Basics Of Search Engine Optimization

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Just to begin with Search Engine Optimization abbreviated as SEO, is a broad definition for the various methods through which a site is created, designed and maintained with the intentions of being ranked and indexed within the major search engines and online directories.

Before I dig deep into Search Engine Optimization its imperative for us to know what Search Engines are.

Search Engine:-

Search engine is a website or program that helps user find related information related to their query. Search engine maintains database of websites and use program (spiders) to collect information which are then indexed by the search engines. Without search engines, It’s basically impossible to locate anything on the Web without knowing a specific URL.
Some popular search engines are Goggle, Yahoo and MSN.Google is the most popular of the lot.

Search Engines And Directories:-

Search engine as it has been stated earlier is a program that helps user find information related to your query. Now directory is almost similar to search engines but here human beings are involved in collecting and updating information. It’s basically a collection of website address organized in categories and each category into sub-categories.

The only difference between a search engine and directory is that all WebPages are selected manually whereas search engine uses software programs (spiders) to automatically index the WebPages.

Meta Search Engine:-

Meta Search Engines are search engines that display results from more than one search engines. They don't have a database of their own, they send the search terms to the databases maintained by different search engines and display results taken from them.

Examples: Mamma, WebCrawler, Dog pile etc.


Few Important Terms Related To Search Engine:-

Crawling:-

The process by which search engine spiders visits your website and reads each page by following the links within your site and then add them in their database is called Crawling or search engine indexing.

Ranking:-

This is a term often confused with search engine indexing. A site indexed does not necessarily means that its ranking well. Ranking means, certain position where a website appears in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP),(This is where SEO is required)

Search Engine Algorithm:-

Before answering this question, A question that comes to everybody's mind: That why different search engines produces different results. Search Engine algorithm is a complex mathematical formula used by search engines to rank the WebPages. Now not all indexes (Search Engine Database) are going to be exactly the same. It depends on what the spiders find or what the humans submitted. But more important, not all search engine uses the same algorithm to search through the indexes. The algorithm is what the search engines use to determine the relevance of the information in the index to what the user is searching for. So the search engines use their own algorithm and searches their own database and comes out with relevant results.

Search Engine Spiders:-

Its a program that automatically fetches WebPages and add them in their database. It’s also called robot or crawler.

Search Engine Optimization Can Be Broadly Divided Into Two Categories: -

(1) ON PAGE OPTIMIZATION:-

(2)OFF PAGE OPTIMIZATION:-


(1)ON PAGE OPTIMIZATION:-

On page optimization means optimizing the meta tags and the on page contents of a webpage.

These includes the following:-

1.Title

2.Description

3.Keywords

4.Header tags

5.Alt Text

6. Keyword Prominence

7.keyword proximity

8.Keyword Density

9.Body Content

Let us understand the importance of each of these factors and how to optimize them in details:-

1.Title:-

Page title is probably one of the most important factors in getting high search engine rankings. Choosing the right title for your webpage is very important, your title must include the targeted keyword for your webpage. Search engine gives importance to keyword placed in title and it also help to increase the Click through Rate (CTR) from the search engine result page.

Always give unique title for each page, giving the same title in more than one page will raise duplicate content issues and goggle might penalize your site and you might find your site in the supplemental index of Goggle.

A title should contain a maximum of 60-66 character (including spaces).

2. Description:-

Meta description is the snippet that search engines show while listing your site in the SERP.
Always give unique description to each of the pages you have in your site. Make your description short and relevant your page content and do not stuff keywords in your Meta description so that you’re left with keywords only and nothing else. Make sure that the description don’t exceed 100-150 characters(including spaces)

Nowadays Meta descriptions are not required for pages that have large amount of textual content(In that case search engines will automatically make one for you.)

3. Keywords:-

Nowadays search engines do not give importance to meta keywords but still I prefer using them because you never know in future search engines might again start giving importance to them.
Meta keywords should be kept within 20 keywords and it should not exceed 200-225 characters (including spaces).Can use commas or spaces as keyword separators.

Use only those keywords which are relevant to your page content and don't stuff it.

4. Header Tags:-

Page headers are another important aspect of on-page optimization. Search engines assign a higher importance on keywords placed within the page headers. So use the header tags wisely to boost up your search engine rankings.
For a particular page always use this order H1 tO H6.Use only one header tag almost two preferably the H1 and H2 tag and don't use too many unnecessarily.

5. Alt Text:-

Search Engine Cannot read the text within an image, for that purpose alt text(Alternative Text) is used.
Search engines crawls and index what is written within the alt tags and hence uses that text while ranking the site. Use alt texts which are relevant to the image, and don’t unnecessary stuff it with keywords.

6. Keyword Prominence:-

Search engine spiders read pages from the top left to the bottom right. So it’s always a good idea to place keywords at the top and also at the end of the page, this is what is known as the Keyword Prominence. Search engines weigh heavily keywords
that are placed at the beginning of the page and therefore assign a higher relevancy score against those keywords.

7. Keyword Proximity:-

Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. In general, the closer the keywords are the better.
Always keep your targeted keyword for a particular page as close as possible.

For example:
Using Spam Techniques Affects Search Engine Rankings.
Using Spam Techniques Affects Rankings In Search Engine.

In the above two sentences, if someone searched for "Search Engine Rankings," a web page containing the first sentence is more likely to rank higher than the second.

8. Keyword Density:-

Keyword density is defined by the number of times a keyword is repeated within a document with respect to the total number of words in the document.
Keyword density for a page should not exceed (3-7)% within your document.
The various search engines, including Goggle, Yahoo, and MSN Search consider keyword density as part of their search algorithm. Each search engine has a different mathematical equation regarding the density of keywords that is rewarded with higher search ranking placement. But nowadays keyword density are not of much importance and to me keyword should be used according to the necessity.

9. Body Content:-

Search engines appreciate rich content so build good quality relevant content in your site and keep them as updated as possible because search engines appreciate rich content. And don't unnecessary stuff your keyword in the body.
Remember one thing its the quality of the content that is going to attract visitors and will surely help your search engine rankings.

OFF PAGE OPTIMIZATION:-

Like On Page Optimization, Off page factors are important too. Off page factors should be carefully considered and implemented to achieve high search engine rankings. The most important off page factor is the link popularity of a site (inbound links and outbound links) and the sites link popularity can be increased by building links.

Some of the advantages of link exchange are:

Increase Traffic.
Increase link popularity.
Search Engine benefits.
Increase Page Rank.

Some of the factors considered important by search engines while evaluating off page optimization are:

1.Its crucial that the websites linking to your site are relevant to the content on your site.

2. The number of sites linking to your site matters. Quantity of the links will boost your Page Rank whereas quality of the links will boost your search engine rankings so the choice is yours.
From my experience suppose a site abc.com is linked to 10 org authority sites and there is another site cba.com whose back link is showing 100 with most of them as the .com extension.
abc.com is going to rank higher than bca.com and its a fact.
So building Quality content in your site is the only way of getting links from such authority sites.
3. The anchor text which you are using in your links is important. The anchor text indicates the area of relevance the linking site places on your site. This anchor text should include your targeted keyword for the webpage. The text in the linking anchor text should not be the same in every site linking to your site. This is not seen as natural linking by the search engines. You need to get variability in the anchor text.

4.Is the link to your site a reciprocal link, one-way link or a three way link?
Few important terms as far as off page factors are concerned:-

Inbound link:- When site a.com links to site b.com, site a.com has an outbound link and site b.com has an inbound link.

Outbound link:- When site b.com links to site a.com, site b.com has an outbound link and site a.com has an inbound link.

Anchor text:- A visible text in hyperlink.ABC[The anchor text in this example is ABC].

So for a site to do well in search engines I think both off page and on page optimization plays an important part.

seo expert