Some people say that search engine optimization is an urban myth, which is not entirely false because secrets of SEO rest with ever evolving strategies search giants like Google, Bing, and other search engines employ. We do know that some SEO rules are at work and based on successful contents published on the internet, experts have derived guidelines that help publishers bring their content to the top of search results. But the question remains, how search engine optimization really work?
First of all, you must understand that SEO evaluation isn’t handled manually, with billions of queries every day it would be impossible to outsource human capabilities with machine like intelligence. So search engine optimization is a mathematical and logical process that follows specific guidelines programmed into a capable server with a touch of intuition.
Let’s dig in the details from technicalities to the methods that make search engine optimization work.
Components of Search Engine Optimization
SEO has two major components namely Crawling and Indexing. Google and other search engines first comb the contents of a website by crawling its complete sitemap (every word, every file, etc) to thoroughly understand the intent or focus of the site, then based on the keywords and tons of other factors, search engines rank the website which will pop in the search results when a user types specific words.
- Scope of crawling not only includes text, but all kinds of files like pictures, videos and office documents.
- Links serve as a best available path in a network that binds the entire internet, this is what web-crawlers seek.
- Crawlers or Spider are the software programs or automated robots (if robot.text file clicks your mind) that skim searchable contents to find links and then jump link-to-link through the web to collect matching data.
- Datacenters are the hard disk of a search engine that stores and remembers the path of web pages crawled by web-spiders.
Now you get the picture? Let’s study it with an example. When you search for a dinosaur picture on Google, instead of crawling all the web pages on the internet, it searches for the links of relevant pictures in its own datacenters stashed by the crawlers some time ago. This is how Google is able to show you millions of results in a fraction of a second.
Criteria for Search Engine Optimization
Relevance and popularity are key variables that uplift the content. Relevance is tricky to understand. Google, which is the world’s largest search engine, uses complex algorithms to analyze and rank webpages/blogs according to relevancy. No one can fully predict the behavior of search engines. Boasting an advanced neural network that comes from millions of servers, Google has developed a mind of its own.
- Queries are the keywords that you type in search engine, which invokes the matching results
- Popularity of a site is a decisive factor because it guarantees satisfaction of inquirers.
- Relevancy of content is the relation between shown results and desired/expected content.
The popularity of site, page, content automatically affects SEO because searchers tend to click the links of the most popular or trending videos, photos or news in relation to their queries. This is a proven strategy because quality wise, the most popular sites are also the most trusted ones. (Except Wikipedia, wink!)
How Search Marketers successfully execution SEOptimization?
Search marketers are successful because they have access data from millions of websites which they analyze to find what SEO strategy is really working. SEO has become a vast industry, if you didn’t know, they actually have annual conferences on the subject, of which Search Marketing Expo and Search Engine Strategies are highly anticipated.
Here are some basic SEO tips that really work:
- More backlinks mean the content is shared more on the internet, which satisfies a search engine’s popularity condition
- Keywords should comprise 5% of the total content in a text article (expert’s best guess, no one knows for sure) including the synonyms. They should also correspond in the title, URL, image titles, captions, and video titles.
- First paragraph should be concise, with cream of the keywords, while the last paragraph should summarize the same.
- Uniqueness of content is absolutely decisive, plagiarized content is punished by Google and other search engines.
These are honest ways to deliver quality contents to your related audience. There are other useful techniques as well with varying level of success, but these are the guaranteed ones. Now, some tricksters may have additional search engine optimization advice for you, but manipulative tactics only bring temporary SEO boost and can get your site blacklisted by Google. So here are the tips that you should avoid:
- Cloaking: Adding invisible keywords to attract traffic
- Exchange links or link networks: These types of backlinks are shared across malignant sites, and Google is constantly updating its search engine to punish them.
- Paid links: Paid links are not a bad practice, it depends on who are you paying. Some sites are solely dedicated to fake niche, so avoid these.
Google: The King of Internet
Google search engine is not static software; it is a dynamic platform that is continuously undergoing experimentation and helpful changes. Each Year, Google Implements over 500 improvements to its Search Algorithms. Google promises that the search results are impartial because ads are displayed separately and labeled as ads.
Google uses Sandbox, its experimental station, which temporarily redirects live traffic of searcher to a tested module. This is how Google measure public interest and the content they are more likely to click open.
Summary
Search Engine Optimization involves hundreds of ingredients most of which remain secret to the day. The architects behind the likes of Google are humans but the force at work is purely artificial-intelligence.
We admit without any shame that these SEO hacks are just tip of the iceberg. But with the right strategy, you can make the most out of it. This is the secret behind every search marketing company, they never let go of what they know about how search engine optimization really works.
