Archive for August, 2008

To understand search engine optimization, one must understand the basic critical operations that enable a search engine to present information to a user during a search. The first operation is called “crawling”- search engines run automated programs, usually called “bots” or “spiders” that literally crawl the Web via the hyperlink structure. Around eight to ten billion of the total twenty billion have been crawled to date. After the periodic crawl through the Web, the next critical operation is called the indexing, or storing in large databases. These indexes are managed a very, very efficient manner, because a search should only take fractions of a second to complete. The third critical operation is the processing of queries, where keywords of users are compared to the ones stored in the large databases, there are mainly two types of keywords, the ones the “Findall” mode and the ones who are not. After the processing, the pages to be displayed to the user are ranked, one the basis of relevance.

To make a site SEO-friendly, the following should be remembered and applied during the creation/origination of the web site or in its subsequent modifications. URLs with 2+ dynamic parameters may hinder spiders from crawling a page, because they often result in errors with visitors that are non-human. Also, websites that have more than a hundred unique links to other pages may not be crawled completely, given the kind of tight indexing that an efficient search should return to users. Web pages that require more than three links or clicks from the home page may also not be crawled, because they are already considered “deep” pages. Fourth thing to remember is that robot crawlers often are unable to index websites that require a Session ID or Cookie, because of the programs’ inability to retain these particular elements in the same way that a regular web browser would. Also, using frames for your website would mean that crawlers would be confused during the ranking of the pages, and may result in your frames being buried during results. There are other possible obstacles in the inclusion of your website in top results of search engines, and the first of these obstacles is making a page accessible only through a select form and a submit button. Crawlers generally do not perform other operations within a page, and if this is the case for your website, there is a chance that it might not be indexed. Second, if a page is available only through a drop-down HTML menu, again, crawlers would not be able to index properly. Same goes for websites that require first a log-in before the website’s full display. The last obstacle is making the website available only after re-directing. Search engines term this kind of website behavior as cloaking or bait-and-switching, and may cause the search engines to even ban your website from inclusion in any subsequent crawls. The main thing about making your web site SEO friendly is providing optimized keywords, and other than that, providing direct HTML links to the pages that you wish to be included in the crawl. Of course, web pages that have no link at all from the main web page will not be included.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Before plunging head-on into using several applications to optimize results for your web page, a few things should be kept in mind even during this research and labor-intensive phase. Remember, search engine optimization relies mainly on a tight archive of interrelated keywords that are managed extra efficiently so that results are brought back in fractions of a second. There are a few things that search engines actually look into in the attempt to place a particular value for a link: the anchor text of a link, the global popularity of the site, the popularity of the site in relevant communities, the text directly surrounding the link and the subject matter of the linking page.

The anchor text of link is important because search engines often rank in terms of how many relevant terms there are in a particular link. So, more relevant terms in one link means a better ranking for multiple searches using disparate terms. For instance, if the anchor text of link has “shopping is great” and “it saves money” at the same time, it caters to two specific searches at once. The global popularity of the site simply connotes how many other websites link directly to the website. For example if your website is cited by CNN or other heavyweights, then those links carry far more weight than lesser sites pointing to your own website. The popularity of the website in relevant communities pertains to the granular approach of many of the advanced search engines, which acknowledges that there are now topical communities across the Web, and the interlinking of the websites is also used in the ranking of pages. Texts directly surrounding the link are ranked better than those, say, in sidebars or those in the middle of the paragraph or the end of it. Subject matter of the linking page refers to the relationship of the subject matter of a given page and the sites or pages linked to it. These links may also influence the ranking of a particular page, so it will be more advantageous to put links that are relevant to the topic at hand than those who have little to do with the topic.

After taking into consideration all these aforementioned elements, it’s time to decide on what applications to utilize in order for your website to be truly search engine optimized. Search engine optimization is always a work in progress, and so don’t be discouraged if it takes a while for your conclusions regarding your keywords to take effect. Always be proactive- be on the lookout for new studies and simultaneously conduct your own investigation of different market behaviors. Applications that may be able to help you is Google’s AdWords program, keyword research tools such as Wordtracker and Overture, SEOmoz’s KW Difficulty Tool and Indextools and ClickTracks for further refinements. Analytics programs like Indextools and Clicktracks further narrow down specific viable keywords and they also measure website traffic, activity and detailed conversions of clicks and searches.

Popularity: 20% [?]