Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org
6.2 How It Works
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
- Learn what search engine optimization (SEO) is and how a Web site needs to be structured.
Search engines need to help users find what they’re looking for. To make sure they list the best
results first, they look for signals of the following:
- Relevance
- Importance
- Popularity
- Trust
- Authority
Search engine optimization (SEO), also called organic or natural optimization, involves optimizing
Web sites to achieve high rankings on the search engines for certain selected key phrases.
This is achieved by making changes to the hypertext markup language (HTML) code, content, and
structure of a Web site, making it more accessible for search engines, and by extension, easier to find
by users. These are also known as on-page factors. SEO also involves off-page factors—these
generally build links to the Web site. Activities to increase links to a Web site, including social media
and Web public relations (WebPR), are considered off-page SEO.
SEO is an extremely effective way of generating new business to a site. It is a continuous process and
a way of thinking about how search engines see your Web site and how users use search engines to
find your Web site. It’s search psychology.
SEO is a fairly technical practice, but it can easily be broken down into five main areas:
- A search engine–friendly Web site structure
- A well-researched list of key phrases
- Content optimized to target those key phrases
- Link popularity