Search engines use software called spiders or crawlers to crawl websites, follow links, and record only text content. This text is then indexed according to keywords and stored in a database. When a search is performed, results are returned based on a relevance calculation between the search terms and indexed keywords. Keywords should be specific, included in titles, headings, links, and content to increase relevance. Backlinks from other relevant sites also improve relevance through the anchor text used. Images and other non-text content should include descriptive alt text for indexing.

1. SEO(Search Engine Optimization)

2. How do search engines workSearch engines are text drivenThey can’t listen to cool sounds on websites and can’t see the amazing videos on themThey also don’t under stand the pretty design of the website

3. So what do they do?Search engines use a piece of software called spider to crawl the web.The follow links within a website and record what they seeCrawlers/spiders cannot see password protected content, flash animations, javascripts i.e. anything except text.

4. Original website tribune.com.pk

5. Spidered text tribune.com.pk(what the search engine sees)The Express Tribune – Latest Breaking Pakistan News, Business, Life, Style, Cricket, Videos, Comments RSS Today's Paper Subscribe Tuesday, 27 Sep 2011 beta 2.0 Faisalabad Gilgit Hyderabad Islamabad Karachi Lahore Peshawar Quetta Sargodha Sialkot High: 30°C Low: 25°C Home Pakistan Business World Sports Life & Style Multimedia Opinion Magazine Blogs Jobs Classifieds Trending: uspakriftdenguehaqqani-networkimrankhanshoaibakhtarfloods2011 Alerts Top News US allegations only helping terrorists: Senate Defence Committee JavedQazi says US pressu­rising Pakist­an to hide its own failur­e in Afghan­istan. Comments (4) National security: Military leadership rejects US allegations Pakistan has right to maintain contact with Haqqani network: QaziHussain Afghan militant killed in Bajaur Agency clash Four milita­nts from Afghan­istan cross into Pakist­an and open fire on tribal militi­a. Comments China announces aid for Pakistan law enforcement agencies APP / Express / Reuters China announ­ced aid of eight millio­n yuan (over Rs110 millio­n) for LEAs. Comments (22) Taliban insists it controls Haqqanis, …

6. IndexingOnce spiders crawl the website, they then index it.It means identifying the words and expressions that best define the content of the page and storing it in a large databaseThe page is hence assigned to particular keywordsWhen a search request comes it is compared with these keywords and results are returned

7. Relevance Since more than one pages are assigned to a keyword, a relevance factor is calculated for the pages.Every search engine has a different criteria to determine relevance, hence different search results for same search term on different search enginesSearch engines also change relevance criteria over time.

8. Yahoo and Bing give importance to on page keywordGoogle gives importance to links as wellGoogle also likes old sites as compared to new sites

9. Elements of SEOKeywordsTitleHeadingLinksAnchor TextMetatagsContent

10. KeywordsKeywords are the most important SEO element for a web page.These are words that are compared with the search term by the search engineOne word keywords are no longer beneficial

11. Keyword guidelinesThe web has so many websites that generic one word keywords return millions of results.It’s good to be specific regarding keywords.

12. Keyword quality and placement is important tooKeyword present in the title, url, first paragraph is more important than keyword present many times at the end of the page.Keywords should be relevant to the content present on the page

13. Keyword examplesFor a site about cat adoption, cat-adopt.com will be a better option than cat.com or animal-care.com

14. Keyword can also be used in the page title. It appears in the <title> tag in the HTML code of the page.

15. So for the cat adoption website, a suitable would be “Adopt a cat – Bring joy to your home”

16. Also add keywords in headings on the page.LinksLinks are another important SEO element in a web page.There are two types of linksInbound/BacklinksOutbound

17. Outbound linksLead to an external website from your pageInbound links/backlinksLead from external websites to your page.These backlinks are very important for a website to gain higher ranking in search results. If they are coming from similar sites, they help increase the relevance factor. If coming from unrelated sites, relevance factor is decreased.

18. Anchor textLinks can be added as follows “Search on www.google.com for best search results”Or as follows“Search Google for best search results”The word “Google” in the second example is called anchor text i.e. the words representing the actual link.

19. Backlinks with a proper anchor text help increase the relevance factorFor our cat adoption website example, if there are inbound links/backlinks with the anchor text Adopt Cats or similar will help with the relevance factor.

20. Ways to increase backlinksBacklink builder tools: Search and suggest relevant websites which can give you backlinksDirectories: Getting listed in a directory like Yahoo helps gain backlinksForums and blogs: Respond to relevant discussions and posts and publish your link with the relevant anchor text.RSS feeds: If another site publishes your RSS feed, you get backlinks.

21. MetatagsMetatags summarize information on the page for crawlersThis information is found in the HTML code for the page

22. Content Good SEO content has three primary characteristics: Offers useful information presented in an engaging format to human readersBoosts search engine rankingsAttracts plenty of links from other sites

23. Visual ContentMost visual content like images, videos and flash content should be properly described using the <alt> tag.Search engines cannot see images, videos and flash content but they can read the <alt> tag.The <alt> tag should provide meaningful imformation about the content, which is also relevant to the website.

24. <alt> text looks something like this<imgsrc = “know_ur_apples.jpg ” alt=“A picture of different kinds of apples and their uses”>.