SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, has been around for a few years, and by now most people have a vague idea of what it is, even if they don’t fully understand it. But, exactly what is SEO, and why is it so important? At its heart, SEO is the means by which you can drive your website up to a higher and more profitable ranking in the search engine results. It’s clear that ranking well in the search engines is the key to attracting visitors and ultimately the success of your website, so SEO is vital.
How does SEO work, and how is it actually performed? To start off with, we’ll discuss how it works. The search engines use differing algorithms which they apply to each site to decide where the site should be ranked. In other words, they decide how high to rank sites depending upon how sites meet their criteria. There are numerous factors involved in the search engine algorithms, but not all of them have equal weight, so it’s crucial to focus on the most important first.
One of the most crucial things the search engines look for is relevance. The ultimate goal of the search engines is to provide the user with the absolute best match to whatever it is they type in the search box, and as the number one site gets the most clicks, they want the number one site to be the most relevant valuable site they display.
The search engines also rank by factors such as site popularity and site age. The search engines believe that popular sites are good sites, because otherwise they wouldn’t get the number of visitors they get, so site popularity is quite an important ranking factor. Site age isn’t something you can change, unfortunately, but it’s only one factor in the search engine’s ranking algorithms, its importance is simply because a site with age is likely to be a site that sticks around, while other sites come and go. While new sites can rank well, search engines tend not to trust them as much as they do older ones. Many websites are here today, gone tomorrow, and the last thing the search engines want to do is rank a site highly if it’s unlikely to stay around for the long haul. This may make it seem as if it’s impossible to get a new site ranked. The truth is, it’s just one ranking factor, and if everything else is spot on there’s no reason your site can’t compete.
What’s the first thing you should do with SEO, and how can you make sure that your site meets the search engines’ criteria? For starters, it’s important to use a bit of common sense. If you want to rank for a phrase like “free acne treatment” then ensure you offer potential visitors to your site information about a free acne treatment! You need a site that contains plenty of useful content, which provides the searcher with the exact information they’re searching for. The information also has to be useful! If your page manages to get a high search engine ranking, and readers visit your page, only to leave the page within a few seconds the search engines are going to penalize you. Why is this? Because they are well aware that if someone visits your site and leaves immediately, they’re NOT getting the information they want, and as mentioned previously the search engines want to provide searchers with the best and most relevant information.