What is SEO ?
Will I be #1 in a search result ?
What is PR ?
Is there anything I can do to help my listing ?
What are Robots, Bots, Spiders and Crawlers ?
What are Sitemap's ?
What are Keywords ?
Which Search Engine's does my site get registered to ?
Are there other things that can be done to improve ranking ?
How long before before my site is listed with a search engine ?
Q: What is SEO ?
A: SEO simply stands for Search Engine Optimization. It's a technique employed to, as the name suggests, optimize a website for Search Engines. In summary, techniques employed to make a website Search Engine friendly. Some companies may charge large consultancy fees for this service but every page I make is built with Search Engines in mind, and basic SEO techniques are included in every page.
Q: Will I be #1 in a search result ?
A: A number #1 ranking in the more well known search engines cannot be guaranteed. Each Search Engine employs it's own set of algorithms used to analyze web pages and assess how high your site will sit in the returned results of a search. However, with included basic SEO most of my websites usually achieve a top 5 result.
Q: What is PR ?
A: PR stands for Page Rank. It's an algorithm used by Google™, among others, to assess how important your website is on a scale of 0 to 10. As well as analyzing the content of your website and it's keywords, Page Rank also analyses your site's popularity, how many people are linking to your site. A great tool for monitoring Page Rank is URL Trends. Type in the web address of some popular sites like Windows Live™ or Google™ and you will note their Page Rank is 9 or 10 ( most popular ). Most government site's tend to be around PR6. Increasing your Page Rank will definitely help your final search result position.
Q: Is there anything I can do to help my listing ?
A: Definitely. Getting links to your website from other websites will certainly improve your PR, and ultimately your search result position. If you are a regular user of forums consider adding your website address to your forum signature. Although website addresses in emails don't directly add to your PR, they certainly improve awareness of your site, so consider also adding your website address to your email signatures. If you are a regular "Blogger" add your address to your blog. Basically get noticed ! Plaster your website address in as many places as you can !
Q: What are Robots, Bots, Spiders and Crawlers ?
A: Robots, Bots, Spiders, Crawlers are just some of the names used to describe the software technology employed by search engines to "Crawl" and "Index" the internet. These "Robots" literally spend their days simply following billions of links on the internet, indexing page's as they find them. These "Robots" like any other program they obey certain instructions. These instructions are often referred to as the "Robots Exclusion Protocol". All my websites come with a Robots.txt file and every page contains the <meta name="robots"> tag. These two pieces of information can tell robots how and when to index your website.
Q: What are Sitemap's ?
A: Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.
Web crawlers usually discover pages from links within the site and from other sites. Sitemaps supplement this data to allow crawlers that support Sitemaps to pick up all URLs in the Sitemap and learn about those URLs using the associated metadata. Using the Sitemap protocol does not guarantee that web pages are included in search engines, but provides hints for web crawlers to do a better job of crawling your site.
Sitemap has wide adoption, including support from Google™, Yahoo!®, and Microsoft®.
You can read more about Google™ Sitemaps here or the Sitemap's initiative here
Q: What are Keywords ?
A: Keywords are words that you would associate with your webpage if you were looking for it on the Internet. For example if you had a website that sold flowers your keywords would possibly include "flowers", "roses" etc... When a robot analyses a page it assess "keyword density", the number of times it finds words on your site. It looks for this in various places, but notably the page content itself and also in the <meta name="keywords"> tag.
When a search is conducted results are returned based, in part, on the number of times the words used in the search query are found in the page content. However, this isn't the only factor in determining what order websites are listed in the search results. Each search engine has it's own unique set of algorithms to determine which websites are returned and in which order. You may find you are higher in one search engine, and lower in another.
It is generally accepted though that good keyword density and Page Rank go along way to obtaining a good search engine position. So when writing the content for your site consider how it is written. Try and use keywords as often as possible. Obviously simply writing "flowers, flowers, flowers" is a great way of achieving great keyword density, but won't make any sense to your readers and is often frowned upon by some search engines.
Ensuring you have well structured page content will go along way to improving your search ranking. In addition coding to W3C standards, something I practice, ensuring correctly populated "alt" tags on images, "title" tags on weblinks and appropriate use of h1 and h2 tags, will aid in improving your search engine rank.
Q: Which Search Engine's does my site get registered to ?
A: There are literally thousands of Search Engines on the Internet. Most of us are familiar with larger engines like Google™, Windows Live™, and AOL®, but have you heard of "Gigablast" or "Ice Rocket" ?
Some companies charge to, as they often quote: "Submit your site to thousands of search engines!" If you want my opinion this is the biggest con ever. How many people realistically use "arandomsearchengine.com" ? 8/10 of us will probably be using Google™, Yahoo®, Ask Jeeves™ or any of the other more well known engines.
Consider this fact; If there is just one single website in the entire world with a link to your website on it your website will eventually be listed in a search engine without you ever having to submit your website URL to any search engines. In fact some companies, such as Ask Jeeves™, now no longer allow website submission. Web robot software technology has improved dramatically over the years, with the ability to index vast quantities of web pages increasing every year. So why would you pay to have your site submitted ? Simply submitting your site to the bigger engine's will eventually get you listed in other search engines. A lot of search engine's are either owned, or use technology from the larger search engines. For example AOL® use's Google™ technology. Submitting to Google™ will also get you listed in AOL®.
"Submitting" your site to a search engine simply informs the robot that your site exists and that it should index it on it's round of indexing.
Included with your website will be submission to the following Search Engines.
Google™, this will also include listing in AOL® ( Enhanced by Google™ )
Yahoo®, this will also include listing in Altavista™ ( Powered by Yahoo® ) and Alltheweb ( Owned by Yahoo® )
Ask Jeeves™ ( Teoma ) Does not accept direct submissions, it relies simply on crawling the web for links to your site. Providing your site is robot friendly, in time your site will naturally be listed on Ask Jeeves™.
Windows Live™
Alexa ®
Gigablast ®
DMOZ
Q: Are there other things that can be done to improve ranking ?
A: Tuning a website can be an continual ongoing process, as your website content changes you may notice your search engine rank rise and fall. This can be for various factors, a higher Page Ranking website than yours is added to a search engine, your keyword density drops because of changes, a whole host of influencing factors can alter your search ranking. It usually takes several weeks before a robot will revisit your site, there is often a delay between alterations to website content and any reflected changes to your search rank. The key factors for a great ranking in any search engine is good consistent content, and search engine friendly sites.
Q: How long before my site is listed with a search engine ?
A: Most search engines will not guarantee a time frame in which your site will be listed. Generally speaking it is best to allow 3-4 weeks for your site to be initially indexed. Although some, but not all, search engines will offer "Paid Submission" schemes which are supposed to offer a faster submissions. In addition though some search engine's may not allow submission at all, for example Ask Jeeves™. These search engines simply rely on crawling and indexing the web, so it may be several weeks before you are listed in some search engines.