Friday, May 8, 2009

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)


 

What is a Search Engine?

Search engines are the primary tools of Internet users for finding products, services and information over the web. Search engines allow people to search the entire Web (or at least those pages of the Internet that are in the search engine's database.)

1. Document Inception Date

The document inception date is the date the document was created, first indexed or linked to or the first registration date of the domain. The inception date is used to determine the rate of growth of links to a document. For example, a document with yesterday's inception date with 10 links to it could be scored higher than a document with an inception date of 10 years ago and a 100 links to it. For
Some searches that are made on a search engine, an older document may be more favorable than a newer document therefore older documents may be ranked higher and vice-versa .Additionally to this, proper navigation allows search engine spiders to follow your links and put your pages into their database. People need to find their way around your site, as well. Sometimes,
Organization is what distinguishes a high quality site from a loser. A well designed navigational system will have a positive impact on search engine optimization.

•Chart the link growth to see if there is a natural growth. A spiky growth could indicate SPAM.

•Have a structured link building program
2. Content Updates/Changes

Every document has parts that are more important to the search engine like the main piece of content on the page and elements that are much less important like JavaScript code, date/time information, adverts or boiler plate information. Using the relative importance of each element the search engine looks at the frequency and amount of changes over time. For example, changes to the content would have significantly more importance than changes to advertisements on a site. Google looks at whether fresher or staler documents are preferred by a search user and then ranks fresher or staler documents higher, accordingly. For example, people searching for 'Top of the league' would prefer a fresher document than perhaps people that were searching for information on 'Winner of 1982 World Cup'. So, content is King. All search engines, directories, or otherwise, will index your web site based on
CONTENT . ALL of them . Content is the key to developing an Internet presence. You will build a good reputation with high-quality content. If you have interesting content other webmasters will want to link to your site. (Obtaining links into your site is a priority for SEO.)
Also, your content must be focused. Content that works around one theme will help you attract your target market. You will attract attention to your site if you can become a respected provider of information about your niche.
Look at whether Google favors fresh or stale documents by conducting a search and seeing if the top results are from fresher or staler documents. Once you have this information you will have an idea of how often or not to update the main content elements of your document.

3. Query Analysis

Google analyses the volume and kind of searches that users make through the search engine. It analyses these results over time and documents associated with the fastest growing keyword searches are ranked higher as they could indicate a hot topic or breaking news story. Google also looks at search terms and records whether a search term should produce a consistent set of results or whether searches like 'World Cup Winning Team' should produce a different set of results every year.

•If a document appears highly in the search results for a discordant set of search results, then it may be considered as SPAM and ranked lower as it is unlikely for one document to be a good source for a number of different topics.

•Each document should be optimized and contain information related to a few searched for keywords. If you try and put all the keywords into one document then you are unlikely to rank very highly and are much more likely to be considered as search engine SPAM.

4. Link Based Criteria

Google looks at the number of links to a document (back links) and the growth or disappearance of these links
Over time A downward trend in the number of links to a document, decline in the rate of link growth or disappearance of links may indicate that a document is getting stale whilst an upward trend in links and rate of link growth may indicate that a document is fresh. In addition, detailed graphs of link growth over time can be used to show particular patterns for fresh documents, stale
Documents those that may no longer be updated or that have been superseded. This software will help you analyze your links: Link Analyzer. Also, a weight may be given to every link based on the freshness of the overall document in which it is contained. Links from authoritative sources, like Government pages are weighted higher.
• The dates that links appear can be used to detect if links are SPAM. A 'legitimate' document attracts back links slowly whilst a sudden growth in links particularly from documents without editorial discretion, like guest books, referrer logs, 'free for all' pages could indicate SPAM.

Using a link generating program in the beginning could be beneficial. Services such as Link-Submission.com are worth examining. This to great way to get your incoming link ball rolling Then once your site gains popularity you’ll see a lot more natural links coming your way.
• Make sure that you have a link building program in place that lets you grow your links organically by for example:
1. Asking suppliers, customers and partners to link to you.
2. Submitting to online discussion forums.
3. Creating a blog.
4. Submitting to shopping portals and industry sites.
5. Offering something great like a free gift or service so other sites value linking to you.
6. Creating your own affiliate program where all the links are direct to you.