Introduction to SEO - What is SEO

Search engine optimization – commonly abbreviated to SEO – is the process whereby a
web site, or more specifically a web page or document, is constructed or amended in such
a way as to improve its placement in the search engine results pages or SERPs. Search
engine optimization should not be seen as an end in itself. It is a function that should be
undertaken to improve the overall commercial performance of a web site.

SEO

Good search engine optimization will ensure that a page appears higher in the search
engine results for a range of relevant, specific and valuable search terms or queries. The
simple objective of SEO is to generate more valuable web site traffic. The achievement of
a higher ranking against relevant search terms has commercial value for a web site
because it will attract more traffic than a lower ranking. In an increasingly crowded
online environment, search engine optimization is therefore a crucial online marketing
discipline.
The role of SEO is to legitimately influence the process of improving rankings. There are
few genuine guarantees of a top placement, particularly for highly competitive search
terms. Good SEO will improve a web site’s ranking across a range of selected terms.
However, any process whereby a search engine is illicitly manipulated in order to
guarantee a high placement is referred to as spamming.
The successful execution of a search engine optimization project requires skills in the
areas of analysis, research, planning, copy writing and communication. A comprehensive
search engine optimization project is divided into four interrelated phases.

1. Pre-site activities – The research and planning activities undertaken before an

existing or new site or page is actually touched or built.
 Understanding your organisation’s online business strategy
 Researching your market category, customers and competitors
 Keyword research and selection

2. On-site activities – The activities directly involved in the content and design of

web pages.

 Writing the title, description and keyword meta tags
 Writing content – Body copy, titles, image tags, outbound links that reflect and
enhance keywords.
 Building internal links – Helping the search engines navigate the site
 Site design and construction - Ensuring the web page utilizes design and code that
can be properly crawled and indexed by the search engines.
3. Off-site activities – Building a portfolio of quality inbound links to your web site.
4. Post –site activities – Analyzing and responding to site traffic and user feedback
once a web site has been optimized. Effective SEO is a continuous activity.

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What is Off page SEO:A Suggested Approach to Link Building

The off-site phase deals primarily with inbound link building. Amongst the major engines
Google places the greatest emphasis on links. The relevance and quality of these links has
a significant influence on the ranking of your site in all of the major engines. The search
engine algorithm interprets each inbound link as a “vote” for a site. Not all links are equal
and therefore the quality of the vote is important in determining the value of the vote.

Key Factors Effecting Link Quality

According to SEO convention and the information gleaned from the Google patents, there

are a number of factors affecting the quality of your inbound links.

Google Page Rank

For Google ranking purposes a link from a high Page Rank site has even greater

influence. A link from a PR 6+ site is extremely valuable. At the other extreme, I suggest

you are prudent when exchanging links with sites of a PR of zero. The PR0 category

contains a number of banned sites.

Site and Page Relevance

A link from a site and page carrying similar content would carry more influence than

from a site without the similar content.

Link Density

Links from pages with fewer outbound links have more influence than from pages where

there are huge numbers of links – see FFAs. Additional outbound links dilute the value of

existing links on a page. My suggestion is to accept links from pages with no more than

10 to 12 links. Avoid pages with 20+ external links.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text that contains or sits alongside a link. This text provides additional

relevance to the quality of a link. Anchor text is written in HTML. On-screen part of the

text shows up as highlighted (usually coloured) or underlined type and part in normal

type. The anchor text for your site could be written in HTML code as follows:

<a href="http://www.blogger.com"> Your Site Title </a> - A short description of what

you do. <BR>

Link Age

A long established link is deemed by Google to have more value than a recent link. A

rapid build up in links may also be deemed spam. However Google apparently makes an

allowance for a rapid build-up of links generated by news stories.

Originating Site has been Crawled and Indexed

It may sound obvious, but for search engine purposes a link is not a link if the search

engines are not aware of it. The link will only exist in the records of the search engine if

the page on which it is situated has been crawled and indexed whilst the link was there.

A Suggested Approach to Link Building

Obtaining a portfolio of good quality links can be a time-consuming task. There are

proprietary software packages to help you in your task of tracking down web sites with

relevant content. Many organisations work on a reciprocal basis. Sites with high Page

Rank may even charge for links. There are also link marketing and exchanging

specialists. 

However, according to Google, any attempt to exchange or buy links with the

explicit attempt to influence the ranking of your web site is considered link spamming.

My suggestion is to start close to home, exchanging links with businesses you may have a

trading relationship with. Do not rush into the link building process and do not trade links

with just anyone. Poor quality links may have a negative impact on your site.

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Meta Description Magic: Optimize Your Meta Description Tag

There is much debate about the current value of meta tags. I still find them very effective
– both as an end in themselves and also as a guide to producing better and more search
friendly content. Although Google apparently ignore their contents, MSN and Yahoo

both still utilise the site title and description meta tags in their search algorithms. MSN’s
newly launched web site still makes reference to the value of the key words meta tag.
Meta tags are so called because they sit above the site – in the “Head” section – and are
not visible to the casual site visitor. The meta tags can be found between the <Head> and
</Head> lines of HTML code, as the description suggests, at the top of the page.

Meta Tag Priorities

The Site Title Meta Tag

The site title tag is the most important meta tag. The site title meta tag is still read and
indexed by all the major engines. How do we know this? Because it appears at the top of
each organic search entry in the search engine results pages. However, some SEOs
dispute whether it is really a meta tag at all – because the information the tag contains is
clearly visible in the top left corner of the blue area surrounding the screen. The
recommendation of RFC 1866, the international standard for HTML, is that the tag
should contain no more than 64 characters, including spaces. There is nothing physically
stopping you exceeding this limit. I have seen some major sites with 150 characters in
this tag. However the typical, browser can only show 70 or so characters and secondly,
and with more characters, the impact of keywords within the tag is progressively diluted.
From my experience the keywords in the early part of the tag carry more weight. I
personally prefer a limit of 50 to 55 characters. Checking the quality of the title meta tag
is the quickest way of assessing whether a site has been optimised.
A key debate, given the character limitations, is whether you should include the
organisation’s name in the title meta tag. Much depends on the names length and whether
it includes desired keywords. My view is that with limited space, you are wasting a
valuable resource if you use your organisation name here.

The Site Description Meta Tag

The site description is the second most important meta tag. It is read by the engines
Yahoo and MSN and still plays a significant role in their searches. The site description
should tell the engine about the nature of the web site. It is recommended that this is done
in no more than 200 characters including spaces. It should be presented using good
grammar and avoiding repetition. The site description should include relevant keywords.

Keywords Meta Tag

You would have read in the previous section on search history that the keywords meta tag
is, today, ignored by most of the search engines. So, if the spiders do not take them that
seriously, why do we still have them? In my opinion the main role they perform is one of
internal guidance and discipline for the web master. If you know what keywords you are
looking for it is easy to test your content to ensure there’s a match.

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