Site Optimization for Dummies
Site optimization if properly understood, is such a simple business, yet some experts have made it a sort of specialized field. In fact, a well made site needs no optimization, and no optimization can help a poorly made site till its errors are fixed. Loosely speaking it like putting a man on vitamins for him to gain health instead of giving him a healthy food.
If you got a site that has no programming error, is quick to load, has all meta tags, good content and so on, your site needs no optimization or may we say it is well optimized. Getting traffic and links is all matter of time; a good content would ensure that it happens.
Today, I am explaining few terms that are frequently used by SEO experts:
• Search Engine Algorithm. A search algorithm is, in short, the incredibly complex mathematical formula that a search engine uses to "rank" web sites for keywords. Based on a huge number of variables and calculations, algorithms are among the most closely-guarded secrets on the internet to avoid a webmaster manipulate its ranking in the search engine results.
• Bot or Bots. See also "crawlers"
• Crawlers- are a search engine crawler. They periodically traverses the web in record time, indexing content, links - everything contained in page source code - and storing it in search index. Then, when a user visits Search engine and enters a search phrase, the index, filtered by the algorithm, is what the user gets. Please note: there is some delay in this process since the results you're getting are from the index and not the live web.
• Directories. When webmasters realized just how much power inbound links have in determining search rankings they quickly set out to do two things: 1) get inbound links and 2) set up web sites where other webmasters could achieve inbound links (meaning big traffic revenues for the site). Hence the directory farms you'll find today. Link building has been a priority on the líst of any SEO-savvy webmaster for years, and as a result "quick fix" directories that allow streamlined listing submissions get a ton of traffic. A good search engine would filter out such links, hence may not help your site.
• Frames. Frames are a way of laying out a website with multiple documents in one browser window. Essentially, there is one main document which contains the frameset tag - this document specifies the dimensions/placement of the frames and also the documents that will "populate" those frames. From an SEO standpoint the use of frames for your layout is not recommended. Since frames do not use links in the same way, and since links may point to one frame from another, they may cause serious problems for crawlers.
• Gateway Pages. Also "doorway pages." These pages are created to "rank well in search engines" by playing to the algorithms. Often viewed as "spammy," "gray hat" or even "black hat." However, any page written with search in mind, and geared towards search, can be construed to be a "gateway page." The difference between a page well-optimized for search and a "gateway page?" No clear lines there, but quality of content is probably the determining factor.
• Link Popularity. Inbound links are probably the most important optimization point for web pages. Number, quality, trust - these are all factors that affect the value of an inbound link.
• Link Building. In short, the process of gaining links at other web sites pointing in to pages on your own.
• Link Baiting. The process of generating high-quality content on your pages that users will appreciate and link to voluntarily.
• Meta Tags. Meta tags are found at the top of a page's source code. They are used to specify certain things that might not be found in the page content. They also allow webmasters to put up certain "flags" that search engine crawlers can react to. Meta tags are no longer used in the way they originally were - as a place to stuff keywords to drive your site up in rankings.
• Robots. Same as "crawlers."
• Search Engine Marketing. Most often this refers to Pay-Per-Click marketing in which an advertiser bids on chosen keywords and writes several ads to be displayed should their bid achieve placement.
• Search Engine Optimization. This one is open to interpretation. It is quite often used to encapsulate a huge amount of different tactics. On-site optimization, off-site optimization (link building, etc) and many other techniques all feasibly fall under the SEO blanket.
• Spiders. Same as "crawlers."
• Submission. For SEO this has traditionally meant submitting a web site to search engines so they'll know about and crawl it. SEO firms offered submission services as a big selling point to bring in clients. However, for a long time now submitting your site to search engines hasn't done jack. They're all much smarter now - just focus on gaining quality inbound links and your site will be indexed in no time.
