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Topic Outline • Introduction • How Search Engines Work • SEO Building Blocks • Keywords • Crawler • Links • SEO Tools
Definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)1 "Natural," or "organic," search engine optimization (SEO) is designing, writing, and HTML-coding a Web site to maximize the chance its pages will appear at the top of spider-based search engine results for selected keywords and phrases Organic Listings: Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings)
SEO • Iterative process • Dynamic environment • Art • Science
Why is it important? • Internet advertising 1H 2006 : $7.9 Billion2 • Search ranking more site visitors • Internet users tend not to click through • Depends on webs role in your economic model
Variation in Approaches White Hat • Abide by terms and conditions set forth by search engines Black Hat • Breaches search engine terms and conditions • May provide short-term gains • You run the risk of being penalized by search engines
Defining Success (Context) Search-Friendly (SEO) • High ranking • Terms and conditions set by search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search) User-Friendly • Site must satisfy the needs of visitors Persuasive • Profitable for site owner
Google Search Placement4 Placement: importance and relevance • PageRank (importance) • Counts links • Weights links • Query matching (relevance) • sophisticated text-matching techniques • examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it)
Link Development Inbound Links Impact PageRank PageRank (Popularity, importance) • Number and quality of links pointing to a website • Measure of usefulness of site
Link Development Tradeoffs • Advantage • it is dynamic, cumulative, and difficult to imitate • Disadvantage • takes time (vs. advertising)
Search Engine Term and Conditions • Google • Yahoo • MSN Search