SEO - Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a big buzzword these days. Let me explain the major concepts for those who might not be familiar with them:

Search Engine Optimization is the art of constructing your website in such a way as to maximize its visibility in major search engines. This is done primarily through original site content, targeted keyword phrases, and by insuring a competitive number of external links pointing to your site.

My Approach

Like all marketing, SEO floats precariously atop an ethical quagmire. Opportunities abound for SEO practitioners to try to get something for nothing. I won't expound too much on the philosophical implications or nuts and bolts of SEO. What I do want to say is this:

I have made a thorough study of SEO. At every step in my website development, careful steps are taken too maximize search engine friendliness, and extract the most out of a site's marketing potential.

Since I believe that Search Engines want to return relevant search results, or they will no longer be useful, I only engage in white-hat SEO. That means I don't use shady tricks to try to convince search engines that my content quality is higher than it actually is. Search engines often succeed in catching and punishing black-hat or the nebulously-called gray-hat SEO practices eventually.

Levels of SEO

Employing basic SEO principles should be standard practice while constructing a website. However this does not preclude the need for concerted SEO as a separate individual project for the health of your website. Those sites that rely heavily on organic (not ads) search engine traffic should seriously consider concerted SEO as an ongoing and essential need for your website to be effective. This has three crucial aspects: Research, Implementation, Observation.

Research is required to get to know your competition, and will help you select what keywords you can feasibly compete for. Implementation is the actual carrying out of on-page and off-page optimizations. Observation entails careful study of the effects of your SEO alterations on search rank, page rank, site traffic patterns, and conversion rates. Repeat as necessary.