Search Engine Optimization success factors for high search engine ranking have evolved from being mostly about on-website tactics to now being mostly about off-website tactics. SEO is as much art as science.  SEO takes considerable knowledge, time, and effort to accomplish consistently. Below is a simplified history and current status of SEO how to:

In the beginning high search engine ranking could be accomplished with just on-website tactics that addressed web page content relevancy to keywords you selected to describe your business. SEO was about Meta tag setup, keyword selection, and page content keyword density considerations in ‘the good old days’.

As competing websites grew to astronomical numbers and many webmasters learned on-website tactics, there wasn’t enough differentiating relevancy criteria for the search engines to accurately rank web pages.

More emphasis was placed on content update frequency as a ranking criteria. And the capability to do ‘local search’ was added. Local Search offers more relevant results for users looking for local goods & services.  It also shrinks the number of competing web pages by eliminating competition between local and national organizations for page ranking for a given search term. And in the works is so-called search behavioral profiling of users – search results could be different for the same keyword entered by two people located in the same geographic area.

A huge change came when search engines started focusing on web page popularity as a ranking criteria (the wisdom of the masses approach).   SEO got complicated. For instance, to calculate web page ranking Google started emphasizing data from within the Google Page Rank system (a 0 to 10 general ‘popularity’ measurement system).  For example the volume & quality of incoming links were added to the criteria list for high search ranking results. Search Engines counted organically generated incoming links like ‘independent votes’ for a web page’s worthiness to be ranked high.

So webmasters engaged in massive link building activities that over time could result in apparent popularity parity between competing web pages.  So then  search engines reacted by looking at other web page popularity data.

As Web 2.0 (user generated content) and SocNets came on the scene, those became endless sources for generating incoming links & new content and increasing website popularity.  Web page popularity obtained organically and especially via viral activity in the online social environment is richly rewarded by search engines with high search engine ranking.  And social media pages about your business can achieve high search engine ranking and provide links back to a website landing page. This method has nearly the same traffic benefits as if your website landing page had high ranking on its own.

Search optimization is now very much about participating in Social Media to drive page ranking and/or create additional pathways for traffic to your website. At this time, traditional SEO tactics and Social Media Optimization (SMO) are inseparable partners for achieving high search engine ranking.

What can you do with Social Media to help SEO:  Get involved in Social Networks via value added contirbutions  / Create content for sharing portals / Obtain extensive discussion of your social content by facilitating bookmarking of  your web assets in Social Bookmarking websites / Promote your brand via widgets and ads in the social world / Measure results for continuous improvement.

And you need to engage in brand building via various online tactics to raise awareness which aids popularity and thus SEO results:

As the Internet world evolves and matures, obtaining websuccess becomes more complicated, competitive, and time consuming, but very rewarding for businesses that do the right things. Need help? Contact me for your websuccess.

Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Socail Media Optimnization

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 11:27 am and is filed under Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.