SEO Explained

Search engine optimisation is a subset of Internet Marketing. It involves adapting a web sites code, content and reputation to maximise its readability, relevancy and popularity, and thus its ranking position within, the organic, unpaid search engine results pages.

Successful SEO campaigns are based on a combination of on-page and off-page optimisation.

On page optimisation

On page optimisation can be further broken down into two functions; code optimisation and content optimisation.

Code optimisation

Code optimisation involves making it as easy as possible for the search engine spider to crawl the code and find the content, whether that be text, images, audio, animation or video. HTML / XHTML and CSS must be used correctly, making the best use of the tags and attributes available.

To ensure your code is correct you can use a validation service such as the W3 Validation service. You can also use this service to validate your CSS.

With web browsers becoming ever more sophisticated the use of XHTML and CSS for positioning is becoming more popular. Using CSS for positioning allows elements of the page to be positioned without the need for tables. The code to text ratio is reduced and the logical structure of the content is easier to follow. The easier it is for the spider to crawl a web page the easier it is for the spider to find the content of a web site.

Content Optimisation

Content optimisation relates to the generation of quality content written for the human reader in mind. It used to be the case that many webmasters would stuff their content full of key words and phrases which made it annoying and sometimes eligible for the human reader. While this used to carry some weight with the search engines it is no longer tolerated and can carry a penalty.

With the competition fierce it is no longer enough to simply target a few key words or phrases. The web site needs to show a running theme throughout and deliver original, unique, quality, engaging content in the form of copy, images, video or audio. Great content attracts visitors and natural links, increasing popularity and thus, rankings.

Off page optimisation

Off page optimisation is generally about increasing your link popularity. Link popularity is by far the most important factor used when ranking a web site. The search engines treat each inbound link to a site as a vote. The more votes a site has, the more relevant it becomes in the eyes of the search engines resulting in a higher ranking in the organic, unpaid search results.

There have been many methods and techniques employed by SEO's to artificially inflate link popularity such as reciprocal linking, link farming and other forms of spamdexing. These days such tactics are usually detected and those participating can find their site being penalised.

What has always been effective in judging the importance and trustworthiness of a web site are its inbound, on topic links. The top SEO's are in agreement that this will be the case for the foreseeable future.