What Is Search Engine Optimization?

If you are like the majority of searchers, when you get a list of results produced

by a search query you've made, you tend to click on the websites that are listed at the top of the list. The typical searcher scans through the first 10 to 15 results; more than 50% of searchers rarely make it beyond the first page of results. Webmasters started to recognize this phenomenon around the mid-1990s.

Because the sites on top of results lists were the ones that received the most traffic and, consequently, were the ones who benefitted the most from the ensuing economic activity, the value of ranking high in search engine results pages became apparent to webmasters. This gave rise to a range of techniques that were employed for the purpose of raising a website's prominence in search engine results. These techniques have come to be known as Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

Webmasters first began to optimize sites in the mid-1990s. (The first documented usage of the phrase "SEO" has been dated to 1997.) Prior to this, all webmasters had to do was submit their URLs - the addresses of their web pages - to a search engine in order to get their website included in the indices of search engines.

But as the importance of ranking high on results became evident, webmasters began to learn seo and develop techniques that aided in increasing their sites' prominence, such as increasing keyword density and devising the right meta tags. When search engines realized that unscrupulous webmasters were using these techniques to manipulate search result ranking to their advantage at the cost, sometimes, of the results' quality and relevancy, they changed their algorithms for ranking. Hundreds of factors aside from keyword density and meta tags were taken into account in the algorithms in order to preclude manipulation by webmasters. Webmasters then had to take these new factors into consideration when designing websites. This often meant having to relearn strategies or of course, attend an seo training course as a refresher.

SEO now entails an extensive range of activities that include keyword research and analysis, website design, HTML code adjustment, creation of content with highly targeted keywords, link building, URL normalization, content update, website promotion, social media marketing, and many more. Both the internal features of a website as well as its external aspects are areas that SEO works on to render a website "search engine-friendly." Aside from general search and search engines, SEO also targets other kinds of search, such as industry-specific vertical search engines and more local and specialized search.

Nowadays, SEO is regarded as the crucial factor in determining online success or failure. Without the application of SEO, a site runs the risk of being buried under millions of other websites that are vying for web prominence. Employing search engine optimization inevitably leads to greater traffic which converts to increased sales.

Search engine optimization has become such an important function in improving website visibility that a whole industry has developed around it. Entire businesses are devoted to this specialized activity. Thus, the term SEO is also used to signify "search engine optimizers", referring to those people who carry out such strategies on behalf of clients.

by: John Roberts

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