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Search Engine Optimization
Elements of an SEO Strategy
Ian Lurie, Portent Interactive, Seattle, WA
April 29, 2003
Of all the areas of Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
is the most misunderstood, and potentially the most important to
your marketing efforts. There are millions upon millions of pages
of web content out there — you can work hard, build a great site,
and then be totally lost in the shuffle. SEO is important. It’s
also a very complex process that requires patience, careful planning
and a long-term approach.
If you’re just getting started with:
- Selecting an SEO firm
- Trying to start a search engine campaign on your own
- Reviewing your current SEO efforts
…read on. This article should provide you with a high-level
review of the SEO process, dispel a few SEO myths, and help you
understand legitimate optimization strategies.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, defies easy definition. But
here’s a short version:
Search Engine Optimization
Using keyword
analysis and other legitimate practices to gain the highest
possible search engine and directory rankings, under a
given key phrase, for a given URL.
Every SEO professional in the world just cringed, so I’ll break
this definition down a bit and hopefully prevent a hail of angry
emails:
Keyword Analysis is the process of mining keyword
search data to find the best balance between the keywords you need
and the best potential search niche. More on this later.
Search Engine means an automated search engine.
‘Search Engines’ include Google, AlltheWeb.com, Yahoo
(powered by Google plus their own directory information), AOL Search,
Ask Jeeves and MSN Search. A search engine obtains its results from
‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ — small programs
that come to your web site read it in much the same way you would:
By reading the content on a page, and then moving from page to page
via links. A directory, on the other hand, is built at least in
part by human beings reading sites and other information and deciding
where each site fits into the directory structure. Yahoo’s
directory area and Open Directory are both examples of directories.
Ranking is the numeric rank reflecting your position
in the results list when someone performs a search on a particular
set of keywords.
Highest Possible means getting as close to number
one as you can. Sometimes you just can’t get that number one
spot. Maybe someone else has a 400-page web site solely dedicated
to the key phrase for which you’re attempting to optimize.
Or maybe they’re paying a fortune in advertising. That’s
life, sometimes…
Key Phrase is the keyword or set of keywords someone
types into the little ‘search’ field in Google or Alta
Vista or any other search engine.
A URL is the address of one page on your site.
Most search engines display keyword search results and provide a
link directly to the page most relevant to those results, rather
than your home page. It’s very, very important to keep that
in mind when you build and optimize your site.
Legitimate Practices is a pet peeve of mine. A
true search engine optimization campaign will not use practices
such as page or content cloaking, redirects, or lists of links (so-called
‘link farms’) but relies on good coding practices, well-written
content, steady link popularity work and site features that will
be every bit as valuable for site visitors as for search engine
ranking. Anything less is a short-term fix that will likely reduce
your rankings more often than increase them.
So, the long version of the definition would be:
Search Engine Optimization
Using keyword
analysis, good coding practices, well-written copy, link
popularity analysis and careful site organization to move
a web page as close to the number one search results position
as possible for a given key phrase, in both search engines
and directories.
Hey, that’s not so bad after all. But how do you get started? First,
you separate reality from myth…
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