What is Search Engine Optimization and How Does It Work?

It can be defined by Wikipedia as “the process of affecting the visibility of a website or web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results.”

In layman’s terms, SEO is getting search engines like Google and Yahoo! to put you website at the top of the search results without having to pay for it.

What? That’s possible! How?

Each search engine is programmed with its own unique search algorithm. This algorithm enables the search engine to sift through the massive number of webpages all over the internet in order to give you what you’re searching for. And it can do that in a matter of seconds. I know right, technology rocks!

Although each algorithm is different, there are some basic principles all search engines follow. Here are two examples: (1) websites with more hits generally make the top pages and (2) websites that contain the exact keyword you’re searching for also make the top pages.

SEO takes advantage of the second principle through utilizing the skill of Keyword Research.

Keyword research involves understanding the behavior of your target market, specifically their search patterns. If your target client searches for “cute puppies for sale”, he/she is more likely to find your website if it contains that exact phrase.

Keywords are a very important part of Internet marketing. Small adjustments can make extremely large impact. For instance, the difference between the search terms “cute puppy for sale” and “cute puppies for sale” can spell the difference between being ranked 1st or 31st. It’s no wonder companies are willing to spend so much on SEO. The more a company is searched, the greater its chances of doing business.

The heart of marketing is understanding your customer’s behavior; Internet marketing is no different. In order to reach your customer at a personal level, you need to be able to give them exactly what they’re searching for.

As for Search Optimization in these regards, once you have targeted a keyword then it is up the person working on rankings to be able to attack that phrase and bring it’s pages to the forefront of the search results.

An Search Engine Optimization Expert will do this by writing up optimized articles, inner linking, outer linking and proper tagging to give the person searching what they are actually looking for. It makes no sense just to KW stuff an article because once the reader arrives they will most definitely hit the dreaded back button and add to your bounce rate.

As a general rule I as an SEO strive to provide only complimentary content to make the experience as a whole better for the reader. Now with the current sandboxing that has been going on it has become much tougher for SEO’s to grab the rankings they once could.

The one good part about it is that Google always like to release what it likes and by using its own properties such as blogger,YouTube and G My Business. We know they give precedence to those sites or properties so it is to our best advantage and buil links out on to them.

So there you have it a little quick lesson in SEO. If you are in need of some expert work done for you by our SEO Services in Portland Search Engine Marketing in Aloha Search Engine Optimization services in Beaverton and finally our Reputation Management services in Hillsboro  or head back to our Oregon SEO Expert Services page.