Understanding the Difference between the Art and Science of SEO

Understanding the Difference between the Art & Science of SEO

We can define SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as the art and science of achieving higher rankings in the organic search results.

As an SEO you may have to spend a great deal of time explaining the differences between the two. Being able to properly define these two factors will distinguish you as the SEO that stands out in the crowd and becomes successful to the one that gets lost in the crowd.

With the shift in the Internet world the “textbook style SEO” is not providing top rankings on it’s own as it once did in the past. We are now seeing a great shift in the results to sites that have a good balance between both the science and the art of SEO.

Let’s examine in detail what the Science of SEO involves, sometimes referred to as the textbook style of SEO. To make it clear the science is the technology side of your Web site. It also can be explained as the proven techniques used that don’t often change with time.

Any Optimizer can educate themselves on these techniques which are readily available in most books about search engine optimization or from a number of web sites across the Internet. These are the basic principles used today, but are still very important to the overall success of your web site.

Let’s list some of the most relevant science elements of a Web site:

Proper use of tags; title, meta, description, h1, alt
Keyword placement
W3C.org compliancy
Domain name
URL longevity
Site map
Link popularity
Link reputation
Link text
Link structure
Design elements
Robot.txt file
LSI
Content Freshness

The challenge with the science is creating content rich relevant pages that read well for both the spiders and your human visitors.

Google tells us that there are over 200 ranking factors they consider. The clue to being a good SEO is to understand that these factors are only a small portion of how they will affect your site in the Search Engines.

The other half of the optimizing equation is to put your creative cap on and add the Art of SEO to your Web site. When assessing your Web site you need to find elements to add to your site that fit in with your overall purpose of your site.

The Internet gives us an unlimited amount of avenues to discover when it comes to creatively adding the Art of SEO to your site.

Your goal should be to include art factors that will bring qualified visitors to your site.

Think of it this way …a Web site must appeal to both the technical side and the emotional side of a visitor whether it is an engine spider or a human being.

Let’s list some of the avenues you could explore to include the art of SEO to your site:

Visitor Behavior Keyword Research
Creative Content
Article Marketing
Blogging
Social Networking
Video files
Audio Files
Podcasting
Local Search
Analyzing Data

SEO formulates the theories behind the use of proper tags, linking and the design structure of a site which defines the science, while content that inspires, educates and attracts the emotional side of a visor builds the art.

A fellow SEO, Martin Preece of http://www.webseodesign.com shared with me that he often gets asked; “What tools do you use for search engine optimization?” I asked him what his response was and he said; “I tell them to use their brains to understand the data from the tools and to create truly useful content that fulfills the needs of the visitors they are targeting.” This statement from Martin clearly states that in order to effectively understand the science, which can be classified as the tools you must combine them with the art to really make optimization work for you.

In conclusion it is impossible to predict the exact combinations of how the Art & Science will influence ranking results, but what is exciting is you can develop a Web site with the proven basic SEO principles and experiment it the art and move your site up in the SERP’s.

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Author – Tracy Fredrychowski – SEO Instructor
Search Engine Academy of SC

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.