Developing a clean and effective website is of little value if no one can find it. With billions of web pages online, most websites are located using a search engine. Unless potential visitors already have the URL address or use a predefined link, most will use a search engine to find it.

There are thousands of search engines in use today but more than 90% of the search traffic is handled by fewer than 20 major search engines. A search engine is essentially a database of web pages that have been indexed according to the keywords and contents on the page.

There are dozens of factors that affect how indexing is done or even if a site will be dropped from a search engine index if deemed unworthy by the search engine ranking algorithm. How a particular search engine algorithm works is highly proprietary to each search engine. And the algorithms themselves are in a constant state of change as they adapt to changes in webpage designs and attempt to remain competitive.

The effort focused on optimizing a website to achieve high ranking or positioning in search engine returns is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is both an art and a science and involves analysis and refinement of many factors in order to achieve its goal. Some of these factors include but are not limited to the page title, content and page position, choice of keyword phrases, keyword count, keyword frequency, keyword prominence, number and quality of both internal and external links on each page, text relevance, text quantity, text positioning, use of alt tags, prevalence of graphics and photos, etc. To make it more challenging, each search engine has its own formula or algorithm for weighting the importance of each of these factors. Finding the right balance is the goal of any SEO effort.

In a recent study of 2 million searches, it was determined that 55% of the users looked only at the first page of search engine results and 75% looked only at the first 3 pages. So, if your website listing is not in the first 3 pages, you will probably lose at least 75% of the potential traffic. The challenge is also amplified by the need to understand what keyword phrases are being used by someone who would benefit by finding your website. For instance, novice users will frequently attempt to use keyword phrases of only one or two words while experienced users know that the most effective searches require 4 – 6 keyword phrases. So, what order should the words be in when a 6-word phrase is used? The answer often requires experimentation, monitoring and analysis before the best combinations are identified.

While the goal of good website design is normally focused on making the site human user friendly, in the end, the website must also be made search engine friendly. We can help.

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