Search Engine Optimization Overview

A detailed look at Portent’s SEO methods

How We Work: The Four Pillars of Search Engine Optimization

Our primary goal, of course, is to increase targeted traffic to your web site. But we need to accomplish a few other things first. There are four lynchpins to any successful search engine marketing campaign:

Semantic Space. First, we have to establish a clear picture of the words and phrases that will bring relevant visitors to your site, and what you want those visitors to do. Your best online audience defines your organization in their own terms. If your message is well-defined, then the terms that audience uses will overlap with the ones you want them to use; those terms will also bring you visitors that are most likely to convert into leads, customers, etc.. We call that overlap your semantic space. We use a proprietary data mining technique to find the terms and phrases that exist in that space, and back it up with audience and goals research. Semantic space is the foundation for your entire campaign.

Search engine readiness. Your site must be coded using clean HTML code that complies with current standards. That creates a site that a search engine can easily read and add to its index, and yields the best long-term results. A well-coded site forms the basis for a successful campaign with a high ratio of content to code and the kind of fast-loading, accessible structure that search engines love to see.

Content & Structure.
Search engines look for text content – not images, video or (in most cases) Flash. They also respect structure: Your site structure should have the most semantically relevant information higher up in the site hierarchy, and each page on your site should use structural elements – heading, paragraph and other HTML tags – to indicate what’s most important. Search engines want to know what’s important about your organization. Show them that with content and structure, and your results will be more predictable.

Link Popularity.
Search engines also look for your site’s ‘popularity’ – Google, Yahoo and the other major search players want to see sites that have incoming links from other relevant sites. We will seek out relevant linking opportunities, free and paid. Resources include current Portent clients, online directories and press releases you submit to news wire organizations. We maintain an extensive database of directories and potential links for this purpose.

Truly ‘organic’ search engine marketing improves your ranking while improving the quality of your overall Internet marketing campaign. Note that accomplishing each of these goals will improve the overall value of your site, too: Improved HTML code will increase usability; content will teach visitors more about your product; increased link popularity will increase the legitimacy of your site.

We Wear White Hats. Portent is definitely a ‘white hat’ search marketing agency. We don’t try any dirty tricks, such as hidden text, redirects or ‘link farms’. As you can see from what you’ve read so far, we get results through solid business practices, not snake oil. Read on…

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