SEO: Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.
There are two ways of doing SEO
On-Page SEO- This includes providing good content, good keywords selection. putting keywords on correct places, giving appropriate title to every page etc.
Off-Page SEO - This includes link building, increasing link popularity by submitting in open directories, search engines, link exchange etc.
SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search,news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.
Search engines perform several activities in order to deliver search results like,
1.Crawling
2.Indexing
3.Processing
4.Calculating Relevancy
5.Retrieving Results
SEO techniques are classified into two broad categories:
1.Techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design referred to as
White Hat SEO, and
2.Techniques that search engines do not approve and attempt to minimize the effect of referred to as
Black Hat or spamdexing.
1.White Hat SEO:-
An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines guidelines and involves no deception.
As the search engine guidelines are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note.
White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and
subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see.
White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines,
and then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose.
White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility, although the two are not identical.
2.Black Hat SEO :-
Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception.
One black hat technique uses text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off screen.
Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking.
In optimizing keywords on a web page are:-
Keyword Frequency:
This is calculated as how often does a keyword appear in a site's title or description. You don't want to go overboard with frequency, however, since on some engines if you repeat a word too many times, you'll be penalized for "spamming" or keyword stuffing.
In general though, repeat your keyword in the document as many times as you can get away with, and up to 3-7 times in your META tags.
Keyword Weight:
This refers to the number of keywords appearing on your Web page compared to the total number of words appearing on that same page. Some search engines consider this when determining the rank of your Web site for a particular keyword search.
One technique that often works well is to create some smaller pages, generally just a paragraph long, which emphasize a particular keyword. By keeping the overall number of words to a minimum, you will increase the "weight" of the keyword you are emphasizing.
Keyword Proximity:
This refers to the placement of keywords on a Web page in relation to each other or, in some cases, in relation to other words with a similar meaning as the queried keyword.
For search engines that grade a keyword match by keyword proximity, the connected phrase .home loans. will outrank a citation that mentions .home mortgage loans. assuming that you are searching only for the phrase "home loans".
Keyword Prominence:
A measure of how early or high up on a page the keywords are found. Having keywords in the first heading and in the first paragraph (first 20 words or so) on a page are best.
Keyword Placement:
WHERE your keywords are placed on a page is very important. For example, in most engines, placing the keywords in the Title of the page or in the Heading tags will give it more relevancy. On some engines, placing keywords in the link text, the part that is underlined on the screen in a browser, can add more relevancy to those words.
Best Places to Put Keywords:
Here is a list of places where you should try to use your main keywords.
1.Keywords in the <title> tag(s).
2.Keywords in the <meta name="description">
3.Keywords in the <meta name="keyword">
4. Keywords in <h1> or other headline tags.
5.Keywords in the <a href="http://yourcompany.com">keywords</a> link tags.
6.Keywords in the body copy.
7.Keywords in alt tags.
8.Keywords in <!-- insert comments here> comments tags.
9.Keywords contained in the URL or site address, e.g., http://www.keyword.com/keywordkeyword.htm.
Finding Keywords:
There are many different ways to find keywords for your website. Some good keyword ideas are:
1.Words people would search for to find your product or service.
2.Problems your prospective customers may be trying to solve with your product or service.
3.Keyword tags on competitors websites.
4.Visible page copy on competitors websites.
5.Related search suggestions on top search engines.
6.By using an online tools like: Google Keyword Tool
7.By analyzing your website carefully and finding out proper keywords. This task can be done by expert SEO Copywriters.
8.Pay attention to stemming for your keywords - Particularly to what the root word is and what Google considers to be a match for that word when optimizing pages over time.
9.You can do brainstorming to identify correct keywords for your site.
