Current Trends in Optimizing Content for Search Engines

chillibreeze writer — Subarna Sarkar

Search engine optimization or SEO as it is popularly known is a process whereby traffic is directed to websites by ranking high on various web search engines. In other words, it is a way to develop search engine friendly websites. The primary task for a web developers aiming to adopt Search Engine Optimization is to understand what the search engines are looking for.

Before we embark on this long journey understanding search engine optimization, let us get the basics. So, you may wonder - How does a search engine work? In a gist, a search engine connects words or queries entered in the search box to a database of web pages and then lead you to a list of urls and summaries of content that closely match your query.

The crawler moves like a spider from one link to another, picks up relevant links and sends them back to be indexed. Once the data from the crawlers is indexed and tagged it is dumped into a runtime index-a database ready to serve results to its users. Meanwhile the query server software transports the users search query from the home page of search engines such as Google, Yahoo etc. to the runtime index which then shuttles it back to the interface and this is how the user gets his/her answers. Hence it is evident how important search engine optimization is to increase the volume of traffic to a website. SEO is not limited to tracking of textual matter alone. In fact it can also track image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical searches.

Today SEO has emerged as one of the most important marketing tools for any website. SEO acts like a parent to a website taking care of its coding, presentation, fixing problems that can restrict users entering the site and also adding useful content to the site in order for it to be indexed well by the crawlers. Thus every website must be search engine friendly in its content and design so that it’s easy to optimize the same.

Sites began to be optimized in the mid 1990’s. There were some disadvantages to this as some websites started stuffing their pages with keywords and even manipulated page rankings in the search results in order to rank amongst the top 10. Search engines adjusted the algorithms to prevent webmasters from manipulating rankings. Key word stuffing and manipulating ranks can get websites banned from the search results. Hence it is best to create user friendly content. Getting a significant amount of inbound links from quality pages related to your site's topic is another good way to get your site noticed by search engines.

The main task begins with getting listed. The leading search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. A paid submission service that guarantees crawling is also available. Listing can also be restricted by a search engine when it instructs its spider not to crawl on that site if the content is undesirable.

SEO Techniques can be classified broadly as:

1) Techniques recommended as part of good design: White Hat
2) Techniques that search engines do not approve of and treat as Spam resulting in the site crashing out within a period – Black Hat

The Google trend, mainly used for keyword analysis has emerged as a neat tool for SEO. Users can enter up to five keyword phrases and Google will return a line chart showing the comparative volume trend over the last two years. Today maximization of keywords is not enough linking to other sites is equally important.

In order to optimize a website, 3 questions should be asked…

1. How are people searching for my products and/services?
2. Which sites are leading those searches, and why?
3. Which searches can I lead?

Once a site owner has the answers to the above he/she can get started by creating a search engine optimization plan for the website.

Recent Trends to boost rankings and optimize a website for SEO:

a) Mention, name/ phone/ address/ email and other details. Offer free email/ ezines
b) Submit articles to free ezine sites
c) Hyperlink to relevant sites
d) Submitting details of blogs and popular social networking sites.
e) Keyword density: List out most popular keywords for the site and incorporate the same into articles and content within the site so that maximum links are picked up. Place keywords in the top half of the page so that they are easily noticeable. Title tags, page description and Meta tags must have keyword phrases.
f) Add links to new websites as new users will be venturing here
g) Every page on your site must have a unique title tag, Meta keywords tag, and Meta description tag.
h) Include a footer on every page using text links
i) Use text navigation
j) Submit and request for links to other sites
k) Have a substantial amount of pages on a similar theme.
l) Build a blog of content on the same theme and you’ll increase your chances of ranking well as SEO will see you as an authority on the topic
m) Regularly update your site and remove dead links.
n) Choose a wise domain name with the most relevant keyword
o) Register domain for a long period to indicate that the site is a long player.
p) Carry short and apt articles without duplicating content so as to reduce chances of spamming
q) Submit RSS feed to Search Engines to help get indexed
r) Each search engine has a way of letting it know about a site – submitting URL to search engines to be included in the index is important.
s) Podcasts, Forums, Polls, Streaming media, Live chat are also popular tools
t) Pay per click ads: popular when advertising with a website. These too are optimized.
u) Stay informed about regular changes in the search engine algorithms.
v) Find out what each search engine is looking for, and optimize your web pages accordingly.

In a nutshell, SEO is one of the most important Internet marketing tools and should be utilized to its best by websites through implementation of appropriate content and strategies to help their website gain a top ranking position in Search Engines. Presently Google occupies only an estimated 35 to 40 percent of the search engine market share. Yahoo and MSN take over the remaining 40 to 50 percent. If a website is created and not viewed it will lead to loss for its owner as no traffic equals no profit. Thus websites must be designed according to the needs of the search engine so that they are optimized. We must keep in mind that 80% of the internet traffic is directed through search engines. If web sites want to excel they need their natural or organic placement to get them onto the first or second page on search engines. As with so much competition, this is the only way to survive the rat race.

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—About our writer:

Subarna says, "I am a fun loving, carefree person when it comes to life. Reading, writing, listening to music and playing the synthesizer are my favorite pastimes. At work I would describe myself as completely dedicated, creative and ambitious. I also love innovative cooking, hanging out with my buddies on the weekends and travelling to unknown destinations...Adventurous? Yes, you can call me that!"

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