Search Engine Optimization

Overview

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the techniques that get your site listed by the Web's leading search engines, enhance your search rankings and making it easier for everyone on the Web to find.

There are two pieces to search engine optimization

  1. Off-page Optimization
    1. Also known as "link building," refers to relevant and reputable sources linking to your site. If you are a moving company for example, you'll want a real estate company linking to yours. Issuing press release through an online distribution service is another proven link building technique.
  2. On-Page Optimization
    1. The art of creating a site structure and content that is search engine friendly. Because search engines gather information through spiders, automated program that randomly visit Web sites and report back to the search engine. Making it easy to find all of your site's relevant information is a must. Some of the things that search engine spiders look for are title tags, meta description tags, meta keyword tags, the amount of content and age of innformation, the date information was last edited, and a site map.
    2. The title tag is a required HTML element and is the most important on-page factor for search engine ranking. Search engine results also use it for the title of your site. Each page should have a title tag of less than 65 characters that summarizes its content.
    3. A meta description's content appears under the title tag in search engine results. It should provide information specific to the page such as product details, special offers, or sales messages. A meta description tag should clock in under 150 characters.
    4. A meta keyword tag contains all the keywords for a page. Keywords should be restricted to words that appear in the title tag or in the page itself. Keyword tags should be limited to 10-to-15 words. Words and phrase are separated with commas with no space between.

The best page content contains between 400 and 700 words, has fewer than 50 outbound or external links, and is updated on a regular basis.

A site map is an HTML or XML document that lists your pages in a hierarchical manner and helps spiders find them all. Spiders look for your site map off of your Web site's root.

Minimize you use of JavaScript, HTML is a better choice for navigation for example. And while Flash Web sotes can look great most search engines cannot read the information embedded in the Flash file. Better options are having two versions of the sit, one Flash and one HTML, or just using a few Flash elements within an HTML site.