Search Engine Optimization(SEO)

Introduction:

SEO mainly deals with improvement of traffic that is sent to a particular website through the search engine. Webpage owners want their site to have the highest search engine results possible. They want to increase the amount of people who visit their site regularly and the best way to do that is through search engine optimization or SEO. So initially the webmasters and content writers sent the URL address to the search engine, which would send spiders to the page and index it for the keywords being searched.
Early versions of the search engines like the ALIWEB metatags provided by the webmasters were in use, however this would lead to unnecessary and incomplete information and websites being shown in results. In order to overcome these problems , Stanford university students Brin and Page devised a new algorithm called pagerank and founded the 1st search engine called backrub. This however was later replaced with GOOGLE in 1998.


Methods of SEO:

The SEO is basically carried out using the following methods:

Getting indexed:
The leading search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Some search engines, notably Yahoo!, operate a paid submission service that guarantee crawling for either a set fee or cost per click Such programs usually guarantee inclusion in the database, but do not guarantee specific ranking within the search results. Two major directories, the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project both require manual submission and human editorial review.
Preventing crawling:
To avoid undesirable content in the search indexes, webmasters can instruct spiders not to crawl certain files or directories through the standard robots.txt file in the root directory of the domain. Additionally, a page can be explicitly excluded from a search engine's database by using a meta tag specific to robots. When a search engine visits a site, the robots.txt located in the root directory is the first file crawled. The robots.txt file is then parsed, and will instruct the robot as to which pages are not to be crawled. As a search engine crawler may keep a cached copy of this file, it may on occasion crawl pages a webmaster does not wish crawled. Pages typically prevented from being crawled include login specific pages such as shopping carts and user-specific content such as search results from internal searches.
Increasing prominence:
A variety of other methods are employed to get a webpage shown up in the searchs results. These include:
• Cross linking between pages of the same website. Giving more links to main pages of the website, to increase PageRank used by search engines]Linking from other websites, including link farming and comment spam
• Writing content that includes frequently searched keyword phrase, so as to be relevant to a wide variety of search queriesAdding relevant keywords to a web page meta tags, including keyword stuffing.
• URL normalization of web pages accessible via multiple urls, using the "canonical
Applications of SEO
Internet Marketing
E-mail marketing, which includes e-mails and online newsletters, is a form of permission-based, relationship marketing. Once people opt-in to receive periodic announcements about your products and services, you have the opportunity to convert prospects, retain customers and create value for your business. We help you build cost-effective e-mail campaigns that market directly to potential customers, extend your brand and establish lasting relationships with existing customers.
Pay Per Click (PPC):
With Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, you bid on the keywords you believe prospects will enter in the search engine to look for your products or services. For example, if you sell telecommunications services, you may bid on keywords like "VoIP", "phone systems" or "Internet service provider". You bid on these keywords hopeful that a user will type these words in the search bar, see your ad, click it and buy. These ads are called sponsored links or sponsored ads and typically appear next to the natural results on a search page. You pay for your ad only when the user clicks on it. Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) are currently the largest PPC providers. Our job is to help you choose the right PPC keywords to match your business initiative, craft and place cost-effective ads.
Interactive advertising uses interactive media such as banner ads and Flash to elicit an active response from visitors. They promote your products and services and educate prospects. If well crafted, interactive advertising allows you to engage consumers in direct and personal ways, enabling dialogues which may affect buying decisions. We help by producing quality presentations, mini websites and online ad campaigns.
E-mail marketing:
E-mail marketing, which includes e-mails and online newsletters, is a form of permission-based, relationship marketing. Once people opt-in to receive periodic announcements about your products and services, you have the opportunity to convert prospects, retain customers and create value for your business. We help you build cost-effective e-mail campaigns that market directly to potential customers, extend your brand and establish lasting relationships with existing customers.

Conclusion:
Hence we can conclude that SEO has become an indispensable part of today’s web browsing which produces accurate results to the user.