Search Engine Marketing, The Illusions and Truths Surrounding Search Engine Optimisation

Posted by Online Reputation Handbook

December 25, 2009

In the course of 12 years, all sorts of myths and misunderstandings have materialized about how search engines work. Some stem from back when search engines were fairly new, when webmasters were needed to offer information about their sites and pages, and a bot would simply crawl through and index the information given to them. Such processes were prone to manipulation from deceitful developers looking to raise traffic no matter what, and search engines became in-need of an overhaul. This article strives to shed some light on how search engines work these days, and how Online Marketing is affected by this.

If a Search Engine Optimization Company wants cash from you for search engine submission, then get away from them. Search engine submission is the oldest form of search engine ‘optimisation,’ and it’s also the most ineffective. Search engines have widely stated that they hardly use the URL submission lists anymore, despite the pages still being there. They advise that the best practice is to obtain links from other sites. This method exposes the search engine to your website more naturally.

Meta tags – once judged the most important part of on-page optimisation. Now, it’s still important, but not quite somuch. Only the title tag and meta description tag are of known importance. The use of the keywords meta tag by the engines is now undecided. The key search engines, including Yahoo, state that they use it only for content finding, and not for rankings, due to the volume of spam. Still, it’s most likely worthwhile including the meta tag, as it only takes a little effort to do so.

Some SEOs will have you think that keyword density on a page is used by search engine algorithms, and ought to be a key point of your Online Marketing plan. It has been verified that this is not the case, and keyword spam is more likely to invite the anger of the search engine, and result in your website suffering. It’s far better to use your keywords intelligently, and keep your site readable to visitors.

Search engine spam – manipulating search engines to achieve a high Search Engine Placement is a widespread activity on the web, and once upon a time it was a quick way to a short termincome. Understandably, it’s becoming ever more tricky, and for numerous reasons.

One reason is that search enginesappreciate their users hate spam, and so improved spam control means more contented searchers. Who will want to go back and use the service again and again. Many say that one of Googles paramount advantages over other search engines has been their ability to control and remove spam more efficiently than any of their main competitors. For this reason, anyone caught exploiting the system will face harsh penalties, which can include having your website being completely removed from the search engines index. Of course, this means that, anyone who is unaware your site is there, won’t be able to find it. The effects could be quite damaging. So it’s very much well worth upholding ethical practises, and make sure any SEO Company that you do work with follow the correct procedures.

Online Business, Promotion and Marketing