Seo-Practice

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” The term may sound like optimizing an actual search engine such as Google, however this professional service focuses on tweaking a website to do well – to appear among the top listings on search engine results pages (SERPs). SERPs are web pages returned by search engines like Google or Yahoo! after a user performs a search. These pages contain links to web sites and documents that the search engine deems relevant to the word or phrase. These words or phrases are also
known as “keywords.”

Using complex and proprietary algorithms, search engines consider hundreds of factors when gauging the relevance of a certain site or webpage. Search engines are constantly changing their proprietary algorithms – sometimes significantly – in an attempt to list
only the most relevant results.

Major search engines vary their results by geographic region and language. For example, Google’s German page will place more emphasis on German websites. Search engines use various pieces of information; among these is language, the physical location of a
website’s server, etc. Thus, the results from Google.de may differ from the results of
Google.com.

The Keyword
At the heart of successful SEO is determining what keyword or keywords to use when optimizing a website. The prevalence of a specific word or phrase on a webpage is critical to influencing SERP ranking. In most cases websites should be optimized for
multiple keywords, and a simple way to do this is to optimize different sections or pages with different keywords. Of course, there are exceptions to this approach.

Below are some basic questions to ask when considering keywords to focus on. Once a keyword(s) is selected it should serve as the focus of a site’s SEO efforts.

1. Does anyone search for the word on search engines?
If the site is about an eating establishment, what words would people use to search for the site? Restaurant, café, diner… Does anyone use the word “eatery”?

2. Which words does the site’s target audience use?
Regional diction complicates keyword selection if a site is aimed at a large geographical area. For example, a housing site for the English-speaking world can use “apartment” do well in the United States, but it wouldn’t do as well in other countries like the United Kingdom where “flat” is much more commonplace.

One must consider more than just geography when selecting a keyword. There are many factors that influence how an audience might search for a website. If the target audience a website about a specific chemical consists of people with a science background, it would be best to focus SEO on scientific keywords that this audience is likely to use. A different website may be marketing a medical drug made up of the exact same chemical. In this case the target audience would be the general public, and it is unlikely that this
audience will use scientific words or phrases when using a search engine to learn about
the pharmaceutical.