Chapter 4. Search Engine Optimization

Own or run a web site and you’ll be approached by organizations or individuals offering search engine marketing services. Search engine marketing is any kind of activity that’s intended to bring traffic from a search engine to another web site. A common source of confusion when discussing search engines occurs within its two main disciplines: search engine optimization, and search engine advertising. While both relate specifically to search engine applications, their techniques and goals are quite different.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the function of improving a web site’s position in the results of a search engine query for a target set of keywords. This includes optimizing your own pages—making your site attractive to search engines, as well as encouraging other sites to link back to you.

Search engine advertising is when advertisements are displayed to search engine visitors when a defined set of search terms is requested. For the most part, these advertising campaigns are based on a Pay Per Click model where you pay a set amount each time your ad is clicked on.

Search engine advertising is covered in detail in Chapter 8. In this chapter, we’ll concentrate on search engine optimization, and how you can use it to cause explosive growth in your site’s traffic.