Search Engine Optimization in 2015

Search Engine Optimization, also called SEO, is the idea that you can modify your website in ways that will make it more appealing to the search engines, resulting in higher search results positioning.

Clearly, if you can get positioned at or near the top of the search results, then you have an advantage over your competition. The higher the position the more likely your site gets clicked.

In some ways, SEO is easy, in others ways not so much. One of the problems is that search engines don’t publish a list of factors that they use to rank sites. They don’t disclose their algorithms. While we can figure out some important factors, there’s also a good deal of guessing in the industry.

Of course, there are a couple real good reasons why it makes sense for the algorithms to be kept secret.

First, let’s consider Google. They have the most used search engine in the world. If Google made their algorithms public then others could copy the process and potentially give identical results.

Google wants to give the searchers the best-possible results. They want you to try a Google search and conclude that the results are exactly what you’re looking for. If this happens, then you are likely to use Google for your next search.

Bing wants to achieve the same thing. It would not be in Google’s interest for their algorithms to be copied by Bing.

The searchers also benefit by this secrecy. Each search engine is always trying to outdo the others so search technology continues to advance, getting better and better.

Second, if everyone knew exactly what the search engines were looking for, there’s potential that some people would manipulate the results to get their sites ranked higher than they should.

This already happens even without the algorithms exposed. There are “black hat” techniques that some have discovered can influence the rankings.

For example, “keyword stuffing” is a technique where you overuse a keyword phrase in the text of a site so that the search engines think that phrase is more relevant to someone’s search. The goal is to get the stuffed page to rank higher for that single phrase.

But keyword stuffing is now considered as spamming the search engines. It used to work, but if you try that now you are likely to get your site removed from the search results altogether.

Another opportunity for abuse relates to the links that point to your site, often called “backlinks.” Over the years there have been a variety of link-trading schemes (e.g. “I’ll link to yours if you link to mine”) and link creating schemes (e.g. paying sites to embed links anywhere and everywhere).

Now search engines can detect these things and penalize you for these behaviors.

In fact, you may have heard of a number of Google’s algorithm updates, which I sometimes refer to as the “Google Zoo.” They have names like Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and others. These are all attempts to change the way Google ranks sites to make sure the best results move to the top and the low-quality sites fall out of the results.

What To Do Instead

In reality, Google wants you to create good quality content that users are searching for. They don’t want you to worry about the ranking algorithm.

Since the search engines evolve over time, you might have not even noticed the change, but think about how your searches work these days.

When you do a search, the results that come back are often very good, closely related to exactly what you are searching for. You don’t have to click on too many sites before you get the answer to what you were searching for.

That’s because the sites that produce good information are being rewarded in the results ahead of those sites that are just trying to trick the search engines.

So, this really means that to get good rankings, all you have to do is produce good quality website content. Eventually the search engines will discover that your site provides a good experience to searchers, and they will begin to reward you with higher rankings in the search results.

The Benefits of SEO

Because the focus is on creating good content, SEO got easier. Most of the results are in the content creation step, if (and it’s a big if), if you start with research.

You see, you still need to understand what the search engines are looking for. You still have to align the content with what the search engines want. You still have to make some adjustments to the site so that searchers are presented with high quality links in the search results

But all of this relies on the fact that your site is presenting information that searchers are looking for! Knowing that requires research.

When you perform keyword research you can discover the best phrases that your prospects use. Then you can create your site content around this knowledge. You can also use these keywords in your title, description, and opening content of your site to optimize your benefits.

You do a little bit of search engine optimization, just enough to satisfy the search engines, providing them with the information they need to make good ranking decisions. After that relax, you may never have to do another thing. Or, just check on the status from time to time, tweaking to get better results.

It used to be necessary to pursue all out SEO. But as the search engines get smarter, reading the content of your site to figure out what it means, the most important part is creating good content built upon good research. Then, throw in a few good optimization activities and your site can get the placement it needs, the placement you want.