‘Search engine optimization,’ also called ‘seo,’ is the process of preparing your website to be both ‘search engine-friendly’ and ‘user-friendly.’ Ultimately the content on your web pages is designed for human interaction. The way in which humans discover your website is often through the use of search engines developed specifically for scanning, indexing and retrieving content available on web pages over the World Wide Web.
Search engine optimization involves a variety of techniques designed to ensure two principle things: 1) search engine bots can access your web pages to scan your content so the search engines can index it for future retrieval and 2) end-users, real human beings, are able to easily find and get what they are searching for at your website.
Although there are many techniques employed to help you achieve top rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPS) for the keywords and phrases for which your web pages are being optimized, it is important to be aware of the illegitimate practices of “Black Hat SEO” firms that engage in such things as:
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Doorway Pages
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Cloaking
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Duplicate Pages
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Invisible Text
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Keyword Stuffing
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Keyword Spamming
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Link Farms
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Spamdexing
For more information about each of the terms listed above, please refer to the listing in the glossary.
Legitimate “White Hat SEO” involves optimizing a variety of ‘on-page elements,’ that’s everything at your website including the url string, body copy, meta data, title tag, images, links, and more, both seen and unseen by the public, and ‘off-page elements,’ which refer primarily to ‘inbound links’ from external sources outside your website that point to your web pages; off-page elements can also include any initiative designed to further the objects of your seo campaign that does not originate at your website. For more information see ‘Off-Page Elements’ and ‘On-Page Elements.’
With billions of users globally, search engines offer websites owners like you a unique opportunity to reach your targeted audience groups while they are actively searching for what you offer at any time of the day or night 24/7/365. Preparing your web pages for optimal performance in the search engines, particularly Google which currently controls 70% of the search market, just makes good sense.
