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Search Engine Optimization 101 Written By:Brooks on December 31, 1969, 5:00 pm. Views: 1619 Comments: 2
Search Engine Optimization, (SEO) is a million dollar industry flooded with quick fix, black hat, individuals and companies that will promise to get your site ranking on the first page of google within weeks. Before we get into that, let's take a step back and talk about what Search Engine Optimization really is.
SEO, is in a nutshell how your website ranks according to search engines like Google or Yahoo. There are literally thousands of factors and tricks that factor in to SEO and how your site will rank in accordance with the previously mentioned engines.
So what are these tricks? Take for example Google, Google has millions of "robots" that scan web pages and literally record and process the text within that web page. What this does is provide google with a GINORMOUS database of text. From there, when a user goes to Google and types in "homes for sale in Myrtle Beach" Google has indexed all these millions of site that has the text "homes for sale in Myrtle Beach somewhere on the page."
So from there, the question is how does Google or Yahoo discern which site is the best match to the user's search. This is where tactics, usability, and "hits" come in. The most important component in all search engine ranking systems are hits. A hit is when a unique user comes and visits a site (not the same user over and over). By calculating these hits, Google knows that if 10,000 people are visiting one website with the search text in it over another site, that most likely the 10,000 site is more credible and legit. Here are a few other factors:
1. hits
2. Text, and how many times a search phrase is repeated. **Google will also scan the surrounding text to check for similar context, pictures alt tags, and meta keywords that are set by the web developer
3. Size of the .html page. Too large of a page will take too long to download and therefore decrease your ranking as Google sees this as a sign of an inexperienced developer and assumes a less valid site.
4. Menu Navigation -- Google can NOT index pictures, there is no way for their "robots" to scan images and index them. What they can do is scan the alternate text associated within the tag. Google also can NOT index Javascript code, the fancy menus that drop down on the page etc.
5. Links-- Links are a very important aspect to SEO. If you are a Shoe Website, you want to link to other valid Shoe distributors (Nike,FootAction) Google will see that you claim you site is about shoes...you talk about shoes...and that you link to shoes. Google likes this. What Google would like even more is that if those same companies linked back to you. Think about how highly a site like NIKE.com is regarded by Google. If you could get a link from Nike.com to your smaller website that would INSTANTLY increase the validity of your website in the eyes of Google. So if you are a distributor of a product then it is of great benefit for you to get a link to your site on that distributor's website as it is most likely highly regarded by Google.
So.. what about these companies that promise to put your company on the front page within 24 hours etc. Well, they will get you banned from Google, and here is why. There are a number of ways to fool the Google Robots, for example as I mentioned earlier the robots scan the page for a certain search phrase like "homes in myrtle beach" Some of these companies will put WHITE text on a WHITE background so that the user can see it and constantly repeat the phrase "homes in myrtle beach" therefore having the robot think that this page is about homes in myrtle beach big time. Google will actually penalize you heavily for these type tricks, and your site will not be able to rank highly in Google for many months to come.
Basically, there is no quick fix to ranking highly on Google. The trick is to have a highly skilled developer optimize your site with keywords,phrases, and efficient code. Partner that with time, links, and marketing and let the search engine robots find and validate your site.
NetWareSquad, currently has some very high ranking SEO Clients. WaccamawLandscaping.com ranks 3rd for the keywords "Landscaping in Myrtle Beach" as well as "Landscaping in Pawleys Island" as well as the recently finished RHMooreCompany.com ranking 3rd as well with "utility contractors sc" and "water and sewer line installation sc." Lastly, an Italian Restaurant in Wilmington, NC giorgios-restaurant.com. Ranks 3rd for "italian restaurants wilmington nc" and "italian dining wilmington nc"
We work very hard with our clients to tailor their keywords to bring as much exposure to their company as possible. Get in touch with us today so that we can bring more traffic to your website!
