There is a lot of talk on the web regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how, if you just do this one thing, you will be at the top of Google. If only it were that easy! In fact, I believe there are seven distinct skills that a search engine optimiser needs to possess. Most people possess one or maybe two of these skills, very rarely do people posses all seven. In truth, to get to all seven, people who are good at two of these need to actively develop the other skills. This takes time and effort and, if you are running your own business, do you really have the time to do this?
The seven skills that I believe are necessary for SEO work are:
Web Design – producing a visually attractive page
HTML coding - developing Search Engine friendly coding that sits behind the web design
Copy writing – producing the actual readable text on the page
Marketing – what are the actual searches that are being used, what key words actually get more business for your company?
An eye for detail - even the smallest errors can stop spiderbots visiting your site
Patience - there is a time lag on any change you make, waiting is a virtue.
IT skills - an appreciation of how search engine programs and the algorithms they use actually work
Many website designers produce more and more eye-catching designs with animations and clever rollover buttons hoping to entice the people onto their sites. This is the first big mistake; using designs like these may actually decrease your chances of a high Google rating. Yes, that’s right; all that money you have paid for the website design could be wasted because no-one will ever find your site.
The reason for this is that before you get people to your site you need to get the spiderbots to like your site. Spiderbots are pieces of software used by the search engine companies to trawl the Internet looking at all the websites, and then having reviewed the sites, they use complex algorithms to rank the sites. Some of the complex techniques used by web designers cannot be trawled by spiderbots. They come to your site, look at the HTML code and exit stage right, without even bothering to rank your site. So, you will not be found on any meaningful search.
Have you ever gone to sleep and woke up, wanting to make a change? It might not be a big change, but it can be something that is beneficial to you and other people. Sometimes you might not know where to start, and it can be tough. We as human beings all have this mindset where we are scared of change. We are already comfortable and used to what’s there and changing it can be risky because we don’t know the outcome.
Web sites are just like magazines, newspapers, brochures, menus, or even directions on how to make nitroglycerin from house-hold goods, in that they all have to be put together in such a manner that whoever is reading or browsing over it will be able to clearly distinguish this from that. In this sense, a critique of any particular web site will have justification, while carefully considering also that this is an altogether new medium of information exchange. Now, all of this talk of togetherness is actually a general reference to basic design principles, such as color coordination, if color is used, text size, font choice/ style, art integration, accessibility, and just plain and simple design of the page. For example, it wouldn't be all that appealing to the eyeball if a page being viewed had all the text jumbled up in a corner, so small your eyes were bleeding by the time you figured out that it wasn't even worth the trouble. Darn. It's important to rememeber, especially these days, that what you read is as important as how it looks. Have you ever tried reading an interview in a Raygun magazine? Kinda hard, right? Design totally for its own sake is nice, as art that is, and admittedly it looks cool. However, it's two in the morning and you're standing in line at the corner 7-11 trying to pay for your 40 ounce bottle of Kool-Aid, and you happen to see that your favorite MTV Pearl Crap-clone band is on the cover of this hip magazine and you go to read it, but you can't. It's not because to you failed elementary school three times in two years, but because the maestro in charge decided to get fancy with it and thought it'd be cool if he hid the text under a black box or likewise photograph. I like to loo...
...6. Fisher Center for Information Technology & Management, University of California in Berkeley. June 1995
Google has many competitive advantages over other search engines in its industry. According to the textbook, the four building blocks of competitive advantage are efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness. Google’s performance in all of these categories supersedes its competitors in the internet information provider industry.
I’m sure if we did some statistical sampling of the web industry search engine optimization techniques would be understood by a minority of webmasters and implemented well by even fewer. Search engine optimization is becoming mainstream and no doubt as the web continues to mature more and more people will study, test and build better websites, but it’s definitely still early days.
Search engine industry is built on finding out and also aggresive advertising. As we know there are five major competitors in this industry competing with Google. The competition is strong because they are targeting the same market, presenting similar business and technologies. The five major competitors are Yahoo!, MSN, Baidu, Bing, and AOL.
Google Keyword Planner (previously known as Google Adwords Keyword Tool) is the most preferred online toolset for the webmaster and SEOs used for data research. Using this application you can find the search volumes and AdWord...
Various web-based companies have developed techniques to document their customer’s data, enabling them to provide a more enhanced web experience. One such method called “cookies,” employs Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer. It traces the user’s habits. Cookies are pieces of text stored by the web browser that are sent back and forth every time the user accesses a web page. These can be tracked to follow web surfers’ actions. Cookies are used to store the user’s passwords making your life easier on banking sites and email accounts. Another technique used by popular search engines is to personalize the search results. Search engines such as Google sell the top search results to advertisers and are only paid when the search results are clicked on by users. Therefore, Google tries to produce the most relevant search results for their users with a feature called web history. Web history h...
Santana, Joe. "Navigating IT Careers & Strategies in the Ever-Changing World of Business." IT Toolbox. 16 Oct. 2005 .
The field of information systems has grown and become more promising than in previous years. This increase demands highly skilled professionals to keep up with the quickly changing world of IS. Looking for a job in the Information Systems field opens the door for many disciplines, each with its significance in the business world. Most businesses need information systems skills to accomplish their goals. There is a wide selection of career options in the field of information systems. There are the technical positions, such as dealing with information management and hardware and software management, and the people-oriented technology positions, such as dealing with the design and operation of Internet applications (“Why Major,” n.d.).
In today’s fast paced technology, search engines have become vastly popular use for people’s daily routines. A search engine is an information retrieval system that allows someone to search the...
Google- a web based search engine appointed the world’s most attractive employer 2013 by 200 000 students or potential candidates (Universum, 2013), utilizes job advertisement relatively limited to their corporate website (Google, 2013), this displays the importance of maintaining a continuous interest amongst possible candidates as it creates a platform and contribute to strengthen the
Search engines, specifically Google, have probably contributed more to the distribution of knowledge than any other invention since the creation of the printing press. Google was created by Larry Page and Serge...
Internet commerce is one of the fastest growing industries today. With the wide range of capabilities the web has it make it easier and cost efficient for businesses to make transactions with other businesses. One factor that allows businesses to find each other is search engines. Search engines are part of the reason the web is growing so rapidly.
IT Skills - Computer literacy& th-e ability to effectively use standard office software tools& other office technology to create documentation, exchange& archive e-mail,& maintain electronic filing systems.