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In an effort to bring additional educational content to our visitors, we have decided to include a few articles from other sources -- even though we prefer to write our own content. Per the agreement with the provider of the article, we are not allowed to make any changes; therefore, you may see an occasional grammatical or other error. We hope you find this web marketing article to be worthwhile and educational.

Another Nashville Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Article:

Search Engine Optimization Demystified

By: Candace Carter

Search Engine Optimization Demystified

Part 1 - The Players

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Altavista, MSN Search, and others, have become indispensable as personal and business tools for finding what we all need on the World Wide Web. As web site owners, we know that to take advantage of this reality we must optimize our web sites for search engines. However, there is a lot of confusion, misunderstanding, myth, and even fraud in this area. To demystify this topic, and provide the tools to make intelligent, well-informed decisions for our web sites, it is useful to identify the main players, understand how search engines actually work and follow the money. By understanding the motives involved, one can get a big picture understanding of the issues. In business there is no bigger motivator than money.

There are two main players in the search engine optimization field - the Search Engine companies (like Google), and the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies (they are numerous, no big names stand out).

 

Search Engine Companies:How do search engine companies (Google) make their money?Primarily with paid advertising.Why would advertisers use a search engine\'s web site to promote their product?Eyeballs... lots of them!How does a search engine company get those eyeballs?By providing a tool (the search facility) that works really well, giving reliable, useful, relevant, and current results on keyword searches. It is in the best interest of a Search Engine company to index as many sites as possible, as often as possible, and to have a ranking mechanism that will provide accurate results for key word searches on those web sites.

This bears repeating: yes Search Engines want to list your site in their index! Furthermore, they want to rank it as accurately as possible. There is no need to trick the search engines into finding or ranking your web site. In fact, several practices commonly employed to fool search engines into ranking a site higher than it should be can have quite the opposite result. Search Engine companies actively research such techniques and develop ways to counter them in the interests of maintaining the accuracy and integrity of their search results. So if the Search Engine companies want to rank your site well, why does getting good results seem so difficult and mysterious?

 

    There are three major reasons for this:
  1. The exact ranking algorithm used by Search Engine companies is a closely guarded secret. So we, as web site owners or developers, cannot know precisely how to cater to it. In addition, different search engine companies may use different algorithms and they upgrade these algorithms regularly.
  2. The result of any web site optimization effort is always a trade off between maximizing your results for a particular set of terms and narrowing your potential scope. In other words, one cannot have both; every key word possible for your product or service, and a specific set of key words optimized to the fullest.
  3. The total amount of traffic to a web site is not solely determined by search engine optimization. Traditional marketing can significantly affect results and these would be difficult to separate from results derived from SEO.
Confusing the issue further are the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Companies.

It is in the interests of the SEO company to \"appear\" to be able to increase traffic to a web site in ways not available to a web site owner and seemingly being able to exceed the capabilities of web site designers and developers. In short, keeping the methods they use as a mystery is to their advantage.

We at Back2Front - The Web Site People, have worked with clients who have opted to use SEO companies in addition to the optimization we provide as part of our management service. We have also heard reports from new clients who have tried these services before coming to us. In both scenarios we have seen that there is rarely a perception of a good return on investment. Why is this?

 

With this kind of misleading information, it is no wonder that SEO is mysterious for many people. But search engine companies like Google do make public the criteria used in their algorithms and provide basic web master guidelines for successful search engine optimization. If you are curious, go check it out... http://www.google.ca

In the second part of this 3 part series of articles I will explore how the search engines actually work. ReadSearch Engines Demystified Part 2.

www.back2front.ca

by Candace Carter, Back2Front-The Web Site People, 2009

About the Author

Candace Carter is an artist, web designer, computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, and public speaker. Candace was educated in Fine Art and Agriculture at the University of Guelph and in Computer Programming at the University of Ryerson. She worked in web development for high-tech firms Sun Microsystems, MCI-WorldCom, and Tucows until the high-tech meltdown in 2001. Candace launched Back2Front - The Web Site People with a partner in 2002. Leveraging the power of the Internet, Back2Front's growing team of web designers and developers work on-line, reducing environmental impact by eliminating the need for a daily commute. Back2Front is one of the most successful web site management companies in the GTA, providing long-term, fully managed web site services for a large roster of business clientele. Candace credits Back2Front’s success to an innovative business model of providing unlimited service for a flat, per-page fee. Candace is an accomplished public speaker, with a friendly and knowledgeable style. Candace is a passionate crusader for excellence and value and it shows in her lively presentations. Candace is an expert in human/computer user interface, web design, and search engine optimization. The Back2Front team continuously conducts research, testing, and development that keep the company and Candace at the top of their field.

(ArticlesBase SC #779044)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Search Engine Optimization Demystified