The Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Written by Clement Faria on November 21, 2009 under Web Development.

Search engine optimization is a practice that is employed to promote a website’s presence on the Internet. The main aim of search engine optimization is to get the website among the first rankings on search engine result pages for any specific keyword or group of keywords. It is an area of the Internet that has been receiving an increasing amount of attention due to the competitiveness within the industry and the possible financial rewards associated with ranking on the first page.

How Search Engine Optimization Works

The basic premise of search engine optimisation is based on submitting a website to a search engine to include it (the website) in the search engine listings. However as the competitiveness of the industry grew, search engines have become more advanced by employing algorithms through which they rank the pages on the Internet. This has led to an explosion in techniques (both legitimate and some less so) employed by individuals and companies to promote their own organizations or those of their clients.

One of the key concepts that requires understanding when thinking in terms of search engine optimization is that search engines like Google base their algorithms on business principles which means that the client comes first – those people sitting behind their computers diligently wading through the search results to find the data they are looking for. And to add a bit more of complexity to this practice, keep in mind that the world of Internet technologies is an ever expanding one. It’s an industry driven with the idea of providing users with the most accurate and current information related to their search queries. Where once search engine optimization relied on a couple of straight forward strategies, it has now developed into a science.

Algorithms in Search Engine Optimization

Whenever you read or speak about search engine optimization, you’ll probably hear about algorithms. These are ‘formulas’ that are used to determine which pages are more relevant to the user. Things taken into account include the amount of recurring words on a page and whether they have any relation to one another and whether they refer to any particular industry or subject of human interest. To make things more interesting, especially for those in the search engine optimization industry, search engines have now started to store web users’ search results to determine which pages have been visited previously with the aim of updating subsequent searches for the same terms with new pages and pages with updated content. This leads to another field of search engine optimization called article submission and blog submission, all of which aim to cater for this search engine requirement by regularly submitting updated content to those websites that act as repositories.

Search engine optimization is an area of the Internet that will keep evolving with the addition and amendments of algorithms and technologies that all aim to provide the user with a comfortable and convenient web experience. It is also a field of interest that passively promotes free and accurate information to make it as comprehensive as possible. The only question that remains is whether the techniques employed for search engine optimization will continue to rely on human ability or whether this role will be sooner or later become automated.

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