Search Engine Optimization

What are the main factors of SEO and how to use them for ranking?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a "set of techniques aimed at improving the ranking of web-sites in search engine listings, thereby making it more likely that end user will decide to visit the site" ("Search" 39.) The major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, provide high-quality hyperlinks that allow web-surfers to connect to company web pages. How can businesses use SEO to improve the ranking of their web-sites? What factors affect the ranking of web-sites? Different search engines use different factors to rank and present the same set of pages differently. Normally they include:

• Content:
  uniqueness (it is different from contents of other web-site), depth (reflects information customers want to know), and frequency of update (each month or quarter or year). Normally, search engines grab all items of content but only show the first 250 characters in its description ("Meta Tags" 1.) Therefore companies need to be very careful to confirm that the first 250 characters accurately to reflect what they really want to tell customers.
• Title and Meta tags:
  A title tag is a tool that tells the search engine the central parts of webpage and its related content ("Meta Tags" 1.) Through it, customers will have a better idea about a webpage. Therefore it must be fascinating enough to attract customers to visit the company's webpage. Title tags are normally displayed in the top of each page and contain no more than 70 characters ("Pay Per Click" 1.)
  Meta tags help search engines find information about a company's web-site in order to accurately list them in their indexes. They are lines of code added in the head section of the HTML. To improve the search engine ranking, IT staffs of companies should pay attention to four major meta tags:
  

1. <META name = "resource-type" content = "document">
   "Document" is the only resource-type tag that a search engine recognizes when placing companies' web-site to its index.
2. 
   <META name = "description" content = "a description of web page">
   A description tag briefly tells the search engine what products and service the company will provide on that exact page ("Meta Tags" 1.) They are displayed along with the title of page. "Content" could be a word, sentence or paragraph. At the same time "content" should be reasonably short, concise and consistent with main idea of the web page. The Description Tag can have up to 150 characters ("Pay Per Click" 1.)
   <META name = "keywords" content = "a, list, of, keywords">
3. 
   Chosen keywords are separated by commas. Keyword tags provide a list of synonyms to keywords in the web-site ("Meta Tags" 1.) For example, keywords for Toyota web-site might include car, cars, vehicles, automobiles, and so on. Keyword tags include up to 200 charac
4. ters ("Pay Per Click" 1.)
   <META name = "distribution" content = "one of several">
   The content of this META tag can be titled "global," "local"or"internal use." It lists available resources to help customers find things easily ("Explanation" 1.)

• Sub-domains:
  On the Internet, the Domain Name System (DNS) associates various sorts of information with domain names. (The domain name is the name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet-the name that appears in the title bar of the browser.) The DNS transfers computer domain name, e.g. en.wikipedia.org, into an IP addresses, e.g. 66.230.200.100. Networking equipment needs the numerical address to deliver information. A sub-domain is a part of a larger domain. For example, in the domain, "http://images.google.com," the "images" part is the sub-domain of "google.com." Once again, to improve ranking of page, companies should carefully choose keywords for sub-domains and select specific content for sub-domains.
  
• Relationship with others linked sites:
  Some search engines use link analysis to find a query term on a webpage. Therefore the web-site connecting with other links is more important than one that stands alone
  
• It is also worth noting: The length of time that a web page has been posted on the internet and the reputation of a web page also affect the ranking of a web page.

How IT staffs of small companies improve the visibility of web-sites by using SEO

Using software for SEO