Understanding search engine optimisation

The richest information resource in the world is the internet.  Finding information on the internet can be a daunting task due to the trillions of content flowing around.

Search engines were developed for just this reason, helping to make searches effortless. The first search engine was born in 1990 by Aln Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Yahoo came along in January 1994. Today there are a number of search engines, including google, bing, yahoo, ask, aol, wow etc. but google remains the market leader.

A web search engine is an online tool designed to look for information on the World Wide Web and present search results as search engine results pages (SERPs) made up of web pages, audio, images, videos and other online content. Search engines work by going three key steps – crawling where content are found; indexing, where discovered content is analysed and stored; and retrieval, where a user searches for content through querying relevant content.

Global Market Share  of Google:    79.79 per cent

Global Market Share of Bing:    7.13  per cent

Global Market Share of Baidu:    6.77 per cent

Global Market Share of Yahoo:    5.20 per cent

Global Market Share of Ask: 0.14 per cent

Global Market Share of AOL:    0.05 per cent

Global Market Share of Excite: 0.01 per cent

(https://www.netmarketshare.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=4&qpcustomd=0

The key question is, ‘How can you ensure your web content shows up when users type in relevant search parameters?” One key way is through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What is SEO?

Search engine optimisation is the process where web content publishers stimulate traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines without paying for it. This is in contrast with paid search ads, where web publishers pay for their content to be shown up during a search.  All major search engines work by serving users primary search results. This means that web pages and contents are shown to users based on ranking premised on what the search engine considers most relevant to the user.

SEO, therefore, helps you position your online information properly at the most crucial points to serve persons who need your web content. It is important to note that SEO is not aimed at cheating or “gaming” search engines but is a tool for communicating content intentions clearly so that they in turn can serve this relevant information to search engine users. Search engines optimise content by looking for relevant content as indicated by the key words used in a search; performance in terms of how fast a site is; how many other reliable sources the site is linked to or how many authoritative sites reference it or point content from it.  Also, the search engines look for the look and feel of the website, how easy it is for users to navigate, whether it has a low bounce rate and whether it has basic security features to make usage safe?

In practical terms, SEO has multiple elements. You can view it as a process and key services with the ultimate aim of ensuring websites are optimised with researched relevant keywords and phrases, anchor text links, multiple directory submission, social bookmarking, relevant blogs and articles. It is imperative to note that not one size fits all and there is a need to use unique procedure to fit each type of website. In addition to ensuring that certain words your clients will search for are recorded, there is the need to keep abreast of latest trends and statistics from the search engines themselves to ensure that your site is prioritised.  

Gaming search engines comes at a cost

Some individuals or companies try to trick or make use of shady tactics such as buying links and planting them on the website, keyword stuffing (overusing keywords to force better results) and planting adverts that draw people to the site. Evidence points to the fact that such practices end up damaging a website’s standing in the eyes of users in the long run.  At the end of the day, all these bad practices lead to a high bounce rate, which basically is a search engine‘s way of showing the unsuitability of your content for the search. Bounce rates over 80 per cent  should raise the red flag that your website will not perform well when persons search for information about you. For a news operation like Graphic, it will be interested in optimised keywords such as “news Ghana” in order for it to be ranked high when people are searching for news about Ghana online.

In conclusion, search engine optimisation, when done ethically can go a long way to ensure your website is viewed more favourably by key search engines leading to higher rankings.  At the end of the day, this will result in more traffic and engagement by key clients since they see your website as valuable.

The writer  is the Executive Director of Penplusbytes.org - you can reach him at kwami@penplusbytes.org  or WhatsApp : 0241995737