Search Engine Optimization how not to get lured into spending money on services or software you don't need
What is search engine optimization? It is constructing a web site that will attain a high ranking in the major search engines. This is done by using a combination of techniques which will appeal to the algorithms used by the search engines to rank web sites and web pages. The reason people seek out companies that offer this service or software products that claim to do the same, is because finding the formula that delivers high ranking in the search engines is often very difficult and time consuming. This is because the search engines are always changing and updating their formulas. What search engines want and what marketers and search engine optimization services want are often very different things. The search engines want pages that deliver what the user is searching for and not necessarily a marketing message. They therefore try to set up formulas called algorithms that prevent marketers from fooling the engines into thinking that a web site or web page is delivering what the end user is searching for; when in reality that web page may just be filled with advertisements and not information. People use the internet to search for information and to do research. They are not looking for advertising messages. But on the other hand marketers and search engines optimization services want to get their product or service out there and want to expose it to as many people as possible, whether they are looking for it or not. This being the case the search engines are constantly trying to keep the information they are providing free of advertising, unless that is what their user seeks. How to get your web site ranked high becomes an on going task. If you are not designing your own web site then you may well be looking for a company or a software product that can help you out. But beware, some companies and or products may try to use methods which are against the search engine rules, which could result in getting your web site banned. What are the search engines looking for in order to give a web site or web page a high ranking? they look for what their users look for, good information. A web site that is providing good information about the subject that the person using the search engine is seeking. This is referred to as content. If this is what your web site is providing then you stand a good chance of gaining a good rank. However their are more elements to page rank than good content. You also need to be able to configure your web pages in a way that the search engines can relate to. This entails the actual structure of the web site or page. The structure of every web site and or page has a number of elements that relate to the computer language that it is written inknown as HTML. This is the language that allows web pages to be viewed in browsers and search engines to find them . When a web page is being built it has something called keywords that are used as a short hand way of describing it's content and subject. The search engine spiders( the computer programs that go out to the world wide web and look for web pages) use these keywords as a way of locating what the end user (the person searching) is looking for. Keywords and there placement in the web page are important in the way the spider interprets what your web page is all about. Marketers and search engine optimization services have tried variousmethods to fool the spiders by creating what are called landing pages or doorway pages. These web pages have nothing really to do with the web site. They are simply meaningless pages loaded with keywords and computer generated text. Once a visitor arrives on this page they are then redirected to the real web site, which if often not what they were looking for. Search engines will detect these types of pages, perhaps not immediately, but they will eventually and may decide to penalize your web site for using them. Another method of achieving a high page rank in the search engines is to develop links that come into your web site from other web sites. Search engines look at these links from other web sites, and if they come from good quality web sites they can increase your page ranking. Once again marketers in an effort to circumvent this sometimes use a quick fix. They create what are called link farms. As the name implies, these are a network of sites where links are created for the sole purpose of increasing page rank. The links all link back to the web site the marketers are promoting. The search engines have ways of evaluating links so a strategy like this will not last long and may be in violation of the search engine rules, in which case your site could be suspended or banned. Still other methods include cold calling and email spamming. Cold calling is of course a mass marketing method that has been used for years. Armed with very little knowledge about the person they are calling the marketers/ search engine optimization companies attempt to convince a web site owner that they can improve their web site's ranking and attract traffic to their web site, for a price of course. Sending unsolicited email or spam is another mass marketing method. I'm sure everyone has at least five or ten of those a day, if not more offering everything from Viagra to hair growth products. Search engine optimization companies that are using these kind of methods are not the kind of company you want to be doing business with. They are concentrating on methods that may get temporary results but overlook the bigger picture. If you work at delivering what the search engines want ,you will not have to resort to these kinds of methods. Two other methods that are sometimes employed by search engine optimization companies are mirror sites or duplicate content web sites. Using multiple domains with the same or duplicate content. Different keywords are placed in the site to make it appear that they are not exactly the same but the sites basically have the same information.
The lesson here is that good content, keywords and links are important elements in promoting your web site, if they are used properly and do not violate the search engine rules. You as a web site owner should know about these things. Why? because if you choose to use a search engine optimization company to help you promote your web site or decide to buy software that claims to provide search engine optimization for your web site you need to beware of the potential problems and pit falls. If you are informed you will make good decisions and save money. So ask questions of any company you are thinking of hiring and if you are considering software, check out the techniques and methods they are using and how often they update their program. The search engine world is in constant motion, your search engine optimization company or software must keep current on every change they make or you will be out of date and wasting money very quickly. Can you optimize your web site for the search engines by yourself? Yes. You may need a bit of help in areas such as key word placement and html. There are some very good resources that can help you do it yourself. First of all there is wordtracker.com. If you click here you will arrive at their free information page. Another good source to help you put it all together is Ken Evoy's e-bookMake Your Content Pre sell . This provides a summary of how content, key words and links make your web site rank high with the search engines. Also a free tool called Search It, that was developed by Ken Evoy is very usefulClick here to try it free. Remember you as the web site owner always need to know the basics of how your web site works on the world wide web. You don't need to be a complete technical expert on every facet of the web site but you should understand all the basics. If you do you will not fall prey to all the tempting advertising messages that search engine optimization services offer.
|