Search engine optimization

What is Search engine optimization?

Short for search engine optimization, the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.

SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the
search engine.

How Does SEO Work?

Most websites do not focus on their topic well, keyword lists containing 50 or more phrases per page (Ebay as a keyword is common), the business that has four separate offerings and each page of the website tries to target all four at once and misses. It might be the site is targeting a search phrase that no one is searching for. By focusing each of the pages of the site in turn on keywords relevant to the business and relevant to people searching for that business SEO ensures each page of your site stays focused and is therefore seen as an authority on the topic.

SEO Tips:

Did you know that, before search engine users visit a specific Web site, they already have made four separate and distinct
choices:

Choice number one: They choose to use the Internet to find a specific product or service, to research an issue of interest to them or solve a problem, as much in their professional careers as in their personal lives.

Choice number two: They choose one of the five to six major search engines on the Internet to launch their search, the most popular by far being Google.

Choice number three: They choose a particular keyword or phrase as the basis of their search, trying to narrow it down as best they can.

Choice number four: They discriminate among the first ten search results on the same, first page. Then they take their final decision as to wich web site (or company) will get their business.

Usefull Interview Question :

1. What are the basic SEO methods?
A. On Page Optimisationg such as correct code semantics with and other tags in correct order with Keywords. Correct directory and file naming structure with indexable site. KEyword Density / Keyword Proximity / Code v Content ratio/ Code Structure Linking (Off Page Optimisation) Various types of links. The main aim is to get high quality content linking to relevant content on your site. A link within relevant content deep linked to some relevant content on your site is best. .edu and.gov domain links are seen as authoiative and give more weight.

2. Which would you do first? On Page SEO, Link Building or Keyword Research
A. Keyword Research and then On and Off Page Optimisation in parallel.

3. What is the Sandbox?
A. The sandbox is a probationary period that all new sites face. It is a filter on competetive / commercial keywords that incubates a site into the index. Sites in the sandbox can rank for less competetive words but will have to wait to get out of the sandbox to rank for competetive keywords. This stops overnight "pump and dump domains" being used by spammers and creates a better quality index. Google was using this technology for sometime , when they were not displaying any new website in their index. This technique was implemented mainly to curbe the efforts of new websites that tried to gain search ranks by buying links. It was a way to test the stability of a business/website before it comes up on the search results. However, the sandbox is nonexistent now and new sites can easily appear in Google's index.

4. How long does the sand box last?
A. There is no specific lenght. On average I would say 6 months but it can be less and it can be more.

5. What effect do Meta Keywords and Descriptions have?
A. Meta keywords have nill effect despite many contradictory opinions. Meta description also does not help in any way your ranking but it is sometimes used in the SERPs them selves so it makes sense to write a well written description that will likely induce a click. Given the above it is still considered good practice to use meta keywords and description tags. Anyone that says optimising meta keywords will give you a higher ranking clearly does not know what they are talking about.

6. What types of links would you look for
A. Article links or links from a site that is seen as a resource on a particular topic. Searching the SERPs and industry related sites for links is a good place to start. High PR sites are desirable but in generl it is relevance that is the most important thing. I look for static keyword targeted links embeded in content. I do not use reciprocal linking as it is ineffective.

7. How important is content?
Content is very important. It is what a searches is looking for. It aids getting links which aids getting higher rankings. The more relevant content the more of a resource a site is, thus the higher it ranks! You must use unique content. Content should be written with users in mind and shouldn't be keyword stuffed.

8. What SEO results can you show?
put your portfolio which should contain Web URL, keywords, ranking for keywords in Google, Yahoo and MSN

9. What do you believe are important things to take into consideration when optimising a site?
lots of factors.. it should start from the phase when a site is planning, competition, nature of product/sevice offered, business objective ( sales/;lead generation etc) - keywords ( will depend on the other factiors mentioned )

10. Who do you respect in the industry?
Matt Cutts ( most common ), Jeremy, Lee odden, Dan thies.\