What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization means that each page of your website has been optimized to give your website favorable rankings in the search engines.� You may optimize your own website or you may contract Web Solutions Omaha to optimize your website for you. If you choose to do your own optimization, the information on this page will be very helpful.

How are websites indexed by Search Engines?

Your website will be crawled (spidered) by numerous search engines. Search engines use software programs known as robots, spiders or crawlers. A robot is a piece of software that automatically follows hyperlinks from one document to the next around the Web. When a robot discovers a new site, it sends information back to its main site to be indexed. Because websites are one of the least static forms of publishing (i.e., they change a lot), robots also update previously catalogued sites. How quickly and comprehensively they carry out these tasks varies from one search engine to the next.

Search engines use automated software programs known as spiders or bots to survey the Web and build their databases. Web pages and documents are retrieved by these programs and analyzed. Data collected from each web page are then added to the search engine index. When you enter a query at a search engine site, your input is checked against the search engine's index of all the web pages it has analyzed. The best URLs are then returned to you as hits, ranked in order with the best results at the top.

There is no perfect way to ensure that you'll receive a high ranking on any one search engine. Even if you do get a great ranking, there's no assurance that you'll keep it for long. For example, this week you may have a web page that is ranked number one on Google for the search phrase "how to grow geraniums".� A few days later your web page may drop from number 1 ranking to number 25.� Rankings on search engines are dynamic and rarely stay the same from one day to the next.

In general, when ranking results, search engines give special weight to keywords that appear:

� In the title

� In the description

� High up on the page

� In the URL� (your domain name)

� In the ALT tags for graphics

� In the link text for inbound links (from other websites)

Title and Description Meta Tags

It seems to be generally agreed that the "title" and the "description" meta tags are important to write effectively, since several major search engines use them in their indices. Use relevant keywords in your title, and vary the titles on the different pages that make up your website, in order to target as many keywords as possible. As for the "description" meta tag, some search engines will use it as their short summary of your URL, so make sure your description is one that will entice surfers to your site. (see Choosing Meta Tags and Keywords)

Note: The "description" meta tag is generally held to be the most valuable, and the most likely to be indexed, so pay special attention to this one.

Keywords

What is a keyword, exactly? It can simply be any word or phrase on a web page used to tell a visitor something about the subject and content of the web page.� Most search engines do their text query and retrieval using keywords.

Search engines periodically will "spider" your website and index pages and their text content.� When a visitor enters keywords into a search query, the search engine looks in its indexes for web pages that look like the best possible, relevant match to the keywords being searched for.� The search engine returns those most relevant web pages to the visitor.

If you want to rank high in search results, you have to determine what keywords/phrases visitors are using to try to find you. (see Choosing Meta Tags and Keywords)

Then use those keywords/phrases in as many places as you can on your website for:

� Meta Tag Keywords (see Optimizing Documents, or if your website has an eCommerce catalog: Optimizing Catalog Items)

� Page Content (place keywords toward the top of your document and repeat often)

� Navigation and Links

Note: Search engines are also aware of deceptive tactics, and continuously devising various methods to circumvent them, so be careful. For example, don't use "hidden keywords" (ie: spamming your webpage with white text on a white background). Use keywords that are appropriate to your subject. Don't worry about seeming redundant. Redundancy using your top, targeted keywords that accurately describe the contents of you page is a good tactic. The Search Engines interpret this as relevance. And relevance is what gets you to the top of the search results.

Helpful Tips

Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images.
Make sure that your TITLE and image ALT tags are descriptive and accurate.
Check for broken links and correct them.
Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).

Here's an example that ties this all together: If a visitor enters the phrase "growing geraniums in Nebraska" into a search engine and your well-optimized web page comes up on the first page of the search results, it's likely that the search engine found:

� A page titled, "Growing Geraniums in Nebraska" on your website

� With a Meta Title of "Growing Geraniums in Nebraska"

� The keywords, "growing, geraniums, Nebraska," were found in the meta description

� Various words and phrases using the keywords, "growing, geraniums, Nebraska," were included in the Meta Keywords

� The page's text content was loaded with "growing, geraniums, Nebraska" - especially toward the top of the page

� The page contained links that had the words "growing, geraniums, Nebraska" in them, which took them to other web pages with information about "Growing Geraniums in Nebraska"

� Are you starting to see how this all works together?

Things to Avoid

Don't fill your page with lists of keywords, attempt to "cloak" pages, or put up "crawler only" pages. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don't intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site.

Don't feel obligated to purchase a search engine optimization service. Some companies claim to "guarantee" high ranking for your site in Google's search results. While legitimate consulting firms can improve your site's flow and content, others employ deceptive tactics in an attempt to fool search engines. Be careful; if your domain is affiliated with one of these deceptive services, it could be banned from the Google index.

Don't use images to display important names, content, or links. Google's crawler doesn't recognize text contained in graphics. Use ALT tags if the main content and keywords on your page can't be formatted in regular HTML.

Don't create multiple copies of a page under different URLs.