Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Search engine optimization (SEO) often refer to as the process of improving the amount and quality of user visits to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results according to the "key words" or "key phrase" input to search engine search box. Usually, when a website is listed on the top of a search results page, it means it is "ranked" higher than other web pages in the search results, or the higher it "ranks," the more users will visit that site.

Search engine optimizer (SEO) is also a term used by an industry of consultants who carry out website optimization process on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone contract service or as a part of a broader internet marketing campaign.

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs, known as black hat SEO or Spamdexing, have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These black hat SEOs often use methods such as link farms and keyword spamming that degrade both the relevance of search results. Practices that violate typical guidelines of most search engines may result in a negative adjustment of your site´s presence in various search engines, or even the removal of your site from the search engines´ index.

Before you decide to hire a SEO, make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. A responsible SEO can provide website optimization process services, including:

Keyword and key phrase research based on your website objectives
Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, domain names, redirects, error pages, server platform, content management system, web editing software, use of JavaScript
Review and suggest changes of your site content, website navigation and website structure
Content development and website useability study
Manage and updating website content
Website development process and coordination, including outsourcing management (for larger website)
Content Management and updating training
Search engine optimization (SEO) training
Graphic Design and user interface consulting
Expertise in specific markets and geographies
Internet marketing campaigns.

Good SEO technique involves no deception scheme to trick search engines and conforms to the search engines´ guidelines. Although search engine guidelines are not written as set rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. Professional SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the website content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see. Good SEO advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the crawlers (robots or spiders), rather than attempting to trick the search engine from its intended purpose.

Search Engine Guidelines

The following guidelines will help search engines find, index, and rank your site.

Website design and content guidelines

Create useful, information-rich content for your site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content that simple and easy for users to read.
Make sure the site has very clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
Think about the words or phrases users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your website actually includes those words or phrases within it.
Include a site map that links to all the pages of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.
Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. Search engine crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images.
Keep links on a given web page to than 100.
Make sure that your web page <title>, <meta> tag elements and alt attributes are descriptive and accurate.
If you have software that generates dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.
Make sure there are no broken links and check for correct HTML.
Use common and easy to read fonts, example verdana, arial, etc.
Use only essential graphical images on your web page and avoid full graphical page unless your website is an image/photo gallery.

Technical guidelines

Test your site to make sure that it appears correctly in different browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Mozilla, Netscape navigator, Opera, etc.
Use a text browser such as Lynx to browse your site, because most search engine crawlers see your site much as Lynx would. If your website has fancy features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Flash that may keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine robots may have trouble crawling through your site.
Make sure you have a robots.txt file on your web site. This file tells crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled. Make sure it's current for your site so that you don't accidentally block the search engine crawler. To learn how to instruct robots when they visit your website, go to http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/faq.html . You can use the the robots.txt analysis tool called Robot.txt Checker to test your robots.txt file to make sure you're using it correctly
If you use a content management system, make sure that the system can export your content so that search bots can crawl your site.
Make sure your web server that stored your web pages supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This feature allows your web server to tell search engines whether your content has changed since they last crawled your site. Supporting this feature saves you bandwidth and overhead.
Use robots.txt to prevent crawling of search results pages or other auto-generated pages that has no value for users coming from search engines.
Make sure your website allow search spiders to crawl your sites without session IDs or arguments that track their path through the site. Although these tracking techniques are useful for tracking individual user behavior, but the access pattern of the spiders is entirely different, which may result in incomplete indexing of your site, as spiders may not be able to eliminate URLs that look different but actually point to the same web page.

Quality web page guidelines

DO NOT create multiple pages, subdomains (3rd level domains), or domains with substantially duplicate content.
DO NOT waste your effort and money participate in link schemes like "Link Farms" or "link Exchange" that designed to increase your site's ranking in search engines. In particular, avoid links to web spammers on the web, as this may seriously affect your ranking in search engines.
DO NOT create pages with irrelevant keywords.
DO NOT use tricks intended to purely improve search engine rankings of your web page. A good practice is whether you are feeling good explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another good test is ask yourself, "Does the content on my website help my users? Would I write this content if there are no search engines?"
DO NOT use unauthorized software programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate terms of service of most search engines.
DO NOT create pages with intend to harm others, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other spyware.
DO NOT deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, this practice is commonly called "cloaking." Create your pages primarily for users, not intended for search engines.
DO NOT use sneaky redirects scripts.
DO NOT use hidden text or hidden links.
DO NOT post "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or some other "cookie cutter template" web pages such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
If you are an affiliate of a legitimate company, make sure that your site adds value and not just use a "cookie cutter template" web pages provided by your affiliated company. Create unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

Choosing the right SEO

Now you have some ideas about SEO and SEO guidelines and are thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. If you are planning to launch a new website or considering redesign of an existing website, hiring an SEO at the early stage can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help in providing good advise to improve an existing site.

AVOID the followings:
- DO NOT TRUST SEO or companies who send you spam emails that contain wrodings like:
  No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google or other search engines.
- DO NOT hire an SEO or companies who is secretive or evasive in explaining what they intend to do.
- DO NOT hire SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines and may potentially get your site removed from search engines' index.
Choose wisely and ask questions on SEO guidelines listed above.
Some common abuses by "Black" or unethical SEO.
Other warning signs
- Guarantees top ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases
- Offers to sell keywords in the address bar
- Owns shadow or deceptive domains
- Puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
- Has no knowledge on basic web design principles
- Does not distinguish between actual organic search results and paid ads that appear on search results pages
- Using email spamming methods to announce your website
- Make unrealistic claims on website rankings
- Use "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware to get traffic