Search engine optimization (SEO) involves optimizing websites to rank highly in search engine results. Over 80% of consumers use search engines to find products and services, so it is important for businesses to optimize their websites to be found. This seminar will cover how to build or adjust a website so that it appears on the first page of search results. Things to avoid include hidden text, cloaking, sneaky JavaScript redirects, automated queries, and keyword stuffing. Following webmaster guidelines like having a clear site structure and providing useful content can help search engines find and rank a site highly.

1. Search EnGINE OPTIMIZATION

2. Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your websites from search engines via natural or organic search results. Search engines index millions of web sites and yours can be buried deep within those results if it is not optimized properly. Building a web site or adjusting an existing one so that it comes up on the first pages is what this seminar is about. Over 80 % of consumers use a search engine to find the product or servicethey need. To be found by these individuals, your site must first be found by search engines and second, your site must have a high ranking. If they can’t find you you’re losing business opportunities to your competitors.

3. Things to avoid.Hidden TextUsing white text on a white backgroundIncluding text behind an imageUsing CSS to hide textSetting the font size to 0Hidden linksLinks that are intended to be crawled by Googlebot, but are unreadable to humans because:The link consists of hidden text (for example, the text color and background color are identical).

4. CSS has been used to make tiny hyperlinks, as little as one pixel high.

5. The link is hidden in a small character - for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph.Things to avoid.CloakingCloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. Serving up different results based on user agent may cause your site to be perceived as deceptive and removed from the Google index. Some examples of cloaking include:Serving a page of HTML text to search engines, while showing a page of images or Flash to users.

6. Serving different content to search engines than to users.Sneaky Javascript redirectsWhen Googlebot indexes a page containing Javascript, it will index that page but it cannot follow or index any links hidden in the Javascript itself. Use of Javascript is an entirely legitimate web practice. However, use of Javascript with the intent to deceive search engines is not.Automated queries Google's Terms of Service do not allow the sending of automated queries of any sort to its system without express permission in advance from Google. Sending automated queries absorbs resources and includes using any software (such as WebPosition Gold™) to send automated queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage ranks in Google search results for various queries.Keyword stuffing "Keyword stuffing" refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google's search results. Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site's ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

7. Webmaster Guidelines Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site. Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the "Quality Guidelines," which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise penalized. If a site has been penalized, it may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google's partner sites.(Factors that affect your website’s ranking)

8. Design and content guidelinesMake a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.

9. Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.

10. Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.

11. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it. Design and content guidelinesTry to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images.

12. Make sure that your TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.

13. Check for broken links and correct HTML.

14. If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.

15. Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).