What Exactly is SEO? Get All The Details

Search engine optimisation is a never-ending process.

Search engines are dynamic. They constantly change their systems with the result that one day you may be positioned at number one and the next day have fallen to position number 100. It is therefore the responsibility of every SEO company to detect these changes quickly and to respond to them on a daily basis. If your SEO supplier does not adapt your website to the search engines' changes you will lose business to those who are positioned at the top - often your competitors. So, search engine optimisation is like a newspaper subscription. If you want news every day, you have to subscribe.

Are all search engines alike?

Not at all. Try a search yourself with a selected keyword on, for example, google.com and altavista.com. Compare the results lists and you will see that they are very different. The search engines look at a web page in completely different ways. Some search engines consider metatags to be important. (Metatags are keywords/descriptions that describe your organisation and/or its products). Others ignore metatags. Some consider that the more times a keyword phrase is mentioned on a website the better. Others think that what other websites write about your website is important. In other words, the search engines' understanding and evaluation of websites is vastly different.

From a technical point of view, search engine optimisation is primarily a thorough and continual analysis of the search engines to determine what they have in common and to exploit this to achieve a good placements on as many search engines as possible.

Can all websites be listed with equal ease by the search engines?

Unfortunately not. As a general rule the more complex a website is, the more difficult it is for the search engines to list. Many database-controlled systems (CMS - Content Management System) have a very hard time being recognised by the search engines. Another almost impossible type of website to optimise is any website constructed using "Micromedia Flash", a type of film that is played over the Internet. At present, search engines have no way of reading these pages. A professional SEO company can work with all types of websites, regardless of whether they are CMS or Flash websites. Ask for references containing these types of websites when looking for a reputable SEO supplier.

Which are the important search engines?

Many people have been contacted by companies who offer for a sum of say, US$149 to register their website with 300,000 search engines and claim that top placements on all of the search engines are guaranteed. Don't be taken in - it can't be done. On the contrary, what happens is that they often register the website with FFA (Free For All) sites or link farms that can have a harmful effect on your website's placements. One thing you can be almost 100% sure of is that they will sell your email address to global spammers and you will receive nothing more for your SEO investment than a mailbox full of irritating advertisements. Which search engines are the most important? Can you name more than 20-25 search engines that can be described as essential? Probably not. A search engine optimisation company works with the search engines that are important for or relevant to a particular market.

An optimal search engine optimisation strategy is directed towards the important search engines in order to generate quality traffic.

If you would like to know more, we have created The Buyers Guide To Search Engine Optimisation. Read it and you will be in a much better position to find the right search engine optimisation supplier.