Search Engine Optimization
There are two things involved on which you should know in getting a web page into search engine results.
First, Getting into the search engine index.
Second, Getting the web page to the top of the final sorted results before display.
Accomplishing the first step is relatively easy. You just need to let the search engine spider know that the new web page exists. You can do this by pointing to the new page from an existing web page or blog that is already indexed. Some search engines may also provide an option to suggest a new URL for nclusion into their index.
Second step is the tough part. Most of Search Engine Optimization tasks revolve around this. Serach engines spend a lot of time and effort on making their algorithms find the best way to rank sites. According to Google, there are over 200 factors that determine the rank of a web page in the results.
Serach Engine Optimization is the process of trying to get your web pages rank at the top of the search engine results for keywords that are important to you.
Organic and Sponsored Results
Most search engines have two types, namely, organic and sponsored. The organic or natural results are those the search engines display on their own. The sponsored results are paid for by an advertiser. The sponsored results typically appear at the top and side of the organic results.
Search Engine Optimization directly affects only the organic results. However it does have an indirect effect on paid search results.
What Do the Search Engines Want?
Search engines want to satisfy their users by providing relevant informations.
Google, for instance makes most of it's money from selling advertisements (Adwords) that are displayed along with the regular search results.
Most people use Google because it provides relevent results.
Search Engines Don't Like getting Gamed
Search Engines and Google do not wan't their algorithms to be gamed. IF the results are manipulated, people will start using some other search engine and they obviously don't want that.
The best case scenario for search engines will be people creating websites for their users and forgetting everything about serach engines. That way there is no question of their algorithms getting manipulated.
For obvious reasons the algorithms used to determine the search engine ranks are proprietary and known only to Google. Google is not going to open up their source code and tell us the exact way their algorithm work.
This has lead to SEO related information becoming more and more confusing and conradictory!
SEO Contradictions and Confusions
SEO analysts and specialists try and piece together this information from...
1. What the search engines tell us to do through their "best practice guidelines"
2. Clues based on the patents filed by search companies.
3. What we learn by analyzing the search engine result pages (SERP).
4. What common sense says Google and other search engines will want to do.
5. Ideas and insights from people who are good at figuring things out.
6. Opinions from people based on what they want to believe, based on random observations or based on some "school of thought" they belong to.
7. Misinformation from people who have a vested interest.
