Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization is the process of studying the search engines in an effort to determine how to get your web site to rank high on user searches.

The major search engines display 2 types of results on the SERP (search engine results page) as a result of a user search query: paid advertisements and natural non-paid listings. Web sites can utilize one or both of these methods to acquire top listing positions. The paid advertisement exists on the results page due to an agreement by the advertiser to pay the search engine when a user clicks on their ad. The natural listing depends on the search engine optimization techniques employed on the web site. This article will focus only on the natural listing.

Each search engine has their own algorithm to determine which web sites meet their requirements and therefore obtain the higher SERP natural listing positions (or ranks) for a given keyword or keyword phrase in a user search query.

There are a large number of on-page optimization factors that are considered in the search engine evaluation process. These factors include but are not limited to: words in the web page url, title tag, meta tags, headlines, sub headlines, keyword density, words at the beginning of the page, page content, words that are bold, words in the links, site navigation, the structure of links and a number of other considerations. You want to make certain that you do not over optimize your web site and have the search engines consider your site spammy.