Search Engine Optimization

Quick Tips From Dan Lynch of Mattatuck Consulting

Quick Tips is part of an ongoing process used by Mattatuck Consulting to keep clients informed about the latest marketing techniques available for building and reinforcing your brand among your target customers.

This won't tell you everything you need to know, but will give you a general familiarity with the topic being discussed. If you'd like to know more, let's add it as a discussion topic for our next meeting.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Simply put, Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is the ongoing process through which adjustments are made to the code of your Web pages so they have a greater liklihood of achieving a high natural listing among search engines.

When Internet users submit a query to a search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN or others, the results typically fall into one of two categories — sponsored listings and natural listings (also called organic or free listings). There are different means used to display sponsored listings, but in general you will only appear in this group if you pay the site for placement with those listings (called pay for placement or paid inclusion).

SEO, however, enables a business owner to achieve a top free listing for a given keyword or phrase by ensuring that a page within their Web site is properly structured in the eyes of the a search engine. Even some of the most beautifully designed Web sites do little for the business if they are not also built with search engine 'robots' or 'bots' in mind. These are the automated indexing routines that will crawl through your Web site, page by page (the process is called spidering) to determine what your site is all about.

Results based on Keyword Relevance

When presenting query results, most search engines use what are known as Relevancy-based Results. For example, if you use Google to conduct a search for the keyword phrase 'underwater digital camera' — the more relevant Google thinks your site is for this term will determine how highly ranked your Web page will appear among the billions of pages they have indexed.

If your page title is Underwater Digital Camera and your page includes an image with a file name 'underwater_digital_camera.jpg' and 2-5% of the total words on your page are 'underwater digital camera', then you're well on your way to being considered relevant. There are, of course, many more contributing factors that will yield a top 10 page rank, but these are among just a few.

The next time you find yourself turning to a search engine to locate something online, remember the concepts discussed in this edition of QuickTips.

Mattatuck Consulting offers Search Engine Optimization services. For an example of my results, point your browser to Google, Yahoo! or MSN and search for Connecticut-based marketing guidance:

Keywords: 'marketing consultants ct' or 'ct marketing consultants'
Results: #1+2 on Google, #2 on Yahoo, #1 on MSN (as of 6/6/2005)

Keywords: 'marketing consulting ct' or 'ct marketing consulting'
Results: #1+2 on Google, #1+2 on Yahoo, #1 on MSN (as of 6/6/2005)

Keywords: 'ct online marketing' or 'online marketing ct'
Results: #1+2 on Google, #1+4 on Yahoo, #1 on MSN (as of 6/6/2005)

There are quite a few others, but I think you get the idea!