Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the natural or un-paid (organic or algorithmic) search results.
In plain English, making sure the content on your web site is presented and formatted in a way that it scores higher on Google than your competitors.
We say Google, but it does in fact cover a vast array of search engine services. There are literally tens of thousands of search engine services but as everyone is familiar with the Google website, so we often refer to that.
If you are interested, Google currently has 82% of the market, which is down 2% from 2010.
Search engines have been in existence since 1993 but it really wasn’t until AltaVista was released in 1995 did anyone really pay too much attention to website design for search result placement. Up until that point there simply was not the same competition online as we see today. With the introduction of Google in 1998, all that started to change.
In the early days, simply having a list of hidden words on your page was enough to boost your score and put you to the top of the search results. The search engines today are no longer as gullible. They look for grammar and relationships between the title, Meta information and page content then score accordingly.
In a nutshell, you need to design your pages and content very well if you want to score highly using the traditional methods.
At BOOTIT we have technical writers and authors who work on web content every day. Squeezing every point out of the traditional (non-paid) approach to ensure your site is placed as highly as possible. We can also offer a service where these scores are monitored allow you to make adjustments to the content helping to maintain your overall score.
Are there any other approaches you can take?
Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.