By
Manish Bhalla
Director, Xfriday Consulting
Services India
Search engine optimization
(SEO) is one of the tools used for e-marketing. Search engine optimization can be defined as:
Making it possible for the
website owners to have their websites listed among the top rankers on major
search engines when someone searches for the keywords or combination of keywords associated with the business of/services provided by the
client.
Before detailing the process and
intricacies involved in search engine optimization, we must know what are search
engines:
Search engines are basically
directories of websites containing the various details about each of the
websites in their database. Search engines rank different websites on the basis of
various criteria and they keep on updating the rankings of different websites depending upon
changes in these criteria and search engine algorithms (the factors which affect the rankings of different
websites).
Search engines are basically of three
types:
- Crawler based -
These search engines use spider applications that go on each and every
website. They save the content available on each page along with the URL of that page.
The spider goes on and on, to all links available on that site. Broken
links can stop this process and hamper your search engine listings.
- Manually operated - These are just like other business directories which are maintained by
humans. You need to submit your website on your own or through some application to get listed on these
search engines. These search engines do not allow you to submit a huge
amount of content. You need to submit only a summary of about the business you are related with and services you
offer. This kind of search engine has different criteria for ranking the
websites, such as alphabetically by category or based on how well their
own description of your site matches the visitor's search term.
- Hybrid - This kind of
search engine uses both of the above mentioned methods for ranking the
websites.
To Secure a better search
engine ranking you need to take care of the following factors:
The content of the website
- The content of your website must be focused on the main objectives of your e-business and the services you offer and how your services can
benefit the visitors of your website. This will help you not only in attracting more visitors to your site but also in promoting
repeat visits and retaining existing clients.
Link popularity -
Availability of your website links on other major websites helps in securing better search engine
rankings for you.
Web design - These days most of the
website owners wants their websites to have an attractive look. However, the
use of frames, Flash animations in place of textual content, and excessive use of
JavaScript for links rather than text or images are all counter to the requirements
for having better search engine rankings.
Optimization of the
textual content of your website - There must be optimal use of the keywords you are concentrating on to target the customers searching for those
keywords. Optimal use does not mean spamming the website's textual content with irrelevant
content. This can help in bringing the visitors to your site for the first time but they will discard your
website right away.
Your domain name - If some one is
searching for a specific key word suppose "ASP Programmer" - if you have any of these two keywords in your domain its very much possible that you will be among the first 20 listings. Having a keyword in your domain does not guarantee a better search engine listing but existence of
targeted keywords in your domain can help you in securing better search engine listings.
Article copyright by
Xfriday Consulting Services India. Used with permission.
Concerned about the search
engine rankings for your website?
Contact Dynamics Online or Xfriday
Consulting Services India for more information on how
we can help optimize your website for maximum searchability.
