Chapter 9 - Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is search engine optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of ensuring that your site pages acquire and maintain a favorable search engine ranking.

Here are some other marketing-related ways to increase your Web site audience and traffic.

Note that, when applied correctly, all of these techniques will work in harmony with your SEO strategy, rather than compete against it. ●*Provide high-quality and regularly updated content. * A gorgeous presentation might get you a bunch of one-time visitors who admire the beauty (innovation, cleverness, etc.) of your site, but to build a loyal base of users who continue to visit your site for months or even years, content is key. Not just any content; you need high-quality content that is regularly updated. ●*Cultivate a good reputation with your users. * In our social-media obsessed world, word gets around. Getting good buzz from users is a great way to build a large and active audience. *Promote the site actively to your target audience. * Along with SEO, use whatever avenues of promotion you deem appropriate for your audience: online directories (Yelp, Angie's List, etc.), social networking, blogs and articles, photo sharing, advertising, email flyers, etc. ●*Identify and strengthen your site's competitive uniqueness. * If your site is an online clothing store, find some way to make it more desirable than other similar online clothing stores: all-natural fibers, extra-petite sizes, exotic men's shirts, etc. Think different, rather than "been there, done that." ●*Use marketing tactics such as mailing list announcements and newsletters. * Remember: Web users typically get a huge stack of emails every day, so make sure to give your announcements and newsletters an irresistible "hook" — freebies, special deals or insider information generally work well — to grab their attention and entice them to revisit the site. ●*Use Web analytics to increase site traffic.*

SEO and Web site marketing

SEO is just one piece of the puzzle in developing a successful Web site. Putting your site's success at the mercy of search engine optimization means that the site will live and die with the algorithms used by the search engines. On the other hand, neglecting SEO will undermine the Web site's ability to retain current customers and acquire new ones. n a nutshell: You should consider SEO to be a vital part of your Web site marketing plan, but not the entire plan.

How SEO works

Search engines use automated programs called Web crawlers — also known as Web spiders, robots or bots — that "crawl" from page to page across the Web, read the source code and store this data in the search engine's database When a user enters a search term, the search engine analyzes the data its crawlers have gathered to create an on-the-fly list of Web pages it deems appropriate for the search. Each search engine uses its own proprietary algorithm to determine what it considers to be appropriate search results and to rank them by relevance. The exact nature of a search algorithm is kept a closely guarded secret by the search engine company that developed it for two main reasons: ●It prevents other search engine companies from using (and profiting from) the algorithm's strengths. For example, it is the strength of Google's proprietary search algorithm that enables it to perform better than its competitors, and in turn to make Google the leading search engine on the Web. Sharing this algorithm with the world would mean sharing it with rival companies who would like nothing more than to compete strongly with Google. ●Keeping the search algorithm a secret prevents SEO experts from being able to "trick" a search engine into giving a site a higher ranking than it might otherwise get. SEO professionals often look for ways to exploit a search algorithm to help nudge their client sites to the top of the search results list. Though common, this practice is generally considered to be unethical, particularly if the SEO experts drive up the ranking of inferior sites or sites with content not directly related to the search term.