What is SEO, Really?
From a basic definition, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the idea of optimizing web pages in the eyes of a search engine so that your site ranks well for given keywords.
Beyond that one needs to understand a little bit about how search engines work. Each search engine has its own complex algorithms that determine what it takes to put your site on the top of a results page. Optimization is the process of modifying a website’s characteristics to make it stand out from all other websites, in the eyes of a search engine.
Optimizing web pages is part science and part art. Search engines, like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others, don’t actually reveal what their algorithm is to the general public. SEO experts hypothesize through experimentation, testing and analysis to make a “best guess” approach. It might be fair to say that SEO is nothing more than an educated guess, but it does go with extensive analysis, sometimes on the level of a university setting, getting intertwined with mathematical diagrams and charts.
Part of the testing process is analyzing competition for a given set of keywords, and comparing them to find common denominators. When you can find certain common characteristics that only top resulting web pages provide, then you have an idea of what the search engines might be looking for. Optimizing for these common characteristics that are found in top search engine rankings is the essence of SEO.
Website characteristics can include mundane things like how long have you owned a domain, to more important things like the title of your webpage, and how many people are linking to your site. Though they may be mundane, they are extremely important, and require constant testing and experimentation to verify that everything is in place.
One extremely important misconception is that websites are ranked in the search engines, but it’s really web pages that are being ranked. The distinction is that SEO has to be done on each and every page of your website to maximize your exposure and optimization to the search engines. Think of it this way, when you search for a term, do you get just a homepage, or do you get a page that is specific to what you’re looking for?
There is of course much more to it than that, but unless you want to be an expert in the field, I recommend that you get acquainted with the subject, and hire a consultant to guide you and your website along an appropriate path.
