Search Engines and SEO
Search engines can be defined simply as an indexing system that will allow a user to search the web for content that will satisfy specific criteria known as ‘search keyword or phrase’. Without search engines such as Google, MSN and yahoo, users would not be able to find the information they are looking for on the World Wide Web without knowing the exact URL of a given website. Therefore search engines are a crucial part of the Internet and a driving force in getting new visitors onto your website. This resource will focus mainly on the key elements of Search engines and SEO. For further details on SEO for your website, please contact us and we will be glad to provide you with a free consultation.
Search engines index websites by sending a small robot called a ‘bot’ to ‘Crawl’ your website and catalogue it in its database according to its relevance. There are certain methods of developing a site which is ‘bot’ friendly and in tern will result in much more satisfactory Organic Search Results. Organic search results are the results displayed by a search engine when a search is requested. They are not the paid links that appear on the results page.
Basics of SEO
The basic idea of search engine Optimization/Optimizers also known as SEO is to develop a site that is “Bot’ friendly. This is to maximize a given site’s visibility on the World Wide Web mainly through organic search results. If the bot arrives on your site and either is unable to find the information quickly or gets lost, it will leave your site and the results will be that your site will get indexed poorly or not at all.
Search engines have come a long way from their early years and are now more intelligent than they use to be. Manipulating them is becoming more difficult and better results can simply be achieved by creating content that is user oriented instead of Search Engine oriented. This means creating high quality information rich content instead of trying to ‘stuff’ keywords and Meta tag descriptions into your site, hoping to ‘trick’ the bot. Keyword and Meta tag descriptions are important when used appropriately, but their abuse is common and highly frowned upon.
Here at Synaxiom we consider ourselves white hat SEOs. This means that we offer a service to our clients through low risk long term success. White hat SEO firms tend to offer clients solutions based on the quality of content and restructuring your code to maximize visibility. This has proven to be the most effecting and will ensure long term success. The idea here is that, if you build a good website full of rich content, they will come.
Black hat SEOs are usually companies that engage in unethical practices in order to generate traffic to your website. They tend to be discouraged by the Search engines as they usually create traffic through deception and rarely offer quality content to the web surfer. This process, also known as spamdexing, is to promote irrelevant content that is mainly commercial in nature through deceptive techniques usually by abusing search engine algorithms.
How to perform Basic SEO on your site
Here are some basic tips on how to perform Search Engine Optimization on your website. If you wish to fully optimize your site you may contact us and we will be glad to offer you a free consultation.
If you wish to perform basic SEO on your site you may implement the following tips:
- Try to keep as much of your links in text form
- Avoid flash in key parts of your website
- Provide alt tags (alternate tags) for all images on your page enabling them to be seen by search engines.
- Title each page with unique titles
- Place keywords on each page that are concise and relevant to that page
- Gain link popularity
- Keep your content fresh and up-to-date
- Last but not least, do not overlook the importance of good quality content on your site, in order to achieve good organic search results.
