SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Introduction to SEO

• “SEO is a process of optimizing a web site by improving on site and off site aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines.”

“Ethical SEO – Based on experience and evidence rather than theory.”

• SEO is a process through which we can achieve the natural or organic results of the website in Search Engine Results Pages – SERPs. Some organizations, which practice SEO, can vary; some have a highly specialized focus while others take a broad and general approach. Optimizing a web site for search engines can require looking at so many unique factors that many professional of SEO (SEOs) consider themselves to be in the broad field of website optimization.

• SEO will make the site search engine friendly so that our potential clients to find us more easily when surfing the web.

• SEO is also called natural or organic results because we don’t have to pay to search engine to get the listed in search engine database and to achieve the high rankings on the desired keywords.

Why company or website need SEO?

• As we know very well that nowadays there is a trend of online shopping because people don’t have enough time to go physically at the place so they are making the shopping from the Internet or by online so it will save the lots of time.
• The major traffic (visitors) on the web site is coming from a well-known Search Engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. Although AOL gets nearly 5.9% of searches, their search engine is powered by Google's results). Now if your site will not be submitted in the search engine’s database than it will not be found by search engine so when people will use the search engine they cant find your site whether your site is providing best content, products and services .so that your company can miss the invaluable chance available to your website through search engine so search engines are a basic method of navigation for almost all Internet users.

• Once your site will be stored in the Search Engine’s database after the site must be optimized for the search engine to achieve the rankings on the desired Keywords.
• Site can be optimized for search engine through mainly two factors that are given below.
• There are mainly two optimization factors to optimize the site for the search engine.

· On Page Optimization factors

· Off Page Optimization factors

• We can see from many experiences that the traffic, which is coming from the search engine traffic, can make company's success. Company can create the traffic of targeted visitors from search engine so if you will invest in SEO by time or finance, it will give high ROI. If any company, organization or site will not give the more emphasis on SEO than they can loose their 50 to 60% online business.
  

Why your site can’t get high rankings in search engine without SEO help?

• When you submit your site into search engine database so that will be stored in their database but nowadays the online business is becoming very competitive day by day so there will be lots of site in search engine’s database which will be related to your site. So how your site can get high rankings??
• Search engines are using Algorithm (mathematical equations) for giving the ranking priority to the web sites. However, there will always be a limit that how search engines are working so right step can create great traffic of visitors at your site and the wrong step can down your rankings in search results.

Search Engine Algorithm

Every search engines have their own method to give the rankings to the website in search engine results pages (SERPs). This method is called Algorithm. Search engine algorithm is based on mathematical equations. Every search engines have their own algorithm. No body knows the search engine algorithm but based on some experience and results, SEOs (Search Engine Optimizers) know some factors of search engine algorithm. Based on experience, they can achieve the high rankings of web site on desired keywords.

Search engines are changing their algorithm at some time (Not fixed) so nobody can stay permanent with existing factors and knowledge in SEO market. Based on experience and results, professional SEOs can stay update with the search engine algorithm update.

Nowadays there is a vast opportunity for small and medium size companies and organizations to make their online business successful with the help of SEO.

How the Search Engine Works??

Search engines are doing certain operations that allow them to provide relevant and unique web results when people (searchers) use their system to find the information.

• Crawling the website

When the site is submitted into the search engine database, search engines run automated programs, called "bots" or "Spiders" that use the hyperlink structure of the web to "crawl" the pages that make up the World Wide Web. There is some estimation like from 20 billion existing pages Search engines have crawled between 8 and 10 billion.

• Indexing pages

Once search engine crawled the link, that link page contents can be "indexed" and stored in a giant database of pages that makes up a search engine's "index". This index pages needs to be tightly and strongly managed so that when the requests will be searched by the searcher, search engine sorts billions of documents can be completed in fractions of a second.

• Processing the queries/requests

When the searcher will request or search for information, the search engine retrieves all the pages from its indexed pages that match the request. A request is determined if the search or phrase is found on the page in the manner specified by the user. For example, a search for software design and development at Google returns 42.40 million results, but a search for the same phrase in quotes ("software design and development") returns only 3.13 lacs results. In the first request, commonly called "Findall" mode, Google returned all pages which had the terms "software" "design" and "development" (they ignore the term "and" because it's not useful to narrowing the results), while in the second search (request), only those pages with the exact phrase "software design and development" were returned

• Ranking results of the website

Once the search engine has determined which results are a match for the query, the search engine's algorithm runs calculations on each of the results to determine which is most relevant to the given query (request). They sort these on the results pages (SERPs) in order from most relevant to least so that users can make a choice about which to select. Again the basic things will back here, search engine will display the results or it will give the priority to web site based on page and off page factors


Search engine's operations are not lengthy but systems like Google, Yahoo and MSN are among the most complex, processing-intensive computer systems in the world. Their system is managing millions of calculations each second and funneling demands for information to an enormous group of users.

• Relevance

When the user will search to get some information at that time search engine will check the relevance factor in the content of the page. How much the content is related to the user’s query intention and terms? The relevance of the page increases if the request searched by the user occurs multiple times in the content and shows up in the title of the page or in important headings and subheadings.

• Popularity
  

If your page is related to the search query than it will be relevance so it will be popular because other pages can give the reference of that page. In page analysis, search engines look at whether the search phrases are found in important areas of the content in page - the title, the Meta data, the heading tags and the body of text content. They also try to automatically measure the quality of the page (through algorithm).

• Duplicate Content
  

One of the most common and problematic issues for website builders, particularly those with larger, dynamic sites powered by databases, is the issue of duplicate content. Search engines are primarily interested in unique content. If you have duplicate content in your site, than it can be hurt your rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Building a Site Search Engine Friendly

One of the most important (and often overlooked) subjects in SEO is building a site, which must be search engine friendly and user friendly to get the top rankings in search engine. Search engine’s goals are to rank the best, most usable, functional and informative sites first. By intertwining your site's content and performance with these goals, you can help to ensure its long-term prospects in the search engine rankings.

• Usability
  

Usability means the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve specified goals in a particular environment. In related to a Website, Usability is the user experience in navigating an interface, locating information, and obtaining knowledge over the Internet. Not really making sure about everything on the site works, but making sure how quickly and easily your visitors are able to reach the goal.

• Design
  

The graphical elements and layout of website have a strong influence on how easily usable the site is. Design also encompasses important topics like visibility & contrast, affecting how easy it is for users to interest the text and image elements of the site. Separations of unique sections like navigation, advertising, content, and search bars, etc. is also critical, as users follow design cues to help them understand a page's content.

• Information Architecture
  

Information architecture focuses on designing effective navigation, organization, labeling, and search systems. The role of the information architect is crucial to the planning and conceptual design/redesign stages of web development, as good information architecture lays the foundation upon which a website is built. Topics and categorization impact the ease with which a user can find the information they need on your site.

• Why need Informational Architecture?

Users can feel lost even in a relatively small information space that is not well organized. The problem becomes even greater when you consider the possibility that people can arrive at any given web page from any other page on the web. They may not always enter your site from your home page.

• Solution

Arriving in the middle of a site through a search engine is the equivalent of waking up in an unknown station. So use your navigation and category structure to tell your visitors where they've arrived. The best way is to use the breadcrumb trail, and also to change the color of the current section in any navigation bar that covers your main sections.

• Navigation
  

1. Be easy to learn.
2. Provide feedback.
3. Be consistent throughout the website.
4. Use the minimum number of clicks to arrive at the next destination.
5. Use clear and intuitive labels.
6. Support user tasks.
7. Have each link be distinct from other links.
8. Group navigation into logical units.
9. Avoid making the user scroll to get to important navigation or submit buttons.
   
10. Not disable the browser's back button.

• Accessibility

“Users need to find information quickly and easily”

Accessibility refers primarily to the technical ability of users to access and move through your site, as well as the ability of the site to serve disabled or impaired users.

For SEO purposes, the most important aspects are limiting code errors to a minimum and fixing broken links, making sure that content is accessible and visible in all browsers and without special actions.

• Content

The usability of content itself is often overlooked, but its importance cannot be overstated. The descriptive nature of headlines, the accuracy of information and the quality of content all factor highly into a site's likelihood to retain visitors and gain search engine rankings.


SEO Benefits:

• Targeted and potential traffic
  
• Visibility in the international market
  
• High ROI (Return On Investment)
• Higher Sales
• Cost-effective

Conclusion: Implementing an SEO Strategy

The process of SEO is a long term or never ending process because so many pieces of a site factor into the final results.

“Patience is not the only virtue that should be used for successful SEO”