More Links

Website Design Series

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is a term many speak about but few understand. It is an important part of overall website design. This article explains the benefits of search engine optimization, provides some further information about search engine marketing and answers some basic questions about how to be successful doing search engine optimization.

No surprise – the internet has become the most important and fastest growing marketing medium out there, and monthly search activity is quickly closing in on a billion. WOW! Recent surveys show that a #1 ranking in the natural search listings will get about a 60%+ click through rate. While a first-page ranking in the major search engines is great, a recent survey showed that only about half of internet searchers will look beyond position #6. So, if you want to drive significant numbers of people to your website a top 6 placement is important.

There are two ways to get high in the search rankings – you can “earn your way there” by doing natural or organic search engine optimization. You can also “pay your way there” by doing Sponsored Links or Pay-per-Click search engine marketing. There are advantages to both and both are effective. However, this article focuses specifically on natural search engine optimization. If you want to learn more about search engine marketing tactics and strategies, just contact us.

Natural search engine optimization (referred to as seo) is comprised of two major elements: 1) on-page optimization and 2) off-page optimization. Generally speaking the search engines look at two major things when deciding who to place in the top spots. First, does the content of your website match what the person is searching for? That’s the on-page side of things. Second, how many other websites are linking to your website? That’s the off-page side of things.

On-page elements include things like metadata, optimized alt and header tags in your html code, the right keyphrase density in your text, updated and fresh content in your website and just how much information there is on your website around the term being searched.

Off-page factors include how many other websites are linking to yours, how relevant are the incoming links, how relevant is the website linking to you and how popular is the website that links to you. The search engines consider a link coming to your website from another website as a “vote”. Think of it as a “vote of confidence”. If the search engines see a lot of websites “voting” for yours, they think your website must be important – and consequently, give you good rankings.

Certainly there’s a lot more to it than this and many believe Google has more than 100 variables in the formula that determines rankings. However, in most cases, good on-page and off-page optimization will help your website get high rankings and help drive some of those interested searchers to your website.

You might think that search engine optimization isn’t important to you right now and you might be correct. However, with the internet growing at “light speed”, search engine optimization will begin to become important for all of us.