The Internet is rapidly become the information source of choice for the general populace. And the starting-point of choice for the majority of Internet users is a search engine (E.g. Google, Yahoo, or MSN Search).
It has been well documented that highly indexed webpages generate a significant amount of traffic because Internet surfers tend to assign a high degree of credibility to search engine rankings. Therefore, there is tremendous extrinsic value associated with appearing near the top of search engine rankings. However, most businesses do not really understand how to accomplish this feat.
In the new age of Internet marketing, content is king. Search engines are constantly evolving to provide their customer base with the most relevant and the most interesting results for any given query. In the early days of the Internet, search engines used to categorize files purely by their metatags (I.e. descriptive key phrases that preceded each webpage). Because of this, search engine optimizers (SEOs) were able to artificially manipulate a webpage's positioning in a search engine through its metatags. As the majority of SEOs began adopting such techniques, the quality of search engine results began declining; therefore, search engines were forced to adapt.
Search engines are constantly adopting and refining complex algorithms in order to improve their search results. This is evident in the fact that newer algorithms no longer assign much weight to SEO-controlled metatags, but instead evaluate the "credibility" of websites based on a variety of factors.
Google, for example, utilized a complex algorithm which evaluates websites based on the number of backlinks to the website, combined with the consistency of keywords within website content, and the frequency of website updates. Google treated the Internet as a democracy, wherein websites all have an opportunity to vote for other websites. Thus, websites with large numbers of links from other websites were deemed to be more "interesting" than those which do not. Furthermore, significant information was also obtained from the link itself. The content of the website was obtained from the text associated with the link, and different link weights were assigned to ascertain the quality of the link (E.g. depending on the positioning of the link of the webpage and the popularity of the website that the link appears on).
What happened shortly afterwards is that SEOs began generating artificial links to their websites, and even participated in the buying/selling farms of links to/from websites. Therefore, Google was forced to adapt its algorithm to combine its backlink score with an evaluation of the actual site content. Google currently evaluates websites based on a combination of factors, some which include the number of backlinks, the quality of the backlinks, the context of the backlinks, the quality of the website content, the consistency of key words, the uniqueness of the website content, the frequency with which the webpage is updated, and the date of the domain name registration. Penalties are currently being assigned for artificially-generated backlinks, affiliate link-trading programs, hidden text or links within your website, Internet "doorways" pages for search engines, cloaked Internet redirects, and duplicate content.
Many SEOs have attempted to take advantage of loopholes to generate artificially-inflated search engine ratings, but search engines are constantly adapting their search algorithm to produce high-quality search results for its users. The best way to promote your website's search engine rankings is to generate interesting, unique, and dynamic content. No matter how much search engine algorithms evolve, this type of content will always be sought after by both search engines, and their users. |
