Seo Search Engine Optimisation

seo search engine optimisation

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is defined as the methods a website owner or webmaster uses to navigate a complex algorithm created by search engines to categorise, rank and deliver to users every single web page on the Internet.

This algorithm employs web “spiders” which crawl through the World Wide Web and collect data from websites, web pages, blogs and more to determine where each web page should appear in a search. Then it analyses this data and ranks it so that when a person uses certain keywords, relevant sites appear.

But in short, SEO is the reason why you get the results you want when you look for something using Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search engines.

Does SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) work?

In a word, yes! If you’ve ever found what you were looking for using a search engine, you’ve seen SEO working. But the best way to know if it works or not is to notice when it doesn’t work – like when you search for a hotel in Manchester and get results for Manchester, Vermont in the U.S. That’s a sign of bad SEO.

Another sign of bad SEO – or rather, really good SEO that has gamed the system – is when you click on a link that takes you to a page of Google Ads for your given topic. When you find these sites on the first page of Google, they’ve done SEO, alright – but it’s called “Black Hat” SEO.

You want to do “White Hat” SEO – the kind that gives the algorithm organic results. Because while using Black Hat SEO can shoot you to the top initially, eventually your site will be taken off the search engine entirely – and then no one will ever see your site!

How does it work?

There are many ways to use SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) on your website to give it a boost. Methods include:

Meta-tagging. You know when you search for something on a search engine, and you get that page of results? And the results are in a list that includes the website name, a short description and the URL (web address)? Those are there because of meta-tagging, and it’s a great way to get your site noticed by search engines.

Photo tagging. Every photo you have on your website can include titles and alt-descriptions that have the keywords that are relevant to your searches. And these are the best kinds, because they don’t have to make sense to the reader – because no one’s reading them. More on this below.

Deep content. Having just one page on your website isn’t going to do a lot to get you on the first page of Google. You have to have multiple on-topic pages with plenty of well-written text.

Updated content. Old pages – pages that haven’t been updated in a while – lose their rank, no matter how relevant they are. That’s because the search engine algorithm assumes that newer pages eual better, more relevant content. You can update your pages directly, or use a blog or social media widget to make updating easier.

Blogrolls. These are usually found on the sidebar, or sometimes a separate page, of a blog or website and contain a list of other blogs or websites that are relevant to the home page’s topic. The more of these you can get your site or blog on, the better.

Links. Link to other websites on your own site within the text, or other pages within your site, and try to have others do the same. The more places your site links to with inbound and outbound links, the better your rank.

Social media. There’s no better way to spread the link love than by linking to your site or blog post on a social media site like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc.

Directories. Search engine algorithms like website directories, as it’s done some of the work for them already through onsite catergorisation. Register your site with directories.