What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of altering a page’s text and HTML coding to be relevant for specific, targeted keyword phrases. A keyword phrase must be present on the page in various places for that page to rank in the search engine for that particular keyword. A page may be ranked for several different keywords.
A keywords search in a search engine may product 30,000 results, but visitors rarely go beyond the first two result pages. It’s very important that you rank high enough to appear in the top 20 results. Search engines use a formula to decide which pages best fit for a particular search and therefore where your pages will rank.
Search engines look at both on-site and off-site factors when determining your page rank. SEO deals with improving the on-site factors. Building a search engine friendly site begins by choosing the right keywords to incorporate into the website. Second, you need to structure your HTML to make it inviting to the search engines so they can find your keywords. Third, create keyword rich content for the search engines to index.
SEO is an ongoing process. It may take 3-6 months to get ranked for certain keywords and then even longer to get a top 20 listing. You may have to experiment with different combinations of keywords to get the rankings your want. Also, search engines often change their relevancy formulas and you may need to adjust your website just to maintain your current rankings.
Unethical SEO
Marketers are constantly trying to fool the search engines into giving them a better ranking. Search engines constantly change their ranking formula to increase relevancy and eliminate marketers looking for shortcuts. Some of these techniques will work for a time, but rarely long term. If search engines catch you using these methods they can lower your rankings, drop your pages from their index, and in extreme cases, ban your website. Here are some of the techniques that you’ll see advertised.
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Cloaking – Each search engine sends out a robot to spider your website. A cloaker records the IP address of the robot and then feeds the robot a different page than what a regular viewer sees.
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Doorway pages –Also known as gateway, doorway, frame pages, or poor man’s cloaking. You create a page with very specific keyword density and submit it with a redirect to your regular site. These pages are generally very ugly and would never pass human scrutiny.
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