Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Why Go For Search Engine Optimization

Writen by Rajat Chakraborty

Before explaining the need for search engine optimization it is important to understand the definition of SEO, a term which has become such a hotly debated topic in the world of webmasters. Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a website by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. This is known as SERP or search engine result page. When your webpage ranks high in the search results you get unique visitors. And if the visitor gets the information he/she is looking for then you might expect repeated visitors.

Now let's make one thing clear, websites could be broadly divided into four types:

• Personal sites
• Corporate sites
• Informative sites
• Sites devoted to ecommerce

The first two types can very well exist without any optimization. Why? Simply because they are not looking for unique visitors! But if you have a site especially designed for the purpose of dissemination of information or for ecommerce then you need search engine optimization for better listings in various search engines.

Content is the King

It is often said in the world of webmasters that if you want to drive targeted visitors to your website you should have relevant content. Search Engines look for relevant content when a person makes a search based on a particular keyword. So your website should have relevant content in order to rank high in SERP.

A few more words can be said about the role of content or keywords for achieving high search engine rankings. It is very important that you have the right keywords or key phrases. When we say "right" we mean the most popular keywords that are used by people browsing the web for products or services that you specialize in. The most important key words or key phrases should be sprinkled across the text in right proportions. This is called keyword density. This can vary from 5-15%. Judgment must be used to invoke keywords without being repetitive. This practice is called "keyword stuffing". A particular website could be penalized for keyword stuffing in order to befool the web spider. Keywords can be liberally used in the first two paragraphs of your content. It is also imperative that you use your keywords or phrases in the last line of your web content. Your anchor text should contain your most popular keyword or key phrase. That also helps a lot. Google, of all search engines, places a lot of importance on the anchor text of your inbound links.

Optimization is crucial

Take a look at some of the hard facts which make search engine optimization indispensable:

• Over 80% of Internet users find websites through search engines.
• 90% of Internet users do not go past the top 30 search engine results. They simply type something else in if they can't find a relevant site.
• 75% of Internet users have the intention of purchasing a product or service when using search engines.
• Professional search engine optimization is about twice as effective as all other Internet marketing methods and eight times more effective than costly banner advertisements.

Therefore, ranking highly in search engines and directories should be critical to your Internet marketing strategy. Unfortunately, many online businesses fail to address the importance of search engines, building their site without any regard to search engine compatibility at all.

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