Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long-term process that requires ongoing and frequent updates. The process can be broken down into several key phases, but as a whole encompasses activities that are aimed at achieving goals in one of three distinct areas:

1. the technical setup of a site and server
2. the indexable content on the site
3. the external linking influences that affects the rankings of the site

This business brief covers some activities that fall within each of the three areas of SEO methodology.  It is important to note that these activities are based on current search engine algorithms; that while Yahoo! and Bing are considered important engines, Google is the most popular; and that search engine algorithms are ever changing. Activities described here are based on commonly known elements and emfluence’s best practices SEO methodology.

Technical Server and Site Setup

Robots Files Server Speed/Performance Site Directory Structure Multiple Domain Names/URLs and Canonical Custom 404 Pages 301 Redirects XML and HTML Sitemaps

Dynamic Content Analytics and Goal Tracking IP Address Existence of Meta Tags W3C HTML compliance Duplicate Content Evaluation of JavaScript, Ajax, external file elements

These items and the optimization activities tied to them are intended to remove barriers and to help the search engines in indexing the site.  While these factors likely play a small role in SEO methodology best practices when configured correctly, they can be major problems if any of them are out of alignment or are not compliant with necessary standards.

Indexable Content On The Website

The search engines each have their own technologies which visits, categorizes, stores, and indexes all of the websites on the internet.  The technology follows links from page to page to page and site to site to site.  The information gathered in the process is run through the algorithm that is unique to each search engine and becomes part of the respective index of each engine.  The rankings that are determined for each keyword are based upon the knowledge that each engine has of all of the sites indexed, based on the algorithmic formula.

This is why one of the largest areas of focus in SEO is website content.  The definitions and importance of different items that make up website content have changed over the past several years and continue to evolve.  What is constant, however, is the fact that in order to rank well for a desired keyword, a site must use the keyword.  Thus the biggest challenge to marketers and SEO professionals is determining strategically where the keyword — and the content related to the keyword —can be used and optimized on the website.  The objective is to appear to be relevant to the search engines for specific terms, and to do so, there are many items that play into how the content is perceived.

Optimization activities related to the optimization and usage of website content include:

Keyword Research/Discovery and selection Competitive research Keyword copy density and total usage Image file names and alt tags Links and link anchor text Keyword usage in Meta tags

Keyword proximity to clarifying terms Avoidance of duplicate content Grouping/linking in themes Ranking monitoring and analysis Image and Video content additions/optimization

It is important that SEO methodology include the development of good copy and other content for both search engines and site visitors.  Unfortunately, some of the world’s most astonishing creative and interactive websites lack the basic elements of a good SEO methodology and are very difficult to optimize.  It is not impossible to be optimized for SEO by keeping the search engine in mind while catering to the visitor.  Of paramount importance is adherence to the standards of the search engines and to avoid at all costs unethical and deceptive behaviors.  Thus the best content is that which is both desirable to the visitor and digestible to the search engine.

External Link Influences

The third important area of SEO is linking.  Specifically, linking relates to inbound links to the website.  The more valuable and powerful links that are pointing to the website, the better off it can be for a given keyword term.  Google specifically measures link value through its own system called “Page Rank.”  Without getting into the very technical specifics of how page rank or inbound linking importance is determined, the key is to get expert sites in the related field or industry for the given topic/keyword term to link to the page on the website that features that content.

There are many types of linking strategies and the most common are those related to trading links.  While it is nice in some instances to trade links with partner sites in related fields, it provides nominal SEO benefit.  Trading links negates pretty much all link value as the real value to a website is in one way inbound links from other sites.  The more expert the site that is linking to the other website, the more value the link has.  This prompts the question of who determines the value of an inbound link.  The answer is the search engine itself. That determination is the result of the algorithms that compare all indexed web pages to each other.

Some of the optimization activities that fall into the linking area of SEO are:

Link Requesting (called link begging) Competition Research Same site research Expertness determinations/research Blogging on outside, keyword topic related blogs

Establishment of blog on external blog hosting site Directory site listings Index analysis of sites linking to the website

In any activity that is intended to gain inbound links to a website, it is vital that the process be careful and deliberate. There are many services that sell links and trade links (reciprocal links) that can cause great harm to the rankings of a website by violating the policies of the search engines. It is important to understand the rules before embarking on a link building campaign. The easiest and best way to gain links is to have content that others want to link to.

Summary

This document provides an overview of the three major areas of SEO. As there are many components under each of the three mentioned, many authors and industry experts will categorize items differently and put more focus on some areas than on others. The intent of this document is to outline three key areas of a successful SEO initiative: technical server and site setup, content on the website, and linking to the site. The description of each is a high level description of SEO focus points, and the activities listed are not exhaustive for each category.

Determining a specific strategy for each website is key. No optimization project is the same as the next. Each requires a long term commitment and willingness to engage in each of the three major areas. Doing so will help ensure the site is positioned to attempt to rank well for the desired, targeted keywords and deliver the quality traffic your website deserves.