How People Search the Web
People search the Web using keyword queries. The combinations of words that are popular as search words are
arbitrary. Search engines use several different cues in determining if a particular page is to be retrieved for a
particular word combination. They are not very good at it. They look at the frequency of a word or phrase in a page and
in the file name and domain name of that page, and the presence of that word in links from other sites to that page. The
use of the key phrase in those hypertext links is a very important cue. Likewise they look for the keyword in URLs and
other special places within a page. If the title of a page is widgets, the file name is widgets, the text
mentions the word widgets more than any other word, and it links to articles about widgets, then it is
normally safe to assume the page is about widgets. Search Engine Optimization is intended to give search engines the
clues needed to get your page top rank.
Research shows that most people will not look beyond the first 10 results retrieved by a search engine in an SERP
(Search Engine Results Page), and in fact the first 1 or 2 generally get most of the clicks. The first one may get as
many as a third of the clicks.
If you have a commercial Web site, getting people to your Web site is only a part of the effort you need to make for
an online marketing campaign - you want those people to buy your product too. Converting visitors to customers is not in
the scope of this little document, but commercial Web sites should be designed with the end goal in mind.
The information in this little book apparently "works." I have used these practices to build Web sites that get
50,000 visitors a week for not particularly popular topics, outranking Web sites of large organizations with huge
resources at their disposal. Of course, you have to provide content that at least some people find useful, and you have
to provide a lot of it. Very small Web sites (less than a thousand pages) are going to attract relatively less visitors
– not just absolutely – they will get less visitors per page, because each page will (all other things being equal) get
lower ranks in search engines than larger sites.
The investment you make in optimizing your Web site and Web pages for search engines will pay off in increased
traffic. In the long run, it is cheaper and better than pay per click advertising. If you have a new Web site, many of
the optimization tricks cost nothing - just do it right the first time. If you have an existing Web site, If an
investment of $5,000 (or time equivalent) will bring a million visitors a year over ten years, that's less than one
twentieth of a cent per click.
Please note that the information in this document reflects current search engine practices. These practices change
from time to time.
Important Note - Nobody will guarantee your site top ten placement in any search engine. If you are hiring an
expert, read the fine print of every SEO agreement!. Moreover, the "rules" change all the time. If you follow the rules
below, and your site is large enough (over two thousand pages) and has enough links from authoritative Web sites, it
will climb to the first 50 or even the first 10 or 20 sites returned for a keyword, and you will get many more visitors
than before. The rest depends on luck and on very careful optimization and on getting good links and good content.
And finally - have patience. Building traffic to your site is a fairly slow process. You can speed it up a
bit and you might get a lucky break if a large newspaper or other media outlet notices your content. However, search
engines have built-in delay factors that will prevent your site and pages from being visible very quickly. It may take
many weeks and months before you begin to see results. Search engines rank sites and domain names by their age, among
other factors. Being around for several years on the Web makes you an "old timer" - but it takes several years.
This little handbook is divided into these sections:
What it is about: This section explains some basic concepts you need to know about search engine optimization.
You just read that.
Essentials: Tells you the basics of SEO.
Hands on: The next section tells you what to do, step by step with examples.
Advanced topics: The unknowns of optimization and other issues.
Checklist - A separate brief checklist accompanies this document in an appendix. It summarizes most of the
important points.
