Search engine optimization (SEO)

Last updated on December 15, 2009. Tags: back links, black hat SEO, keyphrase, keyword, off-page, on page SEO, title tag, white hat SEO

Search engine optimization, also known by the acronym SEO, is the art and science of increasing the ranking of a webpage in search engine results page (SERP) for certain targeted keywords or keyphrases. The aim is to reach the top of page 1 of search results, but reaching the page 1 without being necessarily on top (or sometimes page 2) is also an acceptable result to say that the SEO efforts are successful.

The term targeted keywords are the words, or a group of words that the webmaster expects the potential visitor to type into search engines to find his/her website. These are the words that the webmaster or search engine optimizer have in mind when they optimize the website i.e., typing these words in a search engine should return his/her website as one of the top results.

Sometimes, the search engine optimizer will target keyphrases, a group of keywords arrange in a specific and coherent order such as "cars for sale" and "top 10 movie reviews".

There are two ways of classifying SEO techniques. One way of classifying them is either as on-page SEO or as off-page SEO. In on-page SEO, the website as well as its individual pages are developed in a way that makes them search engine friendly; it means making it easier for the search engine robots to crawl the webpage. One example of this is putting the CSS codes and Javascripts to external files so that search engine robots can easily crawl the actual content.

On the other hand, off-page SEO are SEO techniques that has nothing to do with the way the website was developed. Most, but not all, off-page SEO techniques involve building backlinks to the website or webpage being optimized. Submitting your website to various web directories is an example of off-page SEO.

The other way of classifying SEO techniques is either as white hat SEO or as black hat SEO. White hat SEO refers to those techniques that are allowed and encouraged by search engines because it enables their computers and crawlers to move more efficiently and return the most relevant websites for a certain set of keywords and keyphrases. The best example of white hat technique is to build a website with high quality content, let it age (so that the age factor kicks in) and let others link to it naturally.

On the other hand, black hat SEO are those techniques that are forbidden by search engines because it focus primarily on exploiting the flaws of search engine algorithm to rank high, usually for frequently searched keywords that has nothing to do with the topic of website being optimized. Using invisible text (seen by search engine robots but not by humans) is an example of black hat technique.

For the final word, I would like to stress that no matter how good you are to search engine optimization, there is no way you can guarantee a particular rank or position in search results. Google already stated that, "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google."

The word here is optimization, meaning, you have limited resources and limited control over certain things. It's up to you to do your task using those control and resources to achieve what you need to achieve in the most efficient manner. You can compare SEO to Civil Engineering. You can be the best engineer in the world. You can buy the best building materials and hire the best constructions workers to build the most durable building. However, you can never build a building that is invulnerable to earthquake.

Posted by Greten on May 2, 2009 under Definition, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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