Abstract
These research paper details the various SEO strategies that are popular in the 21st century. The paper focuses on the importance of Search Optimization and the limitations associated with it. It gives examples of SEO tools that are being used to determine the effectiveness of SEO techniques. It highlights another form of search engine marketing, which is called Pay per Click (PPC). The paper compares SEO and PPC and shows the major differences between the two forms of search engine marketing.
The paper highlights the history of web search engines since they came into existence. It tackles the various components of web search engines and their relation to Search Engine Optimization. Some of the topics discussed under web search engine include the development of web search engine, web search engine catalogues, mode of ranking search engine pages and how the web search engine operates.
It also looks into URL optimizations, which is a very important part of search engine marketing.
Keywords: SEO, optimization, search, engine, techniques
Abstract 2
1. Introduction 3
1.1 Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 3
1.2 Pay Per Click (PPC) 4
1.3 Search Engine Optimization 5
1.3.1 On page optimization 5
1.3.2 Off page optimization 6
1.3.3 The difference between SEO and PPC 6
1.3.4 Development of SEO 7
1.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO 7
1.5 Core Purpose of SEO 8
1.6 Ethics of SEO 8
1.6.1 White hat techniques 8
1.6.2 Black hat techniques 9
1.6.2 Gray hat techniques 9
2. Web Search Engine 9
2.1 Web Search Engine Development 9
2.2 Web Search Engine Catalog 10
2.2.1 Full text search engine 10
2.2.2 Search index/directory 10
2.2.3 Meta search engine 10
2.3 How the Web Search Engine Works 10
2.3.1 Storing webpage process 10
2.3.2 Searching strategies 11
2.4 Search engine page ranking algorithm 11
2.4.1 Hyperlink induced topic search (HITS) 12
2.4.2 Trust Rank 12
2.4.3 Google PR 12
2.4.4 Hilltop 12
3. Keywords 12
3.1 Definition of keyword 12
3.2 How to Choose Keywords 13
3.3 Keyword Tools 13
3.4 Keyword density 13
3.5 The long tail 13
4. URL Optimization 13
4.1 URL Introduction 13
4.2 URL Optimization Methods 14
4.3 Domain names 14
4.4 Delimiter 14
4.5 The length of Domain names 14
4.6 URL Structure Optimization 14
4.7 URL redirect 15
4.7.1 301 Permanently moved 15
4.7.2 302 Temporarily moved 15
5. Webpage Code Optimization 15
5.1 Streamline Code 15
5.1.1 Content management system. 15
5.1.2 DIV + CSS. 16
5.2 HTML Tag Optimization 16
5.2.1 Java script optimization. 16
5.2.2 Table optimization. 16
5.3
5.4 Important Elements 16
5.5 Image Optimization 17
5.6 Sandbox 17
6. Website Structure Optimization 17
6.1 Physical and logical structures of the websites 17
6.2 Website structure influences on SEO 17
6.3 Optimization Method 18
7. Link Strategy 18
7.1 Internal Links 18
7.2 External Links 18
7.3 Increasing external links 18
8. SEO Tools 18
8.1 Keyword Searching 19
8.1.1 Google Trends 19
8.1.2 Google Insight Search 19
8.1.3 Google AdWords Keyword Tool 19
8.2 Google Webmaster Tools 19
8.3 Site Map 20
8.4 Free Monitor for Google 20
Shreves, R. (2012). Joomla! search engine optimization : drive people to your web site with this supercharged guide to Joomla! and search engine optimization. Birmingham : Packt Publishing Ltd. 22
Shreves, R. (2012). Drupal search engine optimization. Birmingham, UK : Packt Pub 22
SEO Strategies
- Introduction
1.1 Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Many different definitions have been used to explain Search Engine Marketing. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a type of marketing that entails increasing the visibility of websites in results produced in a search engine (Carey, 2010). The visibility of web content after search engine output can be enhanced by optimizing the web page and advertising (David, 2011). Search Engine Marketing is sometimes used as an umbrella word for different forms of marketing a website like Search Engine Optimization and Pay per Click (PPC).
1.2 Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay per Click is a form of advertising done in the internet that involves direction of traffic to websites. Advertisers pay the publisher (in most cases the owner of the website) anytime the ad is clicked. According to Darie et al, it is the amount spent to get an advertisement clicked ( Darie & Sirovch, 2007)
Advertisers’ user search engines to bid on keywords that relates to the market that they are targeting (Carey, 2010). Some sites do not employ the bidding system; instead, they charge a price that is fixed. Pay per click advertisements appear on web sites or in search engine results together with the content related to those that agreed to show the ads. PPC makes use of the affiliate model that gives opportunities for purchase anytime a person is surfing the internet. PPC offers financial motivation, in percentage revenue, to other sites that are connected to it. The connected or affiliated sites provide a point to click in order to get to the merchant. The model works in a way that sites are paid according to their performance. In cases where the affiliate does not produce sales, the merchant does not get any cost from that particular site. Some for variations are pay-per-click, exchange of banners and programs involved in sharing of revenue (David, 2010).
The websites that make of use of PPC ads tend to show an advertisement whenever a keyword is related to the keyword list that belongs to the advertiser. The ads can also be displayed when the content displayed in a site is relevant. These advertisements are known as sponsored links, they appear either on the sides, below or above organic results that are displayed on a search engine page.
The Pay per Click has some weaknesses; it is vulnerable to abuse via click fraud. Some companies like Google have developed systems that automatically protect these ads against clicks that are abusive (Davis, 2006). Competitors or other web developers who may have ill motives can do these abusive clicks.
This model of advertising helps in assessing the level of profitability and cost effectiveness when it comes to internet marketing. They show how effective the process of advertising was. This helps in taking measures to correct anything that has reduced the effectiveness of an advertisement. Cost per click is the best measurement to use if the purpose of an advertisement is to generated clicks (George, 2005).
1.3 Search Engine Optimization
One of the gifts that technology has given humanity in the 21st century is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search Engine Optimization is defined as the manner of manipulating a website or web page in order to increase its presence in natural or organic search results. A search engine is designed to aid in searching for information in the World Wide Web. Some of the common search engines today are Google, Yahoo and Bing. The search results that are considered organic are listings that appear in search engine results, because of their significance to the search terms. If a website or a webpage is highly ranked in search result listings and if it appears constantly on a search results page, it will receive more visitors from the people who are using the search engine.
Search Engine Optimization can be used for many kinds of search, which include search for images, local search, search for videos, academic searches, search for news and vertical search that is specific to nature of industry (Jerkovic, 2009). SEO takes into consideration the way search engines work, things that people search for, the search terms used and the search engines that are more popular. Optimizing a website can include editing what is contained in it, HTML and the coding associated with it to improve its level of relevance to specific terms or keywords (Jones, 2012). A site can be promoted by increasing the number of backlinks and/or inbound links.
The process of optimizing sites started in 1990s when the world witnessed the cataloging of the Web by search engines. Site owners later realized the importance of their sites being visible or ranked highly. As a result, Search Engine Optimization was born.
1.3.1 On page optimization
On Page Optimization includes anything that can be done on the website pages. It points at all the factors that have affect a Website or Web page when it comes to natural results from search engines. HTML code, Meta tags, terms/keyword placement and density of keywords are examples of On Page Optimization in Search Engine Optimization (Kaushik & Sterne, 2009).
1.3.2 Off page optimization
Off Page Optimization involves all the factors that are not under the control of the web site owner or the website coding but affect the listing of a website in natural search engine results (Ledford, 2008). Some examples of these factors are popularity of the link and the rank accorded to the page.
Some of the strategies used during off page optimization included creating new pages, submitting directories, creating articles. Blog post message, creation and submission of E-book and creating and submitting press release.
1.3.3 The difference between SEO and PPC
SEO and PPC are the two ways one can use to drive the appropriate traffic to a particular website. The first difference is in the way these two forms of internet advertising work. SEO is all about optimizing the content of a website using a number of keywords to improve its reputation among search engines (Memon et al, 2011). It also entails increasing the amount of incoming links to a site. On the other hand, PPC establishes a set of keywords that it uses to create an ad for keywords that can provide a link back to a site (Monahan, 2011).
In SEO, the results are found in search engine results that can be organic or natural in nature. On the contrary, PPC advertisements are found on the sides, top or bottom of the page containing the search results. The number of competitors that target same keywords is exceptionally high.
In SEO, the rankings and results take time to materialize in a way that one intends it to. It can take months of consistent application of high quality SEO techniques to achieve the desired results (Prussakove, 2011). It brings more visitors to a site compared to PPC; however, it is more of a long-term investment. In instances where there is a need to drive traffic to a site instantly, PPC is more beneficial. PPC is suitable for sites that are still new, season products or projects that are sensitive to time. SEO brings visitors because if a site is given higher rankings in search engine results, many people will consider it trustworthy.
1.3.4 Development of SEO
People started to optimize sites in the mid1990s when search engines first catalogued the early web. The people who owned sites noticed the value attached to having a website ranked and visible in results from the search engine. This gave the opportunity for white hat and black hat SEO professionals. The early forms of search algorithms depended on information from the webmaster like the keyword meta tag or index files. The use of met tags proved to be inaccurate because some websites accumulated a high number of unrelated words, which did not represent the content of the site in actual sense. The result is that pages would rank for searches not relevant to their content. In addition, people would manipulate the HTML source in order to rank well in search engines.
Search engines came up with complex algorithms to help reduce manipulation of search results outcome. These algorithms used factors that would not be easily manipulated by webmasters. This saw the birth of PageRank, which depends on quality and strength of inbound links. This means that a site with higher PR can be found easily by a random user. When Google came it gained trust because it used PageRank, hyperlink analysis, frequency of keywords, meta tags, links and site structure to rank pages. These helped Google avoid manipulation experienced by engines that only considered on page factors.
People would buy more links with the aim of improving their PageRank status. They create a high number of sites in order to increase the number of links connected to a webpage. Google started using Sandbox, which would filter links that had no influence on the ranking of a page in Google search results. These measures have helped reduce the effectiveness of manipulation of search results by web content providers.
1.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO
Search Engine Optimization has many advantages. One of the advantages is the fact that SEO brings more visitors to a site compared to PPC. When a site is ranked high in search, engine results many people consider it trustworthy. SEO puts a company on the top of search results, which is a clear advantage in a competitive environment. When experienced search engine optimizers optimize a website, the sites get clear advantage since these keywords promote its products over that of its competitors.
The key demerit of SEO is that it is not time sensitive. It may take a long time a site to be ranked highly in search results. Website owners employ consistent high quality search engine optimization techniques for months before obtaining the desired results.
1.5 Core Purpose of SEO
The theory is that SEO takes into consideration the way search engines operate, search queries, search terms or keywords and popular search engines. The core purpose of SEO is to balance between a SEO experience and User experience. SEO experience involve the techniques used to improve the ranking of a page in search engine results. On the other hand, user experience focuses on ensuring site visitors have a memorable experience. SEO has become been criticized it considers only what search engines prefer. Critics say it does not take into account the User experience. A combination of a good SEO experience and user experience would ensure a page receives more traffic.
In order to create a good user experience, use of sitemaps and navigation that is simple play a major role. Sitemaps and navigations are great for the search engines and for users. From the point of view of SEO, high density of texts is good since they improve ranking and make easier search for keywords (cited in Ramos & Cota, 2009). However, from the point of view of the user high text content is boring. A good SEO technique should balance between creating a good experience for the site visitors and improving ranking in search engine results.
1.6 Ethics of SEO
Ethics is the accepted code of behavior in a professional environment. Search Engine Optimizations is guided by ethics to help curb unhealthy competition. The techniques used in Search Engine Optimization are classified into two categories that include white hat and black hat techniques.
1.6.1 White hat techniques
The term ‘white hat’ is used to refer to a computer hacker who is being guided by ethics. It also refers to an expert in computer who deals with testing penetration of a site to ensure an organization has proper security against hackers.
In SEO, white hat technique is a technique that operates according to all the guidelines laid down by the search engines and does not possess any form of deception. It involves making sure what is indexed by a search engine is the same thing a user will observe. White hat SEO technique creates content that is meant for the user and not search engines.
1.6.2 Black hat techniques
These techniques use ways that are not approved by search engines to improve rankings. In most cases, black hat techniques involve deception. In some cases, these techniques make use of hidden text, the text can be the same as the color of the background, invisible in div or not position on the screen. The cloaking technique will give a different page based on who requested the page. Sites that use black techniques can be penalized when they discovered.
1.6.2 Gray hat techniques
These techniques are more risky in nature than to white hat techniques. It is the line in between gray hat and white hate techniques. Gray hat techniques are questionable in nature. It is pertinet to note that what is taken to be gray hat technique can be black technique in the near future. For example in cases where a site has a high keyword density that seems unnatural but not at the same level with keyword stuffing in black hat.
- Web Search Engine
A web search engine is a coded software that searches information in the World Wide Web. A web search engine has two parts the web crawler and the server of statistical data. A web crawlers/robots make a copy all the pages visited, which are then processed by the search engine. The processed data is indexed so that users can search them easily and fast.
Some engines are connected to databases that contains information that has been stored for indexing or submittted by users. All this information is indexed to make locating them easy.
2.1 Web Search Engine Development
In the development of search engines, they are designed in a way that they able to find their way through an infinite amount of information. They are designed to function in different stages: crawl the high number of files to obtain a figurative foam, index the foam and use entries by the user to give relevant results.
Alan Emtage Bill Heelan and J. Peter created (in 1990) the first tool that was used to search the internet called Archie. The software was able to download directory listings found in public FTP sites. It used the information obtained to create a database that could be searched. Archie did not use indexing because the amount of data involved was limited and could be search manually.
In 1991, Mark McCahill created Gopher that saw the birth of two new search programs, Veronica and Jughead. They worked like Archie since they searched files and names stored in the index systems of Gopher.
In June 1993, Mathew Gray created the World Wide Web Wanderer. He used to create an index known as Wandex. The wanderer was made to measure the World Wide Web. It worked until late 1995. The second search engine for the web known as Aliweb came into existence in November 1993. Aliweb depended on notifications from web administrators about the existence at a site of an index file. The notifications came in a specific format. In 1993, Jumpstation that used a web robot was released. Over the years a lot of development has been witnessed in the field of search engines. Google search engine gained popularity in the year 2000. Google has better results using PageRank innovation. PageRank could rank webpages based on the amount and PageRank of websites and pages linked to that particular page. Google has a simple design, which increased its user experience.
2.2 Web Search Engine Catalog
The catalogs use by web search engines is to help access the indexed sites with ease. The search engines use spider to catalog the World Wide Web. Spiders were made for the purpose of indexing content found on site pages and archive with information found in the web.
2.2.1 Full text search engine
Search engines that perform a full text search puts all words contained in a stored document under careful examination as it endeavors to match the search query.
2.2.2 Search index/directory
The process of indexing in search engine involves collection, passing and storage of data by the search engine. The index or directory is the place that contains most of the data that has been collected by a search engine. It gives the results according to search queries.
2.2.3 Meta search engine
A Meta search engine can obtain information from the directories of multiple search engines. The search engine sends the request made by the user to other search engines. It then combines all the resulting information into one list and shows them depending on their source. The basis of operation is the fact that the web is too large to be adequately indexed by a single search engine.
2.3 How the Web Search Engine Works
2.3.1 Storing webpage process
Search engines that are crawler-based employ automated software (crawlers) these crawlers visit a website; they read the Information on the site, obtain the Meta tags on the site and follows all links connected to the site. These search engines index all site connected to a site.
The search engines that are powered by humans depend on humans to give the information, which is then indexed and catalogued. It indexes only the submitted information.
In both types of search engines, a search query makes the engine to scan through the index that it has created.
2.3.2 Searching strategies
Some of the search strategies include:
2.3.2.1 Depth first search.
It is the type of algorithm used to traverse a tree structure. The search starts at the root and goes as far as possible along a branch
2.3.2.2 Breadth-first search.
It is mostly use used when the search is limited to little number of operations. The first mode of operation is inspecting a node in a graph. The second action is to gain access the nodes near the nodes that had been currently visited.
2.3.2.3 User submitted.
The user submitted genealogy entails a number of lineage-linked trees given to family search by users. The search involves searching through files that have been submitted by users.
2.4 Search engine page ranking algorithm
A search algorithm aids in locating a specific item in a collection of items. There are many classes of search algorithms.
Algorithms used to search virtual spaces are employed in constraint satisfaction problem. In this case, the aim is to locate a set of values assigned to certain variables that conform to specific mathematical equations & inequations. Examples include the brute-force search and heuristics that exploit a knowledge about structure of space.
Combinational search involves algorithms that try to find specific sub-structure of a specific discrete structure like a graph, string, and so on. Combinatorial optimization is used when trying to look for a substructure containing extreme values i.e. minimum or maximum of a parameter.
2.4.1 Hyperlink induced topic search (HITS)
HITS is an algorithm that analyses links and uses the information obtained to rate web pages. Jon Kleinberg developed it. It was came immediately before PageRank. The HITS algorithm retrieves pages that are most relevant to the search query first. This is first set is called the root set. The base set is produced by combining the root set with all the pages linked from it and some that link to it. Web pages found in the base set and all hyperlinks associated to them form a sub-graph. HITS computation focuses on this sub-graph. The base set ensures most of the powerful authorities are counted. An authority value is the total sum of all scaled hub values, which point to a page. A hub value is the total sum of scaled authority values of the pages it links to.
The Hub score and authority score are calculated by starting with each node possessing a hub score and authority score of 1. The next step is to run the authority update rule and the hub update rule. The values are normalized by dividing each hub score by square root of the sum of the squares of all hub scores. This is done to the authority score too. If necessary repeat from the second step.
2.4.2 Trust Rank
A technique analyses a link connected to a web page and determines whether the page is useful or spam. This method is able to select a set of seed pages, which is evaluated by a professional. After identifying the seed pages that are more reputable manually, a crawl comes from the seed and tries to find pages that are reliable and trustworthy. The reliability of TrustRank reduces as the distance between the documents and the seed increases.
2.4.3 Google PR
Google Page Rank is also an algorithm that performs link analysis and assign a numerical value to a set of documents, that are hyperlinked like in the World Wide Web. It measures the importance of a document with a set of documents that are hyperlinked.
Page Rank assigns PR (E) as a numerical weigh to any page. It is known as the PageRank of E. A Page Rank comes from a mathematical algorithm that is founded on webgraph, which is a creation of the World Wide Web. The web graph is nodes and hyperlinks edges that consider authority hubs like usa.gov or cnn.com. The value of the rank shows the importance of that particular page. A hyperlink to a given page is like a vote of support to that page. The PageRank of a page is dependent on the number and PR metric of every page that is linked to it.
The algorithm used here is a probability distribution. It represents the likelihood that a random internet user can arrive at any page. The assumption is that the distribution is divided evenly among all the documents found in the collection when the computational process starts. PageRank computations demand for passes known as iterations through the collection to help adjust PageRank values to closely show the theoretical true value.
For example four web pages A, B, C & D. The initial value for each page is 0.25 based on the assumptions that are taken when calculating PageRank. The PageRank that is sent from a page to the places targeted by its outbound links upon the next pass (iteration) is divided equally among all links that are outbound. If the only links in the system are coming from B, C, and D, each page would send a PR of 0.25 to A, thus a total of 0.75.
PR (A)=PR(B)+PR(C)+PR(D)
In the case that B is linked to C and A while D is linked to all the three pages. The resulting formula would look like this:
PR(A)=PR(B)/2 + PR(C)/1 +PR(D)/3
In words, the PageRank given by an outbound link is counted equal to the document’s own PR score divided by the amount of outbound links L().
2.4.4 Hilltop
It based on the assumption the number and level of quality of the sources that refer to a page show the quality of the page. Hilltop does not provide any results; it is made to measure the accuracy of the results.
The algorithm functions on a specific index of expert documents. The pages are mostly about topics that are specific and link to many pages on the same topic. Pages are given definitions that can be non-affiliated if they come from people in non-affiliated organizations. The results are given ranks based on the conformity between the search query and the descriptive texts in expert pages that are relevant. These descriptive texts point to a specific result page. An expert page is described as a page that is linked to many other relevant documents. An authority page is defined as a page that contains links pointing to it. These links come from the expert pages. The expert score is instrumental in these selections and is calculated as shown below:
Expert Score = 232 * S0 + 216 * S1 + S2.
- Keywords
3.1 Definition of keyword
Keywords are the terms that are used to by a search engine to find pages that are related to the search query. Keywords act as a guide for search engines and search engine optimizers.
