How do search engines work?
Search engines are web tools that people use in order to find websites that contain information that interests them based on a keyword orientated search term. In order to service their human client, search engines use algorithms to try and calculate which websites will, from a human point of view, be most applicable to a users search and they do this by analysing each website by its content, both text and images. Each search engine uses a different set of algorithms and will therefore produce different results for an individual search.
What is search engine optimization?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the term used to describe the process of improving the volume and/or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines. There are a number of techniques that can be used, but as each search engine is different you will find that each engine will favour different techniques over others.
White hat techniques
White hat techniques are ethical techniques that improve a websites ranking based on improving the website from a human point of view. Websites that have been optimized in this manner will always give the user exactly what they hope to find. Examples of such techniques are providing unique and comprehensive information on each page, optimizing a sites coding to follow the latest accessibility guidelines, improving a sites navigation, incorporating a clear hierarchical structure, and improving a sites presentation. You will never get penalized for this type of optimization and, although these techinques can take longer to implement, longer-lasting results can be steadily achieved.
Because effective SEO can require making changes to the source code of a site, it is often very helpful when incorporated into the initial development and design of a site. This results in Search Engine Friendly websites that can be optimized easily and effectively.
The technologies that you have chosen in the development of your site will also affect the SEO techniques that you will need to use.
Black hat techniques
Black hat techniques are techniques that try to take advantage of the manner in which specific search engines analyze a webite, and these are sometimes considered spamming and sometimes even illegal. These can include hiding keyword saturated content in a websites code, creating duplicate websites that lead back to the same place or even changing a sites code to give the appearance that a site has been improved and these techniques can sometimes produce amazing results...but only for a short while. Once a search engine has cottoned on to a specific Black hat technique it will change its search algorythms to not only ignore such techniques but sometimes also to penalize these websites by either reducing their placement in valid search results or by removing them completely from their database! This is especially true of the more important search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Caution is advised.
How can we help you?
As part of our web development service we will apply the most up-to-date white hat seo techniques to ensure that your web site has as much exposure as possible. Options for further web advertising can also be discussed.
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