Search Engine Optimization

True, ethical search engine optimization begins with natural or "organic" web site production. This means a web site has been created to serve its users.

Natural Search Results

Natural or "organic" search engine listings are the result of a search engine finding and returning web pages that are relevant to a user's query. Natural search results are not marked as "sponsored" or "featured." They are not paid results. They are based solely on relevance as determined by a search engine's algorithms and the implications of inbound links form other sites.

A website's placement within a search engine's natural or "organic" search results often fluctuate as any particular search engine's are adjusted. Ideally, these adjustments should signify the continued efforts toward improvement in the science of matching a machine's understanding to the subtleties of human queries.

It is the encounter of these "subtleties of human queries" with the non-organic, mechanical responses of a machine that creates the need for the near-mystical art of "Search Engine Optimization." Websites must be designed to not only meet the needs of its users, but to do so in a way that can be interpreted for relevance by a machine.

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin recognized this hurdle and found a shortcut around it by not only maximizing and fine-tuning the algorithmic capabilities of the search engine itself, but by placing increased emphasis on the importance of what other sites thought about a website, through the recognition and interpretation of inbound links.

Know Your Visitors

All of the above must be taken into consideration when developing or altering your website content. The behavior of your target audience - the keywords and phrases that they might use to query a search engine to find the products and/or services you offer, and then the optimization of an appropriate landing page on your website to efficiently and effectively present relevant and helpful information—first to the search engine—so it can find you—and then to the visitor—so it meets their needs—must be well thought-out, planned, and executed. By your making it easier for more visitors to find what they want or need, you will have created a situation where they will be more likely to take the desired action once they arrive at your site. But make no mistake, natural search engine optimization is an ongoing process—not a one-time project. When done properly, you will have accomplished your goal of delivering highly qualified visitors to your web site.

Use Best Practices

Established SEO "best practices" provide you with a safe and secure, yet effective, strategy for building organic long-term traffic to your site. These "best practices" can be cleanly divided into 4 major categories:

Avoid Black Hat SEO

You will find or be offered plenty of opportunities and shortcuts to drive up search engine traffic using "Black Hat SEO" techniques along your way. Don't get caught in that trap. These shady, unethical techniques are risky and distracting. Risky, because the traffic will be short-term and you could end up getting banned from a search engine. And distracting, because you'll spend a lot of time building a house of straw that could be easily swept away.

Build Quality

Long-lasting and durable go hand-in-hand. They create "quality." If you intend to give your website a long-term presence on the internet, make it durable. Build it strong and solid, based on established, ethical principles that coincide with those of the serious web community and ethical search engine optimization.

After all, what good is information if nobody gets it?