Features of Search engine optimization

If you have decided to try and create an income online, be it with a website and product of your own, an affiliate scheme or through YouTube, eBay et al, once you have decided what you are going to actually sell, the biggest challenge faced is getting people to see the product, offer or service being sold. The web is a big place, and without some strategy here no matter how good the thing you are selling is, no one will ever find out, and search engine optimization (SEO) is the place where most people start.

SEO is a way to improve the placing of the website or page within the search engine results for a given word or phrase. The higher up the list (nearer the first place in the search) a website is, the more likely it is the person searching will visit that site, so competition for the highest positions is fierce.

How does that happen?

The key behind SEO is understanding how the search engines themselves work. Search engines use a couple of tools to gather information about web pages, the first one is the spider or web crawler, this downloads a webpage or site onto the search engines own servers, where the second tool, the indexer, examines the page, what words it contains, where the words are and what other sites the page links to. The search engines then use this data incomplex computer algorithms to decide which websites are most relevant and useful in relation to the word or phrase being searched, and it is those algorithms that SEO takes advantage of.

The exact way each search is prioritized changes regularly, and as such anyone looking to promote their site or offer this way should always look to keep up to date on any changes or new strategies that are taking place, VisitMetrix.com is a site that has regular posts of new information and tips on a regular basis.

Although the algorithms do change, the basis of the search engine prioritization is how relevant a given web page is to the phrase being used, so how many times it, or any other associated words, appear on page, it also looks at how many links, both into and out of the site, there are, and what types of websites link to them.

There are other factors, and the algorithms vary what they are looking for – too many appearances of keyword phrases can be detrimental because of repetitive language being treated as a poor website to read for instance- but the basic premise is to best match the algorithms requirements by adjusting the on page language and linking to suit.

How to take advantage of SEO

There are, basically, two options for anyone looking to use SEO to improve their website’s position on a given search. They can optimize the page themselves or hire in specialists to evaluate the entire website and alter the layout and wording accordingly. Whilst the former is naturally more cost effective than the latter, in either case it is always best to be informed, and as such regular visits to sites like VisitMetrix.com where there are regular updates and tips for the current viable marketing strategies is always recommended.