Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization What are search engines and how do they work? Services such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo, which help you find information and ...
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Search Engine Optimization What are search engines and how do they work? Services such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo, which help you find information and sites on the internet, are known as search engines. From a user standpoint they work in basically the same way. A visitor to the site submits a query and the search engine responds with sites it feels are relevant to the query. Most search engines rank sites by their perceived relevancy, so the first result is the site the search engine finds to be most relevant to the users needs. Every time a search is performed the search engine must sort through the millions of pages it knows about to report the sites it finds most useful. Even with the advanced technology of most engines, some irrelevant pages still come through, but by and large search engines do a great job of presenting the most useful data to the user.

How do search engines rank pages? Search engines such as Google and Yahoo are known as crawler based search engines because they send out crawlers, or spiders, to search the web and report back on the information they find. The spider reads the pages and follows links to other pages in the site, or to other sites. The crawler visits the site regularly, on a very popular high-ranking site it may visit several times a day, on a less popular site it may only visit once a month. Because of this, updates you make to your site may not affect your search engine ranking for some time. The crawler then adds the information it has found to an index, which is what you are actually searching when you query a search engine.

When you search, the search engine uses a specific set of rules, known as an algorithm, to determine a site’s relevancy. While the specific methods crawler based search engines use to determine the relevancy of pages is a closely guarded secret, there are many things you can do to help your search engine placement

What can I do to improve my ranking? Meta Tags: Meta tags are html tags that primarily state author provided keywords and descriptions for a site. When meta tags were first introduced they were a search engines primary means for ranking pages. However web developers soon found that they could easily be manipulated. Words could be entered in the meta tags that had little or nothing to do with a site’s content, but because they involved words which many search engine users were querying, they improved the sites ranking. Since this discovery search engines have found other means to index sites and have greatly decreased their reliance on meta tags. Search Engine experts argue over whether meta tags are still used in determining page relevancy at all today. However, whether an expert thinks they are used or not, it is not advisable to ignore meta tags altogether as they will not hurt your ranking. Keyword meta tags should include terms that describe your site, separated by commas, but with no spaces. You should never repeat a term but it can be used in different phrases. So, ”canton ohio real estate, canton ohio homes for sale,” is acceptable while, “canton ohio, canton ohio,” is not.

Description meta tags should be a brief statement describing your site. This description often appears as the site description when the search is run, so proper grammar is important here. Agents can change the keyword and description meta tags on their sites through the DeltaNet. Companies can submit meta tags for their site to [email protected]. Page Titles: Another component of search engine optimization, that many experts feel is more important than meta tags, is page titles. The title of a page appears at the very top of your browser window, not at all in the “active” content area of the page. It is added using an html tag in the source code for a website. Search engines may use the page title to briefly summarize the content of a particular page. A good title will include keywords about the content on a particular page. Instead of “Property Search”, use “Search homes in the Canton, Ohio Area”. Agents can change the page titles on their sites through the DeltaNet. Companies can submit meta tags for their site to [email protected]. Links: One of the most effective ways to improve your site’s ranking is to have other sites, especially high-ranking sites, link back to you. Not only does it give your site a better chance to be crawled on a regular basis, it also elevates your site’s status with search engines in general by proving that your site is important enough to have other sites linking to it. Most search engines are not very impressed by a site that has no links coming back to it. Adding external links on your site can also help with your raking. Search engines will crawl your list of links and may view your site as more important because it provides valuable content to its users.

Ask owners of other sites to place a link to you on their site in exchange for a link back to theirs. A good place to start is with local chambers of commerce and visitors bureaus who may want to include sites like yours as a valuable resource to their users. Agents can add an external links page to their sites by using the “Pages” tab (located under the “Website” tab) in the Delta Net. Companies can add a similar page by contacting Delta Media Group Support. Content: Perhaps the most important element of search engine optimization is in providing quality content for your users. As search engines become more advanced, they rely less on simple tags and titles and more on the actual content of your site. Most commonly today, search engines read the entire content of a page, instead of just the title and meta tags. Because of this, the more quality content you have on your site, the more likely you are to come up as a relevant match in a search engine query. This does not mean that you should focus on packing your content full of keywords. Rather, most search engines, and users, seem to prefer natural sounding content that conveys your meaning without clutter. The best web content is informative and entertaining, it avoids too many long sentences and large words and gets it’s point across with brevity and simplicity. If you do not feel you have the time or skills to write your own content, there are many services available to write content for you. Agents can add their own content pages through the DeltaNet by clicking on the Website tab, and then on the Pages tab. Companies may submit content for addition to their site through [email protected]

Marketing your site It should be noted that even the most successful sites get only a small fraction of their traffic through search engines. The best way to drive traffic to your site is through more traditional means of marketing. Ask yourself, is your website address on your business card, your yard sign, your feature sheets and your email signature? Do you make sure that every piece of marketing material you send out includes your url to drive traffic back to your site? Do you tell new clients to go to your website or even automatically sign them up for a portfolio? All of these are great ways to generate more traffic and capture leads. Driving these other sources of web traffic to your site is the best way to generate the word of mouth and reputation you need for a successful site.