While working on some recent SEO projects, interacting with clients as well as doing some research on the Web, I realized that while most people recognize the phrase “Search Engine Optimization,” many different definitions of SEO are in use.
Usually an individuals understanding of SEO is driven by what they are trying to accomplish on the Web. Businesses selling low-cost products online and using Pay Per Click advertising, for example, have a different view of SEO than a small business using their site as an online brochure. At GreatCircle we work with primarily small businesses and business professionals so the definition we use for Search Engine Optimization is relevant to that audience.
I’ve found many, many definitions of Search Engine Optimization on the Web. Of these, here’s the basic definition of Search Engine Optimization that we generally use:
A range of integrated techniques with the goal of securing higher rankings from the major search engines for targeted keywords. SEO includes technical tasks to make it easier for Search Engines to find and index a site for the appropriate keywords, as well as marketing-focused tasks to make a site more appealing to users.
This defintion lays out all the components of Search Engine Optimization, starting with the searchers.
Providing Highly Relevant Content To Searchers
We look at this definition by working backwards from what is the key part of this whole process — the searcher! They’re the search engines “customers.” Search engines seek to serve the people running the searches. The service that the search engines provide is to give “highly relevant results” to searchers. They are NOT trying to help you to get your website to appear higher in the results.
Now, the “formula” that the search engines use to prepare their highly relevant results are closely guarded trade secrets. Much of what SEO technicians are doing is reverse engineering the search results pages to try and understand how one item is selected over another to be presented on the first result page by the search engines.
This is important because surveys have shown that the first ten items presented on the first search results page get over 70% of the click-throughs. The first position itself gets over 40% of the clicks, and the second position gets 11% of the click! This positioning of items on a search results page is often called its “ranking.” The item that shows up at the top of the first results page is said to be “ranked first.”
Clearly, the goal of SEO is to get your site to come up in the first two positions if at all possible.
How You Can Rank #1 on Google and get No New Traffic
Everyone wants to be “ranked higher in the search engines.” But what does that mean? What is one ranking for? The answer is keywords. This is the next part of the SEO definition above where the search engines are indexing websites “for the appropriate keywords.” So what’s a keyword? Here’s the definition we use:
One or more words entered into a search engine by a user. The keywords are used by the search engine to provide the user with relevant results based on the specific word or phrase as typed in by the user.
A searcher types in one or more words into Google (let’s say). Those words are the “keywords.” The page that comes up from that search has a number of items on it. The item at the top of that page can be said to be ranked #1 for that keyword. Another search may come along and type in a search that is similar to the initial one, and the item that was #1 on the first search might be #10 (or worse) on this second search!
We’ve talking with businesses who told us that their vendor told them they “ranked #1″ on Google. What they did not realize – until we showed it to them – was that they were ranking for a specific keyword and that particular keyword had so few searches associated with it that their “#1 ranking” generate no traffic for them.
The Most Important SEO Task
We believe that the keyword analysis is the most important part of the SEO process, certainly at the beginning. Any business can easily have 100 to 200 or more valid keywords that relate to its industry, its products or its services. However, not all of these might be the most viable keywords to use for optimization.
Determining the most viable keywords to use requires extensive and careful analysis. We use an industry-standard keyword analysis software program called WordTracker to test, analyze and select keywords. These keywords are used in both the physical optimization of the Website and its pages, but also for subsequent content creation. (I’ll be writing a separate blog post on the subject of keywords and keyword analysis.)
What is Search Engine Optimization?
The definition above defines SEO as “a range of integrated techniques.” We look at these “SEO techniques” as a process that is implemented in a specific sequence. After a time it becomes an ongoing process. From a high-level view we break this down into the following four phases:
Phase 1: Keyword Analysis & Physical Optimization – one time
Phase 2: Content Creation – ongoing
Phase 3: Link Building – ongoing
Phase 4: Publicity – ongoing
There are other approaches to SEO, but for the kinds of customers we are working with this has been the most successful approach.
