Search Engine Optimization-SEO FAQs

What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of improving web pages so they will rank better in the Search Engines Results Pages.

What’s the trick to SEO?
In the early days of the web, it was easy to trick the Search Engines into believing a page was more relevant than others for a certain search term. It was even possible to convince the Search Engines that a page was about something completely different that it actually was. The Search Engines, particularly Google, have become much more sophisticated and these techniques no longer work. In fact, it is now dangerous to use them.

How to you get pages to rank well?
The key to good rankings is relevance. The Search Engines are committed to returning the most relevant results they can find for any given search. A good optimizer works to make a web site and its pages as relevant as possible for the terms for which they’d like them to be found. They also work to make certain that these very relevant pages can easily be found and indexed by the Search Engines because, if pages are not in the index, they cannot rank.

What techniques do SEO’s use?

  • Keyword research - determining what words people use to look for the information contained on your web pages, analyzing them and strategizing how you will use them on your site.
  • SEO Web Site Design - Creating an easy to crawl and index website, so the spiders, like Googlebot, can see all of your pages and know what they are about
  • Content building - Creating plenty of unique, useful, relevant content
  • Promotion - marketing your site across the internet to gain web traffic and good incoming links

Can I do my own SEO?
Anyone can learn Search Engine Optimization, but it’s often difficult to distinguish the hype from the facts. Don’t buy into any of the quick and easy schemes - they don’t work.

Make certain you learn from proven, reputable sources and then keep up with changes in the Search Engines.

Recommended Resources

SEOmoz.org
Education, resources and tools for SEO from Rand Fishkin and his team.

Search Engine Academy

Intensive beginner and advanced workshops. Learn the latest white hat SEO techniques from Robin Nobles, John Alexander and their staff of experts. Small classes. Online courses are also available.

Search Engine Strategies Training Workshops

Intensive one day workshops held in conjunction with some of the SES Conferences. Learn SEO and SEM from top industry experts.