Search engines are the modern way to find information on the Internet. You probably go as far as the third or fifth page of the search engine result page (SERP) and if you think none of the results are relevant, you search using a new keyword. The top 10 search results, which are usually on the first page, link to websites or web pages that are optimized for that particular keyword. Naturally, users would go to these sites because they are more likely to be relevant to the subject they are searching for.
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process implemented on websites and web pages to make them more visible on the web by appearing on the first pages of the SERP. The higher the website is on the rank, the higher the traffic is more likely to go. This does not only include the text content but also the images and videos. An SEO company can optimize websites by making some changes to the content and the HTML code. Relevant keywords are used in the article content, descriptive text for images and videos, and meta tags are added to the HTML code. Search robots then crawl and index the site and rank it according to the guidelines in its algorithm.
History of SEO
On its early years, SEO was not as it is now. Webmasters had to manually submit their site’s link to the search engines for indexing. The algorithm of the first search engines considered the meta tags, keyword density and popularity of the site in terms of how many other sites link to it. However, this was not very helpful because of some inaccuracies and inadequacies of the meta tags which affected the page ranking. The early versions of search robots were also abused by many web owners by using deceptive website content or manipulating search engine ranking.
The modern search engines like Google and Yahoo are different and more sophisticated than its previous versions. The algorithms kept changing, making it stricter against the unfriendly techniques and ranking manipulations. Nowadays, the relevance and natural build up of popularity is implemented when indexing websites. Google now holds the most control over the search engine market with 60% while Yahoo holds 20% and Microsoft 10%. Because of the importance of page ranking, many companies have started offering SEO services to web owners.
Good and Bad SEO Techniques
SEO can either make or break a website’s page rank. It depends on the techniques used to optimize the site. There are legal and acceptable ways to optimize websites, called white hat techniques, which an SEO company can use. These techniques include the following:
White hat SEO makes sure that contents are user-friendly and relevant to the user search but are also robot-friendly. Effective SEO services can make high quality site content for users pass the guidelines of search engines. Some of the ways in which this could be implemented is by posting high quality articles, using descriptive titles and names of used images.
Search engine algorithms consider the popularity of a website based on how many other websites link to it, usually as a source. If the content is informative, many bloggers or other web owners refer to a website as a reference. Article directories can also be used to increase the back link to a website. The anchor text through which the website is linked from is also important. For example, if your content is about cell phones and another article from another site has an anchor text of cell phones linking to your site, your site’s popularity increases.
Meta tags can be found in the HTML code but cannot be seen on the web page itself. Spiders refer to it for keywords, site description and how they will index the pages. Although not as necessary as they used to be, meta tags still contribute to the overall ranking of a website. Robots crawling the site may or may not read the meta tags but it is important to keep them relevant to the main contents of the site.
While white hat SEO can help optimize websites, there are bad techniques, called black hat SEO techniques or spamdexing, which may indeed increase the page rank. However, sites that use these techniques have a very high probability of getting penalized by the search engine company for illegal activities. These illegal techniques include the following:
This technique refers to filling the web page with keywords that are often unrelated to the actual contents of the site. It may be placed as a text or in the meta tag. The site may not even have any useful information but because of the high density of certain keywords, some search engines initially interpret it as relevant and the page may even rank high on the search result. However, more sophisticated search engines can analyze the page and detect keyword stuffing right away.
A web owner can place a text in a web page and make it invisible to users by making it the same color as the background, hiding it within HTML tags, or placing it off the screen. However, search spiders can still read these texts and may count it as keywords.
Scraper sites get their content from SERP and post it as their own without permission. The sites are usually filled with pay-per-click ads or may forcedly redirect the user to other sites. Some of these sites are known to be able to outrank the original author of their contents.
This is a technique that generates back links to a website by illegal means, which includes link farming, where community websites link to each other through automated means; comment spamming, where anchor texts that redirect to other sites are placed within blogs as comments, usually unrelated to the post; and Wiki spam, where Wiki pages are edited and some words added or replaced and linked to other websites.
Anyone can implement basic SEO on their own site but hiring an affordable SEO company comes with better advantages. Search engine algorithms are dynamic and constantly changing to adapt to current search and optimization trends. You can let the company worry about making your site more visible while you attend to the more important needs of your business.
