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What_is_Search_Engine_Optimization_or_SEO
| What is Search Engine Optimization or SEO?
What is Search
Engine Optimization or SEO? What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization or
SEO is a series of activities undertaken to improve the ranking
of a web site when using web search engines such as a Google or
Yahoo. It is not simply about registering web sites with search
engines and loading web pages with meta data.
Why is SEO
important?
Search engine
optimization (SEO) is as important as choosing the right print
or electronic media to promote your product or service. Creating
a web site without SEO is
like buying radio ad time without consulting the the market
information provided by the radio station. How do you know that
your money is being well spent? How do you know whether you are
reaching your target audience?
SEO is a critical part
of web development.
Without effective SEO the resources dedicated to web development
may be wasted because that information is not reaching its
intended audience. Common mistakes made
So we've established
that SEO may be a good thing, then how do we go about it? First
lets look at some common mistakes that people make:
• Build it and they
will come – Simply uploading your web site to a web server won't
put your site in Google's top ten.
• Loading up on meta
tags – Meta tags are pieces of information such a keywords,
description, author, location, etc. that are added to the head
of a web page to improve web searches. They are a useful
addition to any web page and will help your site with search
engines, however many people rely on them too heavily as THE
solution.
• Missing or poor
page titles – A page title is part of the head of a web page and
can be seen by the user in the title bar of the web browser. It
is a really important piece of information that helps search
engine robots index your site and is visible in a search engine
search results page. Page titles like “Home”, “Welcome to Adobe
GoLive 6” , or “Welcome to our Web site” are not going to help
you very much.
• No content –
Contrary to popular belief, the hardest part of developing a web
site is putting together the content. Web sites consisting of
slogans and catch phrases and short on content won't be as
effective. Meta tags don't replace well written content.
• Search engine
registration – Some people may register their site with Google
or other search engines. This is only a start.
• I hired this firm
that guarantees our ranking! – Most of the firms that promise
top placement will optimize your site for keyword phrases no one
would look for. Of course they can promise top position for that
precise keyword phrase; but will anyone ever search for exactly
that phrase? Not likely!
• Don't use Heading
tags – With the common use of cascading style sheets (CSS), many
web designers stopped using the heading tags such as h1, h2,
etc. to structure their web pages. What they don't know is that
when a search engine robot indexes the text on a web page it
places greater importance on text found within a heading tag.
This is just one example of how the structure of web page can
affect a web site's ranking.
How do we
optimize a web site for search engines?
Effective search engine optimization
involves a number of steps. The following is the approach that
Documédia uses when advising our clients:
Step 1:
Keyword analysis and creation
• Customized keyword
analysis to define the best suited key phra ses for your
business
• Creation of
targeted, optimized META tags including title, keyword and
description
• Keyword difficulty
analysis Step 2: Web site analysis
• Web site review and
optimization to identify possible content trouble spots
• Analysis and report
on web technology usage for developing the site
• Web site spidering
analysis
• W3C XHTML and CSS
testing
• Page optimization
analysis
• Web site auditor
report Step 3: Search engines performance analysis
• Link popularity inv
estigation
• Search engine
ranking review to find out where your site ranks today
• Analysis of
competition and their methodology with similar implementation
where needed
• Sandbox report
• Competition
analysis Step 4: Design recommendations
• Complete design recommendation report
• On-going coaching
Step 5: Design implementation
• Creation of a
search engine friendly site map
• Addition of
robots.txt file so the search engine spiders are able to “crawl”
your site with ease Step 6: Search engines and
directory submission
• Hand submissions to
the top search engines & directories
• Submission to
secondary engines and targeted directories
• Detailed ranking
reports showing your new positioning (allow 3 months after
submission is completed)
To conclude, SEO can
be mastered, but it isn't something that can be learned
overnight. Also, search engines continue to become more and more
sophisticated in order to provide optimal service which then
effects optimization work that may have already been completed
on a web site. This means that the learning curve and
optimization work is ongoing. How can Documédia help?
Documédia has assisted
numerous public and private sector firms with its SEO services. Our clients
have seen dramatic improvements in their web visibility and
their web sites now play a key role in improving their bottom
line. They also gain the long term benefits of adopting our SEO strategy so that they can
maintain their high visibility in the future.
For more information
about our SEO services, please visit: http://ww
w.documedia.ca/english/services/seo.htm
About the author:
Dominic Lachance, Vice-President
Dominic is the Co-Founder and Vice-President of Documédia a
company specialized in the integration of technology as well as
digital media training for
the web, print and digital
video industry.
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