Submitted on:  04/17/2007

The origins

Search engines were initially created as quaint tools to allow Internet users quicker access to information. But as the World Wide Web exploded into offices and homes and the Net became a gigantic information storage system, search facilities became absolutely necessary.

Of course, the search engine creators had to develop certain ranking algorithms to define the position of each particular site in the listing; the most complicated issue was how to rank sites that seem on the face of it to fulfil the searcher's query identically. One method was to determine the authority of each site in order to reward with higher positions the most popular and authoritative sites. The most obvious way of defining the authority was to calculate the number and weight of links pointing to it. Of course, when web inhabitants figured out how content relevancy and link weight affect positioning, search engine rankings could effectively be manipulated. Thus, SEO (search engine optimisation) was born.

Web marketing comes into play

Since the first SEOs discovered how to affect search engine positioning, their marketing importance became obvious for business owners, marketers - and, of course, their customers who flocked to the web to find goods or services they needed. The sites that occupied the topmost places in the search engine listings were - quite naturally - regarded as representing the most trustworthy and established businesses, the circle being completed by the fact that being so positioned meant they were found and visited much more often than their competitors.

It is for these reasons that SEO and SEM (search engine marketing) have become so important. Web site owners now take the visibility aspect seriously; good money is spent on professional SEO services. But though SEO is as much as 10 years old, its true goals and appropriate strategies are often misunderstood by people including, unfortunately, many of those who consider themselves SE optimisers.

Real SEO is not about #1 at all costs

Search engine positioning is not equivalent to positioning yourself on the market. It is only a small part of it. SEM is a wider concept, as it also covers pay-per-click advertising, paid advertising via banners or text links, and other ways of increasing web site visibility with the help of search engines. To get a complete idea of what you should take into account when marketing your business online, you need to look much deeper.

Your site affects the image of your business more than you can imagine. And while chasing #1 in search engines, one should think on how not to damage it through over-optimisation. Professional SEO will never make your site too visibly SE-optimised, and never sacrifice its user-friendliness and marketing quality in favour of search engine rankings. What's more, we think #1 is not really so important. Any place within the TOP 10 of major engines brings a good amount of target traffic if the keywords are properly chosen, and 40 search terms in the TOP 20 will bring you more visitors than #1 for a single key phrase, even the most competitive one (a fact that is lost on unscrupulous SEO "specialists"). And ROI will, certainly, be higher.

Targeting 40-50 search terms is also better from another point of view. Since it is practically impossible to optimise a page for more than three good search terms, targeting so many terms leaves us with no solution other than to create more pages. These page are bound to be content-rich, and targeting different keywords automatically makes them more specific. Thus, you determine your target audience more precisely and, at the same time, make your site better.

Why so?

The Internet is all about information. Web sites that are created with the single purpose of providing information are better for visitors. The more information, the better the visitor experience and, in turn, the better it is for its owner who expects to earn money from it. Good, reliable information helps in building credibility; that leads to more sales and, consequently, a better ROI.

And the search engines will sooner or later appreciate your effort in building a site so useful and comprehensive - and reward you with good, stable positioning in their SERPs (search engine result pages).

Of course, it means a good deal of hard work, sleepless nights and never-ending dedication. But when you think about it, marketing success is impossible otherwise.

About the Author:

Name:  Irina Ponomareva Irina Ponomareva has been a practising SEO consultant since 2004. She joined Viscomp, a Russian web design agency, in February 2008. Find out more at http://www.viscomp.ru/