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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
What is SEO?
SEO is a collection of strategies that one can use to elevate the listing of one's web site in common search engines: Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo, and Google.
Why is SEO important?
In most cases, you want your web site to appear topmost in a list of search results. For example, if your web site is focused on information about education policy, then you want your web site to appear at or near the top of search results when a web user searches on keywords "education policy". SEO is a collection of strategies that boost one's search result rank.
What are useful SEO strategies?
The web site seomoz.org has developed a useful review of modern SEO strategies. I recommend this site to anyone who is interested in SEO. The following information comes from seomoz.org. While I have reworded these strategies to accommodate readers of this web page, full credit belongs to seomoz.org whose web site, again, I urge you to consult for more information.
According to a group of thirty-seven SEO experts, these are the ten most relevant factors in SEO, collated by seomoz.org:
- Keyword Use in Title Tag
The TITLE tag of your web site is the linchpin of your SEO strategy. The title tag is simple but vital. Make sure that you use important keywords in the TITLE tag of your web site. If you are using dynamic title tag information called from a database, make sure to populate the title tag data with appropriate keywords. The selection and order of these title tags are crucial. - Anchor Text of Inbound Link
Ideally, web sites that link to your web site should use the correct title of your organization. It is difficult to control this factor. You can contact other web sites and ask politely if they will link to your web site using the correct language. You can also set up a "How to link to our web site" web page that advises other web sites of the correct language or title to use if they create a link to your web site. Finally, an inbound link from a "quality" web site will count more toward a search ranking than a link from a lesser web site. It is up to a search engine to determine the web sites that are "quality" sites. The best definition of a quality web site is a site that is well established in its topic area. - Global Link Popularity of Site
How many other web sites link to your web site? Are they "quality" web sites? A marketing effort to get other web sites to link to yours can increase your web search rank. - Age of Site
When was your web site established? Older web sites tend to receive better treatment in search results. Age of site is measured from the commencement of one's current hosting plan on an ISP's web server. - Link Popularity within the Site
The number of pages within your own web site that link to a given page will influence the search rank of that given page. - Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site
This factor is a measure of linking relevance. Is the content of other web sites, who link to your site, relevant to your site's content? Again, this factor is difficult to control. A smart marketing campaign can improve the relevance of inbound links to your site. It is useful to collaborate with organizations that are similar to yours to create links to each other's web sites. - Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
This factor is a measure of linking relevance. This factor measures the number of inbound links to your web site from web sites whose topic is similar to yours. Do many of your collaborators link to your web site? Again, it is useful to collaborate with organizations that are similar to yours to create links to each other's web sites. - Keyword Use in Body Text
Use keywords liberally throughout the text of your web site. - Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
This factor measures the overall number of inbound links to your web site. - Topical Relationship of Linking Page
This factor measures the number of inbound links to a specific page on your web site from specific pages on other web sites whose topic is similar to yours. It is another measure of linking relevance.
I can work with you to implement these SEO strategies for your web site.
My friend Juliet DiIorio at info.com contributed to the information I present on this page. (And here is one example of SEO at work: my links to info.com and seomoz.org will boost their search result rankings -- if ever so slightly!)