Search Engine Optimization the Easy way

Over the years search engines have become "the" way in which people navigate the Internet. Searches are conducted by the millions each day on websites such as yahoo.com, msn.com, google.com, excite.com and others. Some of these sites are structured as true search engines and others are organized as directories however most utilize similar methodologies for identifying sites to be listed ad the ranking with which they are displayed.

Directories vs. Search Engines

Both Search Engines and Directories start with a a basic search input text box to allow you to search for the information you want. The primary difference in a directory is that as a user you may also choose to browse the sites listing in a organized format by category. Many such directories (Yahoo.com for example) charge a fee to be listed in their directory.

Search engines alternatively display listings based upon your search text input in combination with a placement algorithm which varies from search engine to search engine. They do not normally categorize your search results nor can you drill through categories to reach the desired information or site.

The difference here is relatively minor one as the goal of every website is to present it's message to as many relevant users as possible in the shortest period of time. Both directories and search engines are the primary method to accomplish this and to succeed ion this area placement is the key.

Who is at the top and why?

Placement is the order in which site listings or links are displayed on each directory or search engine. There are two primary types of placement those being paid and free. Although paid listing are becoming more and more prevalent and are normally presented prior "free" listings, for the purposes of this article we will discuss only the "free" type of listings and their placement.

Each search engine or directory uses a placement algorithm to determine who should be placed at the top of the list. These algorithms are truly meant to even the playing field and provide the end user with the most relevant information as quickly as possible. This means that results are evaluated against several different criteria on an ongoing basis. Some of these criteria are as follow and we will discuss each briefly.

• Relevancy
• Link Popularity
• Outbound Link Quality
• Click Through Rates

Relevance , Keywords, and Spiders

Relevance is the quality of a site's content in relation to the search text entered by the end user. Search engines constantly reevaluate what constitutes relevancy by analyzing keyword frequency and placement, page titles, overall content and other factors.

Obviously it is not realistic for someone to individually evaluate the millions of sites on the Internet so for this purpose the search engines companies have developed "robots" or "bots" to automatically scour the internet and record site content for evaluation. These are also often referred to as "spiders" due to their nature of following links within one page to find another and another and so on. These robots are able to read certain types of content to allow for algorithmic analysis of the site to determine relevancy and other factors.

Some optimization companies have used various methods to try to fool the search engines by creating high keyword density pages which redirect to the real site content on page open. This practice would be avoided as the search engines are wise to these tricks and while you may succeed for the short term in raising traffic to your site in the long run you may be de-listed from the engine entirely once the tactic has been identified.

The most effective way to do well in the area of relevance is to created pages which are useful to the user and in an optimal format for the spiders to read and index. Each search engine has a different algorithm some of which are known and others of which are held strictly confidential and only guesses abound as to what the search engine is using to evaluate a given site.

In general there are some rules to follow.

• Pages should be at least 500 to 1000 words for content pages.
• Relevant keywords should appear 3-5 time in the content
• Keywords should also appear in the title and description of the page
• Meta Tags should be utilized to present keywords and page descriptions (meta tags are informational html information in the "code" of a page meant to be read by the spiders)

Link Popularity

A lot of emphasis has been place on link popularity recently. The reason for this is that link popularity is considered measure of your sites popularity amongst end users and of the relevance of the information posted there. The thought behind this conclusion is simple - if a large number of relevant popular sites are linking to a given site that site must also be a popular and useful site to end users seeking that type of information, product or service.

Link popularity can be impacted by the diligent webmaster by requesting reciprocal links from business partners and others with popular and relevant sites. Be watchful however of pursuing a "links everywhere" attitude as, while this is not necessarily detrimental to your site, it is often of little or no use if the sites linking to you are not of related content or holding certain popularity ratings.

Outbound Link Quality

Just as sites are evaluated for who links to them as a reliable source they are also evaluated for the relevance and popularity of the information is that they link to. This does not mean that sites should link to competitive sites however if there are general resources sites with highly relevant content about their industry, products, or services it is beneficial to include the links in your content.

Some sites use a "useful links" page to accommodate for this however it is more likely to impact yor ranking if these links are interspersed with in the content when and where they would be truly relevant.

Click Through Rates

Click through rates are measures by how often your link is displayed vs. how often it is actually clicked upon for a given search term. This is where the rubber meets the road so to speak as having your listing at #1 in a search engine does nothing for you if nobody actually clicks through to your site.

Most search engines who rely on spiders vs. directory listing methodologies create your listing automatically from the information in your pages Title and in the section of your meta tags devoted to the description. If this information exist you listing in the search engine will be very bland and not at all enticing to the end user.

Titles should contain the keywords for which the site is to be listed. The search engines utilize this information to create the "tag line" of a listing and if the keywords the user is searching for do not appear there why should the use assume that the site will have the information or products they are looking for?

Descriptions should contain leading text incorporating action words to entice the user to click on the listing to obtain the information, product or services they are interested in. Descriptions should be between 100-200 characters long as the message displayed will appear more complete and coherent if it does not abruptly end mid phrase at the end of your listing.

In the end a search engines primary focus is to help the end user find what they are looking for. While the search engines in many cases survive on advertising revenue from paid listings they are still bound by necessity to provide the end user quality free listings in order to generate useful resources to the end user and thus encouraging them to return again and again.

In conclusion, if site owners create quality sites with content that provides end users with the information they are seeking and which is optimized for the spiders to read and index, these sites will do well in the ranking systems of today's search engines.

Author: DavidBarnes

Result Resources 3434 W. Anthem Way Ste 118-609 Anthem AZ 85086 Phone 800-211-6995 Web: https://www.ResultResources.com