Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics - 5 Steps to a Higher Ranking

The Overview:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very rewarding when successful but one must keep in mind it is a long-term effort. Success requires time and effort while following a consistent and well-tested program. For this article, we will be referencing Google a lot for the simple reason they account for over 70% of all web searches. The concepts going forward work with any search engine.

To begin, let's quickly go over why Google and other search engines do what they do. First, off they are all businesses; that is, they exist to make money. Advertising is the lifeblood of all search engines and to be successful they must accomplish two things. First, Google must provide the end user a rich and rewarding experience by delivering relevance for their searches. What relevance means is Google wants a user to find what they are looking for. Secondly, to get companies to advertise with them Google must provide quality customers with their advertisements via ads. Content providers and websites that help Google achieve these two goals are rewarded handsomely.

So what makes a website relevant?

Search Engines want to know which site is relevant for a particular concept. These concepts are represented by phrases or keywords. Example: single-family homes, luxury resorts, organic food stores.

Possessing massive computing power, the search engines read all these pages and rank the sites based on a set of rules. When you go on a search engine and type a key phrase, the search engine picks the best matches by looking at the following hierarchy:

1. Authority...How many links from their sites about the subject? The more links to your site, the more authority
2. When the keyword is the main focus of each site. They determine this by the structure of your site
3. Which pages on the sites are most dedicated to the key works
4. Where those pages are more relevant than all the other pages in the search engines index.

• No search engine releases its exact criteria, much less search algorithm, but we have found the following factors are what matter in obtaining a high search ranking.
• Title Tags - Tags on the top of the hierarchy page. They are the first thing search engines look at.
• Description Meta Tag- Affects your rankings and some search engines show this a snippet in your search
• Headings (h1, h2, h3, etc.) - Headings provide a content outline to the search engines when they crawl. If you’re heading contains the keyword that shows relevance.
• Paragraph Copy - The more one writes, the easier it is to obtain a ranking. Don't stuff keywords though. Including your keywords in the copy, multiple times will actually hurt your rankings.

• Links and Link Text- The more links increase your authority.
• File Names - Keyword Rich file names
• URL - Keyword Rich URLs help
• Trust Factors - Physical Address, Privacy Policy, Contact Page
• Image Captions - Text captions in image results

 

What does not matter:

• Keyword Meta Tag - Since all the SEO people abuse them, most search engines ignore this.
• Hidden Text - Text that is hidden from view to "stuff keywords". This will hurt you as once it’s discovered, your site will be de-indexed.
• Bolding Keywords and Bullet Texts

A note about Flash:

Another tip is to avoid using too much flash on your website. Flash compiles files, links, fonts, and structures differently than a typical Html page. The search engine can crawl (i.e. read your website) but can't organize the data in a meaningful form. Google and Adobe Systems (creator of flash) have announced they are working to make flash more friendly, but as of this writing, a flash-heavy website is a detriment to a good SEO ranking.