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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.
Author –
Tracy Fredrychowski – SEO Instructor
Search Engine Academy of SC
Looking for local Search Engine Marketing and Optimization
training in South Carolina? The Search Engine Academy of SC
holds workshops in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston. Check
and see when we will be bringing our 5 Day SEO Hands on Workshop
to your area.
This
work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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