Search Engine Optimization

The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to make a webpage rank “well” in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for a given keyword or keyword combination.

The notion of “ranking well” is somewhat relative, but typically the first three or four sites listed for any given set of results receive the overwhelming majority of visits and in as much it should be the goal of any SEO campaign to get to the top of the results.

The first few pages also receive the overwhelming majority of “natural” inbound links (meaning links that Webmasters didn’t have to actively solicit) from other sites thereby reinforcing their position at the top SERPs and making it all the more important.

SEO is generally divided between “on-page” factors and “off-page” factors.

On page factors include:

• Metatags (especially, Meta Title and Meta Description)
• URL path
• Keyword density
• Internal links
• Website architecture
• Image alt tags
• Authority, high-quality content

Off-page factors include:

• Inbound links (from quality, relevant sites)
• CTR – how many people click through when they see your site?
• Social Media – How many Likes, Plus 1s, Tweets, Diggs do you get?
• Bookmarks – How many people have bookmarked your site.
• Competition
• Bounce rate
• History

Search engines such as Google have more than 100 such variables in their algorithm in an effort to ensure that only quality pages rank at the top of the SERPs.

According to Google, websites should make quality content the main focus of their sites.

Unfortunately, the reality remains that those who focus more on SEO seem to reap the greatest rewards in organic search.

This is because so many webmasters are aware of the basic functionality of Google’s algorithm that there is nothing “natural” about the way links – the single most important factor in SEO – occur and webmasters are best advised to devote a good portion of their time to SEO.

Of course, many websites don’t need to worry about SEO and can devote their time and effort to paid online advertising.

Green Crescent can help you analyze your business and website and determine the optimal online marketing strategy for your website.