The ABCs of SEO: Part Two
You're about to embark on a recap of The ABCs of SEO, as published in the May issue of the TAAR Report. Read part one of this article here.
Components of SEO
When it comes to keywords,
more is not always better.
Creating web sites that are search engine-friendly means determining what the search engine likes. Back in the mid-90s, it was fairly easy to figure out what made the search engines happy. As a result, the web experienced widespread SEO abuse, and users couldn’t find the timely, trustworthy information they were seeking.
To curb this abuse, Google built a bigger, better algorithm. The new algorithm took into account various factors and characteristics of the web pages it indexed. Soon, other search engines like Yahoo and MSN adapted similar algorithms to keep organic search results as pure and relevant to its users as possible.
Today, site owners aim to work with these algorithms to increase their site rank. Working with the algorithms is difficult for two reasons:
- Figuring out a search engine’s algorithm is akin to finding the Holy Grail
- The algorithm constantly changes, varying the weight of its variables
Nonetheless, SEO experts have determined a handful of factors that search engines look at while ranking sites. A significant chunk of these “on-site” factors have to do with the frequency and placement of keyword and keyword phrases (like “health insurance” or “health insurance quote”).
More specifically, the algorithms analyze:
- Keywords in the domain name
- Keywords in the site’s directory and file name
- Keywords in page headings and subheadings
- Keyword density—the ratio of keywords to other words on the page
Because of the importance keywords play in optimizing a site, some webmasters use an abundance of them to try and trick the spider into giving them a higher ranking. But when it comes to keywords, more is not always better. Search engines are on the lookout for blatant keyword stuffing and have tweaked their algorithms to evaluate a host of other on-site factors—all of which must be considered when optimizing a site.
Stay tuned for part three of The ABCs of SEO to learn about the other components of SEO, as well as the five site tweaks that can improve your web site ranking!
