What is Search Engine Optimization? The term can be quite vague. To put it simply, SEO is the art of increasing the volume and quality of site traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. SEO targets unpaid visitors rather that direct traffic from ad programs or sponsored links. In short, SEO works to get your site noticed by people who are not looking for what you offer in the first place. Let me try to explain Search Engine Optimization a little more so you can understand how SEO can benefit your business.

When someone performs an online search using search engine optimization techniques on websites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing they are looking for the information, services, or products that you have on your website. In order to be visible to the search engines, the relevance of your content has to be high. Most of the time this means that your site has to be about the topic that people are looking for. There are three components that make up SEO. These are content, links, and search engine optimization.

Content creation is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. If your content creation is poor then you won’t see much improvement in your ranking. The average marketer has a fairly clear idea of what their consumers want. Most internet marketers focus on building their list of email subscribers, creating inbound links from other relevant websites, and submitting their websites to popular directories.

Links and search engine rankings depend a lot on the selection of search terms that you select. You want to choose terms that have little to no competition. Good keyword research will help you select competitive keywords that you think your customers will use when looking for your products or services. Once you have found these keywords, you need to build quality backlinks to your website using anchor text links.

Search engine optimization also includes search engine rankings and user experience. Many marketers focus on building their rankings by paying for ad space on popular sites. While this can generate some extra money you will not increase your sales. Most online users do not like commercials and if your ad shows up on a site that the user does not frequent then they will likely ignore it. A better focus for your SEM strategies should be on developing quality inbound links that improve your site’s rankings.

Finally, search engine optimization should include link building. Links from other relevant websites help your SEO strategies. It is very important that your links are from quality sites that provide high quality content. These sites often receive higher rankings than some of the lower quality sites because they are trusted sources. You will also gain credibility with other webmasters who will want to include your links in their websites. This is one of the best ways to get organic search traffic which is free and will eventually lead to more sales.

How Google Ranking Factors Influence SEO Rankings

Learn how Google ranks web pages for relevance. Explain the difference between on-page, technical, and off page ranking factors. Separate the top 10 Google ranking considerations into actionable suggestions for improving your site’s ranking. Assign a level of importance to each ranking factor. Use the suggested solutions to achieve your goals.

Google’s primary method for ranking a web page is by determining in part the quality of the incoming links. In Google’s opinion, the quality of these links represents the site’s competence. The quality of the links Google uses to assign rankings is called the Google anchor text and Google PageRank. Google assigns a special number to each link. This number, referred to as the PageRank, is a measure of the site’s authority. It is important to understand what PageRank is and why it is important in assessing a website’s quality.

This information is used to determine the relevancy of a page in terms of search results. There are several other important factors affecting rankings. These include the amount of inbound links, the linking behavior of the webmaster, the page layout and design, and the incoming link sources from other sites. These are just a few of the many factors that go into establishing Google’s ultimate formula for ranking a page. To keep this explanation short, each factor is assigned a numerical value, or rank, to establish the relevancy of a page.

Among the most important Google ranking factors is page speed. Google has made every attempt to provide search engines with very fast page loading speeds. Google PageSpeed is the only tool that Google currently offers to analyze page speed. Page Speed will influence both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and organic ranking.

The second most important Google ranking factor is user experience. Google wants users to be able to easily find their way around the site. Google focuses on a simple layout with plenty of visible and navigable links. The more visible the links are, the more relevance the page receives from Google’s perspective.

The third most important Google ranking factor is content. Search engines look for clear, rich, and complete articles that provide users with relevant information. The more information you provide your audience, the higher your page will rank in organic search engine results. In addition to improving search engine results rankings, user experience metrics provide advertisers with detailed reports about user behavior. Google’s Big Daddy updates introduced new user experience indicators, which are expected to greatly improve SEO and organic search engine results.