Putting Search Engines to Work for You

All this information about search engines has one purpose-to show you how they work so that you can put them to work for you.  Throughout ...

All this information about search engines has one purpose-to show you how they work so that you can put them to work for you. 

Throughout this book, you'll find various strategies for optimizing your website so it appears high in search engine rankings when relevant searches are performed, But this requires that you know how to put search engines to work for you.

Search engine optimization is essentially the science of designing your website to maximize your search engine rankings. 

This means that all of the elements of your website are created with the goal of obtaining high search engine rankings. Those elements include:



■ Entry and exit pages
■ Page titles
■ Site content
■ Graphics
■ Website structure

In addition to these elements, however, you also have to consider things like keywords, links, HTML, and meta-tagging. 

Even after you have all the elements of your page optimized for search-engine friendliness, there are other things to consider. 

For example, you can have all the right design elements included in your web pages and still have a relatively low search engine ranking. Factors such as advertising campaigns and update frequencies also affect your SEO efforts.



All of this means that you should understand that the concept of search engine optimization is not based on any single element. 

Instead, search engine optimization is based on a vast number of elements and strategies. And it's an ongoing process that doesn't end once your website is live.

SEO is a living, breathing concept of maximizing the traffic that your website generates, and because it is, that means that it's a constantly moving target. 

If you've ever played a game of Whack-a-Mole, you can understand how difficult search engine optimization is to nail. In the game, a little mole pops up out of a hole. Your job is to whack the mole on the top of the head before it disappears back down the hole and appears in another.

Search engine optimization is much the same concept. Search engines are constantly changing, so the methods and strategies used to achieve high search engine rankings must also change. 

As soon as that little mole pops up in one hole, he disappears and then reappears in another. It's a frustrating game, but given enough time and concentration, you can become very good at it.