In the early days of the web, companies weren’t quite sure how websites would be valuable to their businesses, but they figured they’d better have a page or two up just in case. In those days, consumers primarily used directories to find web sites that contained content they were looking for. As the web progressed, so did the evolution of search engines, and a new discipline of search engine optimization was born. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of best practices around ensuring that web site content can be indexed by search engines and is ranked well for relevant queries.
Now, the web has reached another milestone. Websites aren’t built in isolation. They have real business value. Often, they are the business. Being found in search engines isn’t just something that’s nice, it’s vital. And search is simply one part of larger marketing, development, and product initiatives.
SEOUS.COM looks at overall customer acquisition and engagement for businesses operating online. How can businesses use online data to understand their customers and develop marketing and product strategies that resonates and builds long term value? How can social media strengthen a brand? And how can companies measure success?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As a marketing strategy for increasing a site’s relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site’s coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully spidering a site. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users. Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that tend to harm search engine user experience. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques and may remove them from their indices.
The initialism “SEO” can also refer to “search engine optimizers”, terms adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, URLs, and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
