Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Sunday, January 20th, 2008
There are millions of websites on the internet, and this number is growing each and day, so it is only natural to search out a particular term or keyword on the web with the aid of a search engine. For online businesses, an owner wants their website to be displayed at the top of search results desperately for visibility and traffic which is crucial for online success. Brain storming by webmasters regarding what to do to make this happen often leads to what we now call search engine optimization or SEO.
Search engine optimization or SEO is a method of reverse engineering search engine indexing patterns and designing a website accordingly so that it’ll be more search engine friendly. Even though SEO is not 100% successful, despite search engines periodically changing their searching algorithms, it has been able to strike a decent success percentage rate, making it an indispensable technique for most online businesses and other site owners. In the next few paragraphs, we’ll see in brief what all goes behind the method of SEO.
SEO includes optimizing different factors such as the website design, keyword density, keyword location, contents, Meta tags, total number of pages etc alongside avoiding certain mistakes called that could adversely affect page rankings.
To begin with, keyword density must be in the range of 5-7%. Since search engines list websites in search results based on the keyword provided for search, it is important that website contents be built around a few keywords which reflect the main theme of the site. However, to have keyword density in excess of 10% can be counterproductive for search engine spiders consider it as deliberate spamming meant to mislead its indexing process.
Page rankings also weigh a lot on the contents of the title and Meta tags. It is the contents of the title tags that are sometimes picked by the search engines to display alongside the URL in the search results. Ideally, the contents of the title tag must be a short description of around 80 words, about the contents of the website. The same applies for Meta tags as well for its contents are also used by spiders to put it alongside the URL in search results.
Regarding keywords, other SEO tips include having the most keyword concentration at the top of the webpage than the lower half, stuffing keywords in links, and occasional text formatting in bold or higher fonts to catch the eye of search engine spiders.
The most common mistake committed by web designers is the use of high quality graphic headers or flash media. While it may look pleasing to the eyes, search engine spiders don’t consider these flashy graphics as something to make sence out of. They do not have eyes and can not see it, so if it takes up a lot of code or area on the page, your keyword density can greatly decrease. The top part of the webpage must be preferably left for contents rich in keywords and limited images. The same principle applies to graphic navigation menus as well. Another common SEO mistake is the use of scripts for site navigation. Remember, search engines can’t read or execute scripts. Finally, avoid attempts to dupe search engine spiders such as by including hidden texts. While it may appear to work in the shorter run, it could spell the end to everything if the search engine finds out what you’re doing. Avoiding redirects is also an important factor.