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Search Engine
Optimization (SEO)
Do you wish you had
more visits to your website?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume
and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via
"natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for
targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search
results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that
site. SEO can also target different kinds of searches, including image search,
local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
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 term "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.
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. However, more search engine referrals does
not guarantee more sales. SEO is not necessarily an appropriate strategy for
every type of website, and other Internet marketing strategies can be much more
effective, depending on the site operator's goals. 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.
SEO may generate a strong 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.
It is considered wise business practice for website operators to
liberate themselves from dependence on search engine traffic alone. A top-ranked SEO blog Seomoz.org 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.
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