SEO - Search Engine Optimization Overview

The History

Since the mid-90's search engines have been databasing the web, taking care to methodically crawl all discoverable web pages through a tightly-connected weave of highly-functional web servers.

As these databases grew so did the search algorithms, which in turn improved the quality of search results. Quality search results provided tremendous value to Internet users, and by the late nineties search engines became among the most trafficked websites on the web.

Most major engines from the nineties have consolidated or have been dissolved. Google and Yahoo! have emerged as the leaders in this market. Consumer usage of the search engines has grown along side the ongoing improvement and usability of the search engines. Other major contributors include the increase of PC and Internet penetration in U.S. and worldwide households.

Webmasters and business owners began to understand the value and importance of website rankings in the mid-90's. By 1998 "search engine optimization" had officially become a cottage web industry. Through experimentation and trial and error, Internet professionals had begun to "reverse-engineer" search engine algorithms. Through this reverse engineering , webmasters were able to manipulate search engine results, which allowed them to position their website or their client's websites more favorably under pre-determined keywords or keyword phrases.

At the time search engines were looking primarily at the content and coding (META tags) on the website as the indicators of keyword-relevancy. Webmaster began stuffing keywords into web page content, which yielded spammy looking web pages. Savvy engines were manually picking these pages out of the index, and worked feverishly on their algorithms to penalize websites abusing the system. Webmasters began combating the spam teams and algorithms, and started hiding their spammy website content. Content was being hidden in white text on white backgrounds, and within website code.

Search engines quickly caught on and upgraded algorithms to take care of such spam. Over the years new technologies like Flash and CSS have become more popular and SEO's (search engine optimizers) have found ways to exploit these technologies for search engine benefit. Responsible engines like Google have been strict and prompt to establish safeguards against this search engine spam.

As Google took market leadership in the early 2000's the rules of SEO began to change. Google's popular "PageRank" algorithm proved to be more powerful that traditional search algorithms. PageRank instituted a new form of ranking classification by comparing the relationships of the websites stored within the Google web page database. In particular, Google began rewarding websites that displayed higher levels of popularity. This popularity was determined based on the volume and quality of other websites linking to the website being judged.

Google took this one step further by classifying certain website groups into "neighborhoods," analyzing link structures at the neighborhood level. SEO's have coined this more extracted view of the web as "website trust" or "website authority." Over time, Yahoo! and MSN have followed suit with similar algorithms.

Over the last few years SEO's have adopted techniques to improve website popularity through a combination of directory registration, link reciprocation (exchange), forum and blog link posts, paid blog reviews, and text link advertising.

It is important to note that many SEO's are methodical in staying inline with search engine guidelines. Major engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN have established "webmaster guidelines." These guidelines help interested webmasters stay in the SEO safe zones.

Search engine optimization is an important asset to the major search engines, and can be a valuable resource for most businesses, assuming the appropriate rules are followed by webmasters and/or SEO's.

SEO Best Practices

SEO has been classified by the industry into two parts including (1) on-page optimization and (2) off-page optimization. On-page optimization involves the research, development, and implementation of search engine optimization techniques for website code and content. Off-page optimization, also known as "link building," involves improving website popularity through a variety of techniques designed to attract or guarantee that other websites will link to the website receiving the off-page optimization, thereby increasing link popularity.

There are several components to on-page optimization, which include but are not limited to:

1) Website Needs Analysis
2) Keyword Analysis
3) Keyword Page Assignment
4) Web Page Code Optimization
5) Web Page Content Optimization (Including PDF's, Whitepapers, etc.)

6) Web Page Media Optimization (Video, Images, Audio/Podcasts)

7) Internal Link & PageRank Sculpting Optimization
8) Dynamic Website Optimization (CMS + Shopping Carts)
9) Redirects & Multi-URL Optimization
10) Website Obstacle Analysis (Penalties, Frames, etc.)

There are several components to on-page optimization, which include but are not limited to:

1) Directory Submission and Registration (sometimes not endorsed by search engines)
2) Press Release Distribution  (sometimes not endorsed by search engines)
3) Article Distribution (sometimes not endorsed by search engines)
4) Link Reciprocation /  Link Exchange (generally not endorsed by search engines)
5) Text Link Advertising (generally not endorsed by search engines)
6) Hosted Marketing Pages and/or BlogReviews (generally not endorsed by search engines)
7) Forum and Blog Comment Spam (absolutely not endorsed by search engines)
8) Link Bait Techniques (sometimes not endorsed by search engines)
9) Social Media Techniques, Blogrolls, etc. (sometimes not endorsed by search engines)

The art and science of search engine optimization is constantly at battle with more measurable marketing and advertising competitors, like pay-per-click. Measuring SEO is done via search engine rankings, organic search engine traffic, and quality of SEO work. Sometimes higher rankings will not lead to substantial website traffic increases. Results expectations should be inline with industry traffic trends. For example, ecommerce websites selling books should see more traffic than companies specializing in air ambulance medivac. Search engines warn about unrealistic ranking expectations, building a business around organic positions, or working with SEO firms that guarantee rankings.

There are many software programs and website tools online to help better understand website rankings, and there are a variety of free and paid website analytic tools to help measure organic search engine visitor traffic, and keyword traffic trends.

Search engine optimization is not a silver bullet. It's a necessary component to the website design and marketing process, and should be viewed primarily an online marketing supplement. That said, SEO can be a powerful component in the online marketing toolkit, and taking care to understand how the best practices work, and when/where to implement them can lead to better website rankings. Better rankings lead to more website leads and/or sales. Businesses that are able to successfully leverage SEO in their Internet marketing mix may very well have a leg up on the competition. Just be careful not to over-extend resources and violate webmaster guidelines.