What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing your website for the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.). We’ll speak in terms of Google for the purposes of this discussion and because Google is the most popular search engine. Millions of people use search engines every day looking for a product or service. Some of these people might be potential clients looking for your particular offering, so you you want to be sure that your website shows up on the search results, and as high up on the page as possible! Consider how often you look beyond the first or second page of search results when doing your own internet research.
There are two ways for you to show up on the results page when users are doing a search. The first is to pay for sponsored or featured advertising, and the second is what is known as “organic” (or “natural”) search. Natural search results are listed free and are dependent on Google’s estimation of how relevant and credible your website is. Natural search results are the best kind, because you don’t have to pay for them, and they often work better than paid advertising. Consider that it’s like the difference between getting mentioned in a magazine article and purchasing an ad in that same magazine. If you can rank high on the free (organic) search results for Google, it’s like getting tens of thousands of dollars worth of free advertising in the most relevant trade magazines for your industry every time a new issue comes out. It’s a great way to grow your business and find new clients. So, how do you get all this free, effective advertising in the search engines? Well, to do that you need to understand how Google determines who gets listed.
Google’s Search Algorithm
Google has an algorithm that figures out which websites of the hundreds of millions out there should be displayed in rank order on the results page. These are the organic (i.e. non-paid) results. You want to rank high on these results. Though Google’s algorithm is extremely sophisticated, it boils down to something like this:
Search Ranking = Relevance x PageRank
Relevance is the measure of how your website (or more accurately one of your web pages) matches the search phrase the user has entered. Measuring relevance is a fairly sophisticated process, but it boils down to some fundamentals like the title of your webpage, words on the page, and how frequently they occur. Google figures out what your page is “about” by looking at it’s content (and by looking at other sites with similar content that are linking to yours), and then uses this to figure out how relevant your site is for a particular search phrase.
PageRank is an independent measure of Google’s perception of the quality, authority, and credibility of an individual web page. It does not depend on any particular search phrase. Google conveniently reports this as a number from 0-10 (10 being the best). So, assuming for a second that your web page and your competitor’s web page have the same relevance – whoever has the higher PageRank gets the better ranking and shows up at the top of the results page. This is why PageRank is so important. Your relevance is based on your content (if you’re a consulting company specializing in strategy, your relevance for searches for cupcake delivery is going to be understandably low). Your PageRank is what counts.
How PageRank Is Calculated
PageRank is primarily determined by how many other web pages link to you. Google considers this kind of inbound link a vote of confidence. But, here’s the trick: Not all inbound links are created equal. Web pages with more credibility that link to you have more value to your PageRank than those with less credibility. How is this credibility determined? Why, by their PageRank, of course! So, let’s take an example. Let’s say you have your local hair stylist link to you from her blog to your small business website. Let’s also say that your stylist’s blog has a Page Rank of 3 (this is being a little generous because all she posts is photos of her clients and she has limited inbound links). This link will help you a little bit, and it will help you more if you can find 100 such websites with a PageRank of 3 and get them to link to you.
However, if you get a single link from a large established website, it’ll help you more than a 100 small blog or websites. PageRank can be roughly divided up into these broad categories:
0-3: New sites or sites with very minimal links
4-5: Popular sites with a fair amount of inbound links
6: Very popular sites that have hundreds of links, many of them quality links
7-10: Usually media brands (NYTimes.com), big companies or A-list bloggers
Now, it’s important to note that PageRank is believed to be calculated on a logarithmic scale. What this roughly means is that the difference between PR4 and PR5 is likely 5-10 times than the difference between PR3 and PR4. So, there are likely over a 100 times as many web pages with a PageRank of 2 than there are with a PageRank of 4. This means that if you get to a PageRank of 6 or so, you’re likely well into the top 0.1% of all websites out there. If most of your peer group is straggling around with a PR2 or PR3, you’re way ahead of the game.
Download the Google Toolbar to find out your PageRank. The PageRank feature is not turned on by default, so you’ll have to enable it after installation.
Recap
Organic search is like free advertising. It’s worth the investment to try and get a high ranking by the major search engines. To rank high you should do two things: First, make sure your site has the right relevant content for the types of searches your potential customers are conducting. Second, try to get the highest PageRank possible. To do this, you need to get as many inbound links from as many high PageRank web pages as possible.
We will continue to explore some SEO strategies to optimize your own site, as well as obtaining inbound links. Of course, we offer SEO services and optimize all of the websites we design. Contact us for more information!