SEO:- techniques used to improve the ranking of any website for certain search queries (called keywords) to improve traffic and online business.
Traffic:-simply means number of customer vising the site.(competition n competitor)
Google SEO Basics for Beginners
Introduction
As many of us web developers already know, Google is rated by many as the number one search engine in the world. We personally know that our websites get about 90% of their search engine traffic direct from Google searches.
Getting indexed by Google can be a pain, but getting highly placed rankings for specific keywords seems to be the nut that not many web developers without SEO (search engine optimization) experience or seo training can crack.
Today we’re going to give you an informative primer on the basics of search engine optimization techniques -- many of which we use everyday to optimize our websites and stay ahead of our competitors.
Getting indexed by Google can be a pain, but getting highly placed rankings for specific keywords seems to be the nut that not many web developers without SEO (search engine optimization) experience or seo training can crack.
Today we’re going to give you an informative primer on the basics of search engine optimization techniques -- many of which we use everyday to optimize our websites and stay ahead of our competitors.
4 Steps to Better Rankings
We personally believe in the "practice what you preach" approach to all things business related -- especially SEO. So, before we continue, here's a sample of keywords and Google rankings for some of our websites:
Website | Keywords | Google Ranking |
Activekb.com | Knowledgebase software | #2 of 4,980,000 |
DevEdit.com | Online HTML editor | #3 of 9,080,000 |
MyFreeTemplates.com | Free Dreamweaver Templates | #4 of 93,600 |
Step 1. Choosing The Right Keywords
Choosing the right keywords to base your site optimization around is an important first step. General or generic keywords are usually not the best approach, and sometimes it's better to be a little more specific and focus on niche keywords relating to your product or service.
For example, let's talk about www.devedit.com -- DevEdit is our WYSIWYG HTML editing component that drops into browser-based applications.
The problem is, there are a LOT of WYSIWYG HTML editors, but how can we get DevEdit to appear in Google's top 10 rankings? Well, let's see. Trying to optimize for the keyword "HTML" alone would be a tough task, as it's too general. There are HTML editors, HTML tutorials, HTML articles, etc.
We need to be more specific, which means:
- Targeting a more suitable market that is looking for a content editing solution
- Competing with fewer websites targeting the same keywords
- Optimizing for keywords that people actually use when performing searches
Targeting a suitable market will depend on your website, as well as the products and services you offer. Try to be specific with your keywords, and remember that people no longer use single keyword search phrases - the average search phrase contains 3-5 related words.
For example, if you're optimizing for a web development site and you're located in Sydney, Australia, use keywords such as "web development Sydney" or "web development services Australia".
To find out how many websites are competing with your keywords -- either intentionally or not -- simply do a search on Google and note down how many results are returned. In our case, for "online html editor", we're competing with 9,080,000 sites. The more sites that are competing for your keywords, the harder it will be to get on the front page.
Alternatively, to get a rough indication of how many people are actually searching for the keywords you want to optimize your site for, use the Overture search suggestion tool. It's not exact, and doesn't measure Google searches, but it does give a very good estimate.
The Overture search suggestion tool will also provide you with a list of similar keywords, based on the keywords you enter. This can be a great way to find other keywords to optimize your site for.
As a rough guideline, try to optimize every page on your site for a different search phrase. Each search phrase should contain 2 to 3 highly targeted keywords.
Step 2. Your URL and Title Tag
Two of the most determining factors in Google's ranking are your domain name and title tag. For example, a domain name such as:
http://www.web-development-sydney.com will generally get ranked higher than http://www.companyname.com, assuming that they had identical keywords and page content.
For some of us, keywords in the domain name look too unprofessional, and we've already registered our domain, so it’s too late to change. An alternative -- and also a useful tactic -- is to add your keywords into the names of your pages, such as
http://www.companyname.com/web-development-services.html
Your title tag is equally as important as your domain name. Using keywords in your title tag can improve your Google ranking significantly. Trying to achieve a balance of professionalism with keyword density in the title tag however is sometimes a little more difficult.
Going back to our example of a web development company earlier, a good title tag would be:
<title>"Company name provides professional affordable web development services in Sydney Australia."</title>
Usually, the closer to the front of your title tag the keywords are placed, the better.
Step 3. H1 Tags and Keyword Density
<h1> tags seem to have been depreciated by stylesheets these days, and are not used as often as they used to be.
The Google ranking algorithm dictates that if you're using a <h1> tag, then the text in between this tag must be more important than the content on the rest of the page. Here's a quick example:
For example, if you're optimizing for a web development site and you're located in Sydney, Australia, use keywords such as "web development Sydney" or "web development services Australia".
To find out how many websites are competing with your keywords -- either intentionally or not -- simply do a search on Google and note down how many results are returned. In our case, for "online html editor", we're competing with 9,080,000 sites. The more sites that are competing for your keywords, the harder it will be to get on the front page.
Alternatively, to get a rough indication of how many people are actually searching for the keywords you want to optimize your site for, use the Overture search suggestion tool. It's not exact, and doesn't measure Google searches, but it does give a very good estimate.
The Overture search suggestion tool will also provide you with a list of similar keywords, based on the keywords you enter. This can be a great way to find other keywords to optimize your site for.
As a rough guideline, try to optimize every page on your site for a different search phrase. Each search phrase should contain 2 to 3 highly targeted keywords.
Step 2. Your URL and Title Tag
Two of the most determining factors in Google's ranking are your domain name and title tag. For example, a domain name such as:
http://www.web-development-sydney.com will generally get ranked higher than http://www.companyname.com, assuming that they had identical keywords and page content.
For some of us, keywords in the domain name look too unprofessional, and we've already registered our domain, so it’s too late to change. An alternative -- and also a useful tactic -- is to add your keywords into the names of your pages, such as
http://www.companyname.com/web-development-services.html
Your title tag is equally as important as your domain name. Using keywords in your title tag can improve your Google ranking significantly. Trying to achieve a balance of professionalism with keyword density in the title tag however is sometimes a little more difficult.
Going back to our example of a web development company earlier, a good title tag would be:
<title>"Company name provides professional affordable web development services in Sydney Australia."</title>
Usually, the closer to the front of your title tag the keywords are placed, the better.
Step 3. H1 Tags and Keyword Density
<h1> tags seem to have been depreciated by stylesheets these days, and are not used as often as they used to be.
The Google ranking algorithm dictates that if you're using a <h1> tag, then the text in between this tag must be more important than the content on the rest of the page. Here's a quick example:
<h1>Google sees this text as more important</h1>
<p>... than this text</p>
<p>... than this text</p>
By default, H1 tags aren't the prettiest in terms of formatting, so using a CSS style to override the default look is usually a good idea:
H1 { color: blue; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px }
Sprinkling keywords throughout your page content can also improve your sites keyword density. Keyword density simply means the ratio of optimized keywords to the rest of the content on your page. It is usually expressed as a percentage, and should be between 7% and 10% for each page on your site.
Don't overdo the keyword density, however, but don't overlook it either. A good example would be:
Before:
Don't overdo the keyword density, however, but don't overlook it either. A good example would be:
Before:
After:
Notice how we use the keywords more efficiently the second time around?
Step 4. Links, Links and More Links
And this leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process -- back-links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as your website must be good if so many other sites are linking back to it.
If you run a web development company, then adding a simple link to the bottom of each of your client's websites, such as:
Step 4. Links, Links and More Links
And this leads us to the toughest part of the Google SEO process -- back-links. Back links are websites that link directly to your website. The general principal is the more back links you have, the higher your pages will be ranked, as your website must be good if so many other sites are linking back to it.
If you run a web development company, then adding a simple link to the bottom of each of your client's websites, such as:
<a href=http://www.yoursite.com>Web development by Company Name</a>
... (With your clients permission of course) can help boost your back links, which will help boost your ranking position in searches.
Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories is also an important step to increase the number of sites linking back to yours. Do remember however, that setting up back links takes time. I would recommend emailing 5-10 websites each and every day to request back-links or partnership links (keeping in mind that the sites contacted should be relevant but not competitive) e.g. - If you sell chocolate, partnering with a company that sells Roses may just be a good idea. Within a couple of weeks, you should have a good 100 or so sites happily linking back to yours!
Submitting your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo! and other directories is also an important step to increase the number of sites linking back to yours. Do remember however, that setting up back links takes time. I would recommend emailing 5-10 websites each and every day to request back-links or partnership links (keeping in mind that the sites contacted should be relevant but not competitive) e.g. - If you sell chocolate, partnering with a company that sells Roses may just be a good idea. Within a couple of weeks, you should have a good 100 or so sites happily linking back to yours!
Conclusion
Google can be one tough search engine to crack. Hopefully, however, in this article we’ve provided you with enough basic tips to get started optimizing both yours and your clients website.
SEO Basics
Before you begin serious SEO you must ensure that your website is "search engine friendly". This means making sure that each individual page is compliant with search engine standards and ready to be indexed correctly. Follow each of the steps below for each page on your site.
Have your list of target keywords ready - you'll need to insert them into your pages.
Page Title
The title of the HTML page should be relatively short and describe the page content accurately. Wherever possible, try to include keywords (without distorting the true purpose of the title). For example:
<title>McGrath Discount Office Furniture Store</title>
Metatags
Use the description and keywords metatags in the head of each web page. Make these tags different on each web page.
<meta name="description" content="Suppliers of quality office furniture and accessories at discount prices.">
<meta name="keywords" content="furniture, office, store, shop, retail, discount">
<meta name="keywords" content="furniture, office, store, shop, retail, discount">
Heading Tags
Use heading tags. Many search engines place more emphasis on text within heading tags, so make sure they use keywords. Use one <h1> tag per page with the most important keywords. Use other head tags (<h2>, <h3>, etc) to provide variations and support the main heading.
<h1>Desks</h1>
<h2>Large Desks</h2>
<p>... information about large desks...</p>
<h2>Small Desks</h2>
<p>... information about small desks, etc etc...</p>
<h2>Large Desks</h2>
<p>... information about large desks...</p>
<h2>Small Desks</h2>
<p>... information about small desks, etc etc...</p>
Page Text
Make sure the text of your web pages contain keywords and common phrases which people might search for. Be careful with the frequency of your keywords - you want to have them occur at least a few times if possible, but don't repeat yourself so much that the copy becomes unnatural. The idea is to discretely spread keywords around without making it obvious.
<p>Buy office furniture at affordable prices from any of our retail stores.</p>
Remember that text contained within images won't be picked up by search engines. Only actual text on the page will be indexed.
Note:
· Use all these methods in moderation. If you include a hundred keywords in the metatag or saturate your page with heading tags they will lose their effectiveness (and you may be penalised in other ways). Keep it simple and under control for maximum impact.
Define Your Target Keywords
A common mistake is to target the wrong keywords, or worse, no particular keywords at all. When you optimise your website, you are optimising for target keywords. This means creating a list of specific words and/or phrases which you know people are searching for, and making sure that when these keywords are searched for your site will be in the result pages.
Ask yourself these questions:
· First of all, will people actually search for the things you have at your website? If not, you're wasting your time.
· If so, exactly which words will they be searching for? You need a specific list of words and phrases - these will become your target keywords.
· How competitive are your target keywords, i.e. how many other websites are targeting the same keywords? Be realistic about targeting highly competitive keywords - you may be better off targeting less popular ones.
Finding Keywords
The easiest way to find keywords is to use one of the online tools available. These provide a list of popular keywords associated with a particular topic. An example is shown below - try it!
If you are really serious about finding the best keywords to target, you will need to pay for a serious tool such as Wordtracker. This is a powerful and comprehensive tool which will definitely give you an edge. Payment is by subscription (a free trial is available).
Your Business Name
A very common mistake is to assume that the keyword you need to target is your own business name. For example, a business called "Nigel McGrath Furniture Limited" might spend all their effort making sure their website is the #1 result when their name is searched for. Once this is achieved they think the job is done.
The problem is that, whilst this will be helpful for those customers who already know about you, it will not attract any new customers. If a searcher has never heard of your store (or can't remember your name), they will not search for "Nigel McGrath Furniture Limited". They are going to search for more general terms such as "furniture", perhaps with the name of their city or the particular type of furniture they are looking for.
Think like a potential customer who doesn't know you. Instead of targeting the keywords you would use to find your own website, find the keywords your potential customer will search for.
The Importance of Search Engine Optimization
Before you begin planning your search engine strategy it's worth considering exactly how important the results are to you. This is because you need to decide how much energy and resources to put into SEO, so you need to know what sort of results to expect for your efforts. If the benefits are likely to be minimal then you might be better off spending your energy on other areas of the website. On the other hand, if your entire business plan relies on good search engine results, you should be prepared to spend a lot of time and money getting them.
It's easy to assume that by having good search rankings, lots of people will find for your website and become customers. You need to test this thinking and make sure you're not just being optimistic. Who exactly is the type of person you expect to attract? Imagine them as a single real person, sitting at a computer. Why will this person use the internet to find your product? What will they expect to find? If they do find your website, will they buy from you or will they just use you for information and buy somewhere else?
In most cases good search engine results will benefit you, but it pays to be realistic about how significant the benefit will be.
What Are Your Chances of Getting Listed?
Getting a basic listing isn't hard and you should be able to get at least a small presence in the main search engines. The question is how many actual visitors will result from your listing.
If you have something reasonably unique to offer, or if you are targeting a particular geographical region, your chances of getting visitors are fairly high. Most businesses could expect to attract at least a few visitors each day through search engines.
To get more than a few visitors per day (up to around a hundred) will take more effort but is still quite achievable.
If you are aiming to attract hundreds or thousands of visitors per day, you will need to have something a bit more special — either some very unique content or a very good optimization strategy.
Search Engine Terminology
Inbound Links | Hyperlinks from other websites to yours. Also known as return links or backlinks. |
Page Rank (PR) | Page Rank. A number between 0 and 10 given by Google to every page on the internet as a rating of how popular the page is. |
Reciprocal Links | Links between two websites - each webmaster agrees to provide a link to the other website so both will benefit. |
Robot / Spider | An automated piece of software which travels around the internet looking for web pages and storing them in the search index. Robots are good - you want them to visit as often as possible. |
Search Algorithm | The "equation" used by a search engine to decide which web pages are the best match for a search term. |
Search Index | The database of web pages used by a search engine. When you perform a search, the search engine looks in this database to find the best matches. |
SEO | (1) Search Engine Optimisation - The process of optimising. (2) Search Engine Optimiser - A person who offers optimisation as a commercial service. |
SERP | Search Engine Result Page, i.e. the list of web pages shown when you perform a search. |
SEO Tips
Here are a few more tips and tricks to help you do well in the search engines...
Be a "White-hat"
Above all, be one of the good guys. Keep your optimisation efforts honest. This may (arguably) take more effort but it will definitely pay off in the long run.
Use Statistics
Any decent web hosting packages includes the option to see how many visitors your website is getting, where the referrals are coming from and which search keywords were used to find the site. Monitor these statistics so you can keep improving.
Experiment
It's good idea to try different tactics and see what works best. This takes patience - you may have to wait months for your pages to be indexed and build up statistics. After watching your search referrals for a while, change your web pages and see what the effect is. Remember to keep good records of the exact changes and dates so you can compare these to your statistics.
Keep Abreast of Developments
Stay in touch with the latest news and developments in the search engine world. As technologies and companies change you need to change with them.
Search engine optimization:
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indices.
The initialism "SEO" can also refer to "search engine optimizers", terms adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, URLs, and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
History
Webmasters and content providers began optimizing sites for search engines in the mid-1990s, as the first search engines were cataloging the early Web. Initially, all a webmaster needed to do was submit a page, or URL, to the various engines which would send a spider to "crawl" that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be indexed.[1] The process involves a search engine spider downloading a page and storing it on the search engine's own server, where a second program, known as an indexer, extracts various information about the page, such as the words it contains and where these are located, as well as any weight for specific words and all links the page contains, which are then placed into a scheduler for crawling at a later date.Site owners started to recognize the value of having their sites highly ranked and visible in search engine results.They also recognised that the higher their site ranking the more people would click on the website. According to industry analyst Danny Sullivan, the earliest known use of the phrase search engine optimization was a spam message posted on Usenet on July 26, 1997.[2]
Early versions of search algorithms relied on webmaster-provided information such as the keyword meta tag, or index files in engines like ALIWEB. Meta tags provided a guide to each page's content. But using meta data to index pages was found to be less than reliable because the webmaster's account of keywords in the meta tag were not truly relevant to the site's actual keywords. Inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data in meta tags caused pages to rank for irrelevant searches.[3] Web content providers also manipulated a number of attributes within the HTML source of a page in an attempt to rank well in search engines.[4]
By relying so much on factors exclusively within a webmaster's control, early search engines suffered from abuse and ranking manipulation. To provide better results to their users, search engines had to adapt to ensure their results pages showed the most relevant search results, rather than unrelated pages stuffed with numerous keywords by unscrupulous webmasters. Since the success and popularity of a search engine is determined by its ability to produce the most relevant results to any given search allowing those results to be false would turn users to find other search sources. Search engines responded by developing more complex ranking algorithms, taking into account additional factors that were more difficult for webmasters to manipulate.
Graduate students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed "backrub", a search engine that relied on a mathematical algorithm to rate the prominence of web pages. The number calculated by the algorithm, PageRank, is a function of the quantity and strength of inbound links.[5] PageRank estimates the likelihood that a given page will be reached by a web user who randomly surfs the web, and follows links from one page to another. In effect, this means that some links are stronger than others, as a higher PageRank page is more likely to be reached by the random surfer.
Page and Brin founded Google in 1998. Google attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design.[6] Off-page factors such as PageRank and hyperlink analysis were considered, as well as on-page factors, to enable Google to avoid the kind of manipulation seen in search engines that only considered on-page factors for their rankings. Although PageRank was more difficult to game, webmasters had already developed link building tools and schemes to influence the Inktomi search engine, and these methods proved similarly applicable to gaining PageRank. Many sites focused on exchanging, buying, and selling links, often on a massive scale. Some of these schemes, or link farms, involved the creation of thousands of sites for the sole purpose of link spamming.[7]
By 2007, search engines had incorporated a wide range of undisclosed factors in their ranking algorithms to reduce the impact of link manipulation. Google says it ranks sites using more than 200 different signals.[8] The three leading search engines, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's Live Search, do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages. Notable SEOs, such as Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, Aaron Wall and Jill Whalen, have studied different approaches to search engine optimization, and have published their opinions in online forums and blogs.[9][10] SEO practitioners may also study patents held by various search engines to gain insight into the algorithms.[11]
Webmasters and search engines
By 1997 search engines recognized that webmasters were making efforts to rank well in their search engines, and that some webmasters were even manipulating their rankings in search results by stuffing pages with excessive or irrelevant keywords. Early search engines, such as Infoseek, adjusted their algorithms in an effort to prevent webmasters from manipulating rankings.[12]Due to the high marketing value of targeted search results, there is potential for an adversarial relationship between search engines and SEOs. In 2005, an annual conference, AIRWeb, Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web,[13] was created to discuss and minimize the damaging effects of aggressive web content providers.
SEO companies that employ overly aggressive techniques can get their client websites banned from the search results. In 2005, the Wall Street Journal profiled a company, Traffic Power, which allegedly used high-risk techniques and failed to disclose those risks to its clients.[14] Wired magazine reported that the same company sued blogger Aaron Wall for writing about the ban.[15] Google's Matt Cutts later confirmed that Google did in fact ban Traffic Power and some of its clients.[16]
Some search engines have also reached out to the SEO industry, and are frequent sponsors and guests at SEO conferences, chats, and seminars. In fact, with the advent of paid inclusion, some search engines now have a vested interest in the health of the optimization community. Major search engines provide information and guidelines to help with site optimization.[17][18][19] Google has a Sitemaps program[20] to help webmasters learn if Google is having any problems indexing their website and also provides data on Google traffic to the website. Yahoo! Site Explorer provides a way for webmasters to submit URLs, determine how many pages are in the Yahoo! index and view link information.[21]
Getting indexed
The leading search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Some search engines, notably Yahoo!, operate a paid submission service that guarantee crawling for either a set fee or cost per click.[22] Such programs usually guarantee inclusion in the database, but do not guarantee specific ranking within the search results.[23] Yahoo's paid inclusion program has drawn criticism from advertisers and competitors.[24] Two major directories, the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project both require manual submission and human editorial review.[25] Google offers Google Webmaster Tools, for which an XML Sitemap feed can be created and submitted for free to ensure that all pages are found, especially pages that aren't discoverable by automatically following links.[26]Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled.[27]
Preventing indexing
To avoid undesirable content in the search indexes, webmasters can instruct spiders not to crawl certain files or directories through the standard robots.txt file in the root directory of the domain. Additionally, a page can be explicitly excluded from a search engine's database by using a meta tag specific to robots. When a search engine visits a site, the robots.txt located in the root directory is the first file crawled. The robots.txt file is then parsed, and will instruct the robot as to which pages are not to be crawled. As a search engine crawler may keep a cached copy of this file, it may on occasion crawl pages a webmaster does not wish crawled. Pages typically prevented from being crawled include login specific pages such as shopping carts and user-specific content such as search results from internal searches. In March 2007, Google warned webmasters that they should prevent indexing of internal search results because those pages are considered search spam.[28]White hat versus black hat
SEO techniques are classified by some into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design and those techniques that search engines do not approve of and attempt to minimize the effect of, referred to as spamdexing. Industry commentators have classified these methods, and the practitioners who employ them, as either white hat SEO, or black hat SEO.[29] White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing.[30]An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines[31][17][18][19] are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see.
White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility,[32] although the two are not identical.
Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception. One black hat technique uses text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off screen. Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking.
Search engines may penalize sites they discover using black hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. Such penalties can be applied either automatically by the search engines' algorithms, or by a manual site review.
One infamous example was the February 2006 Google removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for use of deceptive practices.[33] Both companies, however, quickly apologized, fixed the offending pages, and were restored to Google's list.[34]
As a marketing strategy
Eye tracking studies have shown that searchers scan a search results page from top to bottom and left to right (for left to right languages), looking for a relevant result. Placement at or near the top of the rankings therefore increases the number of searchers who will visit a site.[35] However, more search engine referrals does not guarantee more sales. SEO is not necessarily an appropriate strategy for every website, and other Internet marketing strategies can be much more effective, depending on the site operator's goals.[36]A successful Internet marketing campaign may drive organic traffic to web pages, but it also may involve the use of paid advertising on search engines and other pages, building high quality web pages to engage and persuade, addressing technical issues that may keep search engines from crawling and indexing those sites, setting up analytics programs to enable site owners to measure their successes, and improving a site's conversion rate.[37]SEO may generate a return on investment. However, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of continued referrals. Due to this lack of guarantees and certainty, a business that relies heavily on search engine traffic can suffer major losses if the search engines stop sending visitors.[38] It is considered wise business practice for website operators to liberate themselves from dependence on search engine traffic.[39] A top-ranked SEO blog Seomoz.org[40] has reported, "Search marketers, in a twist of irony, receive a very small share of their traffic from search engines." Instead, their main sources of traffic are links from other websites.[41]
International markets
The search engines' market shares vary from market to market, as does competition. In 2003, Danny Sullivan stated that Google represented about 75% of all searches.[42] In markets outside the United States, Google's share is often larger, and Google remains the dominant search engine worldwide as of 2007.[43] As of 2006, Google held about 40% of the market in the United States, but Google had an 85-90% market share in Germany.[44] While there were hundreds of SEO firms in the US at that time, there were only about five in Germany.[44]In Russia the situation is reversed. Local search engine Yandex controls 50% of the paid advertising revenue, while Google has less than 9%.[45] In China, Baidu continues to lead in market share, although Google has been gaining share as of 2007.[46]
Successful search optimization for international markets may require professional translation of web pages, registration of a domain name with a top level domain in the target market, and web hosting that provides a local IP address. Otherwise, the fundamental elements of search optimization are essentially the same, regardless of language.
What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?
SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:- Reviewing and providing recommendations on your site content or structure
- Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
- Content development
- Managing online business development campaigns
- Keyword research
- SEO training
Before beginning your search for an SEO, it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend starting here:
If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.
Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:
- Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
- Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
- Do you offer any online marketing services to complement your organic search business?
- What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?
- What's your experience in my industry?
- How long have you been in business?
- Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
- No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
- Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.
- You should never have to link to an SEO.
Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
- Choose wisely.
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.
- Be sure to understand where the money goes.
While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.
- What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.
Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
- What are some other things to look out for?
There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
- owns shadow domains
- puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
- offers to sell keywords in the address bar
- doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
- guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
- operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
- gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
- has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google
If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.
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