Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With millions of people performing billions of searches each day to find content on the internet (Sullivan, 2013), it makes sense that marketers want their products to be findable online. Search engines, the channels through which these searches happen, use closely guarded algorithms to determine the results displayed. Determining what factors these algorithms consider has led to a growing practice known as search engine optimization (SEO).

Search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing a website to achieve the highest possible ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Someone who practices SEO professionally is also known as an SEO (search engine optimizer).

Google says it uses more than two hundred different factors in its algorithm to determine relevance and ranking (Avellanosa, 2012). None of the major search engines disclose the elements they use to rank pages, but there are many SEO practitioners who spend time analyzing patent applications to try to determine what these are.

SEO can be split into two distinct camps: white-hat SEO and black-hat SEO (with, of course, some grey-hat wearers in between). Black hat SEO refers to trying to game the search engines. These SEOs use dubious means to achieve high rankings, and their websites are occasionally blacklisted by the search engines. White-hat SEO, on the other hand, refers to working within the parameters set by search engines to optimize a website for better user experience. Search engines want to send users to the website that is best suited to their needs, so white-hat SEO should ensure that users can find what they are looking for.

Key SEO Terms

Alt text
The "alt" attribute for the IMG HTML tag. It is used in HTML to attribute a text field to an image on a web page, normally with a descriptive function, telling a search engine or user what an image is about and displaying the text in instances where the image is unable to load. Also called alt tag.
Anchor text
The visible, clickable text in a link.
App store optimization (ASO)
The process of optimizing mobile and web applications for the specific web stores they are distributed in.
Backlink
All the links on other pages that will take the user to a specific web page. Each link to that specific page is known as an inbound/backlink. The number of backlinks influences your ranking, so the more backlinks, the better.
Canonical
The canonical version is the definitive version. In SEO, it refers to a definitive URL.
Domain name
The easy-to-read name used to identify an IP address of a server that distinguishes it from other systems on the World Wide Web.
Flash
A technology used to show video and animation on a website. It can be bandwidth-heavy and unfriendly to search engine spiders.
Heading tags
Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, and so on) are standard elements used to define headings and subheadings on a web page. The number indicates the importance, so H1 tags are viewed by the spiders as being more important than H3 tags. Using target key phrases in your H tags is essential for effective SEO.
Home page
The first page of any website. The home page gives users a glimpse into what your site is about, very much like the index in a book, or a magazine.
Hyperlink
A link in an electronic document that allows you, once you click on it, to follow the link to the relevant web page.
HyperText markup language (HTML)
The code language predominantly used to create and display web pages and information online.
Internet protocol (IP) address
An exclusive number that is used to represent every single computer in a network.
Keyword frequency
The number of times a keyword or key phrase appears on a website.
Key phrase
Two or more words that are combined to form a search query, often referred to as keywords. It is usually better to optimize for a phrase rather than a single word.
Keyword rankings
Where the keywords or phrases targeted by SEO rank in the search engine results. If your targeted terms do not appear on the first three pages, start worrying.
Landing page
The first page a user reaches when clicking on a link in an online marketing campaign. The pages that have the most success are those that match up as closely as possible with the user’s expectations.
Link
A URL embedded on a web page. If you click on the link, you will be taken to that page.
Link bait
A technique for providing content that attracts links from other web pages.
Meta tags
Tags that tell search engine spiders what exactly a web page is about. It’s important that your meta tags are optimized for the targeted key phrases. Meta tags are made up of meta titles, descriptions and keywords.
PageRank
Google’s secret algorithm for ranking web pages in search engine results pages.
Referrer
When a user clicks on a link from one site to another, the site the user has left is the referrer. Most browsers log the referrer’s URL in referrer strings. This information is vital in determining which queries are being used to find specific sites.
Robots.txt
A file written and stored in the root directory of a website that restricts the search engine spiders from indexing certain pages of the website.
Search engine spiders
Programs that travel the web, following links and building up the indexes of search engines.
Universal resource locator (URL)
A web address that is unique to every page on the internet.
Usability
A measure of how easy a system is to use. Sites with excellent usability fare far better than those that are difficult to use.
XML sitemap
A guide that search engines use to help them index a website, which indicates how many pages there are, how often they are updated, and how important they are.

References 

Avellanosa, N. (2012). Half of 200 signals in Google's ranking algorithm revealed [Web log]. Retrieved from http://blogirature.com/2012/07/01/half-of-200-signals-in-googles-rankingalgorithm- revealed/

Sullivan, D. (2013). Google still world's most popular search engine by far, but share Of unique searchers dips slightly. Search Engine Land. Retrieved from http://searchengineland.com/google-worlds-most-popular-search-engine-148089

Licenses and Attributions

Chapter 9: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) from eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Marketing in a Digital World, 5th Edition by Rob Stokes and the Minds of Quirk is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. © 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 Quirk Education Pty (Ltd). UMGC has modified this work and it is available under the original license.