optimization repeatedly, so I will give you a brief explanation here.

SEO is the process of choosing and testing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site theme to ensure your site ranks highly in search engines. When someone searches for specific words or phrases linked to your site's niche theme, hopefully the search engine will show your site in the top ten listings.


Optimization basically involves fine tuning the overall structure and content of your site including the HTML and also involves a link building process. As you probably already know, the most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. Search engines keep their ranking algorithms top secret to help them find the most valuable, context centered search-results and to deter spam pages from hampering those results. A search engine uses hundreds of factors for ranking the listings and the factors themselves along with the weight each factor carries changes continually.

Algorithms can differ so widely that a web page, which ranks #1 in one search engine could rank #300 in another. You don't have to "submit" a new site to the search engines in order to get listed. A simple link from an already established site will cause search engine "spiders" to visit your new site and begin to index its contents. It can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks after referral from a link to an established site for all the main search engine spiders to start visiting and indexing the new site.

If you think you are unable to research and choose good keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to outsource the work to someone who specializes in such projects.

Search engine marketing and promotion companies (Search Engine Optimizers or SEO's) will analyze the theme for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and traffic. If you want, they can also provide ongoing services to optimize and monitor your website and recommend editorial improvements to keep site traffic flowing in and your search engine ranking high. Normally search engine optimization experts work with a web designer to build an integrated system so all aspects of design and content are considered at the same time. In coming posts I will talk more about how you can optimize your own sites for the best rankings possible. Learn how I quickly quadrupled my Adsense earnings with this simple keyword tool!

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