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SEO & Web Article - SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO, acronym for Search Engine Optimization, is the science (and art) of improving a web site's ranking and placement on Google and other search engines.

Usually, search engine optimization is associated with the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or "organic" search results (as opposed to fee-based search results such as Pay-per-Click advertising [PPC]).

The higher a site is presented in the search results, i.e.: the higher it "ranks," the more searchers will visit that site.

Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding, mainly to increase its relevance to specific keywords but also to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Sometimes a site's structure (the relationships between its content) must be altered, too.

This is why, from a client's perspective, it is always more flexible and economical to incorporate Search Engine Optimization as and when a website is being developed, rather than to retroactively apply it to an existing site that will need to be altered and maybe even rebuilt as a consequence.

Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design. The term "search engine friendly" describes websites, web pages and designs that are easy to optimize.

The leading search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, crawl pages to find information for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically.

Search engine crawlers will look at a number of different SEO relevant factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled. Google, for example, does not like search depths exceeding 3 clicks.

Over the years, some unscrupulous SEO operators have developed methods designed to trick search engines into ranking certain websites highly. To learn more, see our article on White Hat and Black Hat Search Engine Optimization.

As mentioned above, organic SEO is in contrast with paid (PPC or paid advertising) traffic which, in turn, is more closely associated with SEM (Search Engine Marketing). However, see our article on SEM with several interesting definitions of Search Engine Marketing.

For more information about our SEO and Web consulting services, or an absolutely free web site analysis and SEO consultation, we encourage you to contact us. Our SEO Montreal consultants will be pleased to help.

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