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What is Search Engine Optimization?

The expression "Search Engine Optimization" is something of a misnomer as it is not the Search Engine that is being optimized. The phase describes process of designing or modifying a web site in order to achieve high rankings in search engines results pages (SERPS). Search engine companies would say that web designers should simply get on with producing excellent content and making their sites easy to navigate and let the search engines get on with indexing the resulting pages. On the other hand it can be argued that the search engine algorithm designers have the best idea of what elements constitute a well designed website and by learning from their ideas we should be able to build better websites.

An example would be the infamous 'click here' link. 10 years after the Web entered the mainstream web authors are still using this or similar semantically challenged terms. Google, who originated the idea of ranking sites based on links puts value on the text used in those links. Recognizing this, web designers wanting to achieve high rankings in Google will strive to use meaningful anchor text and increase the hyper-linking of their sites. So long as this isn't taken to extremes, which in any event Google could recognize and ignore or punish, this should improve the user experience.

Optimizing a Web site requires some knowledge of what factors search engines use when ranking a page and how significant each of these factors is for a particular search engine. Search engines use a mixture of on-page and off-page factors. On-page factors include the obvious such as keyword density but may also include less obvious ones such as the ALT text field used in HTML image elements. Off-page factors include the number of inbound or backlinks to the website. Different search engines put different weight on each of these factors; the exact algorithms used are a closely guarded secret and change frequently. SEO experts spend a lot of time analyzing how important each of these is to a particular search engine. If all search engines were perfect then they would all return the most relevant results in the same order. However we are some way from this situation so designing a site that ranks well with all search engines is difficult. SEO experts will also base their decisions on the popularity of a particular search engine. At present this often means designing for Google and perhaps Yahoo! and MSN Search. Where this is done judiciously the optimizations should not exclude high rankings with other search engines.

People have different reasons for wanting to achieve high rankings but probably the strongest motivation for the majority of sites employing search engine optimization techniques is money. Some website operators say that the end justifies the means. Some of these sites are content poor, a user is sucked in like a spider down a plug-hole with the sole objective of attracting the maximum number of eyeballs to the page. The site may simply be a front for affiliate advertising. The site owner hopes that a certain percentage of visitors will find some of the adverts interesting enough to click on them and so earn him money. These website operators will employ whatever optimizations are necessary in order to attract visitors. These techniques are often referred to as Black Hat SEO. This phrase is drawn from the computer security industry (and ultimately from Westerns) where black hats are the bad guys and white hats the good guys. Black hat SEO may use tricks including Link Farms and Blog Spamming. Black Hat SEO can be thought of as any technique that gets your website a higher rank in search engine results pages than its content would merit. These sites often have wildly fluctuating rankings for given keywords as search engines update their algorithms in response to these techniques. The best known of these updates was the Google Florida algorithm change. Black hat optimizations contravene most search engines’ terms and conditions (TOCs) and can get the site banned. For some Black hatters this is not an issue as they simply establish a new domain and move on but for legitimate businesses with a great deal invested in their web presence it can be nothing short of a disaster.

Search engine optimization and search engine algorithms can be thought of as species in an ecosystem. They are in a constant state of evolution. Some people fear that search engine optimization will eventually lead to results pages that are full of highly optimized but ultimately worthless websites. While in the past search engines have shown their susceptibility to this, particularly from controversial optimizations, it is in the search engine owner’s interest to return relevant results, the struggle between search engines and the optimizers should improve the quality of results in the long term.

One thing is certain; doing nothing except producing reams of content is no longer an option. Good website structure and design is a learned process and understanding search engines and how they rank sites is part of that process. The message is simple, optimize or die. Search engine optimization should be an integral part of the site design and not simply considered as an afterthought. Optimization of an existing site is certainly possible but can involve a period of upheaval for an established site and is certainly more expensive in terms of effort.

Search engine optimization is one place where small websites can really make a difference compared to big business. I've spent over 15 years consulting for some major blue chip outfits and by the time their websites have gone through the mill of management and marketing they are generally a search engine hell of rinky-dinky flashy effects, a triumph of style over substance. Of course the corporates win out by having large advertising budgets to promote their sites in the off-line world. If you are working for a corporate do not despair, the techniques and arguments we'll discuss can help you make a difference.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

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