Search Engine Marketing Is Easy
When You Know How

Search engine marketing is easy when you know how, and you have the right tools to do it with. There is plenty of work to be done, but the process is pretty straightforward.

It's hard to find a search engine optimization consultant that can give you clear, straight forward clarity about search engine optimization (SEO). That's because only the very top people at search engines like Google know the big picture of all the algorithms that go into making up the metrics that determine how websites and website pages get ranked.

An algorithm is simply a step-by-step procedure that is used to solve problems or complete processes. It's also a pattern or system of behavior. That's all it means.

In spite of the fact that the search engine marketing criteria are guarded by non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with the top people that know them with search engines like Google and others, the search engines make it very clear, what they want in Web pages. That is,

The search engines want websites to offer relevant, quality content to searchers. Why? Because they want to,

The common perception of search engines is that their product is search results. And, secondly that their customers are searching surfers.

The reality is, search engines deliver targeted surfers (in effect the product) to their advertiser customers. Surfers buy from Web based advertisers. Advertisers pay search engines advertising dollars to advertise in search engines.

Search engines are businesses just like any other business. They have revenue (paid advertising) and expenses. Search engines may have other revenue streams other than advertising dollars, but ad revenue is their primary source.

So, the logic goes like this: surfers find relevant, quality content on website pages that the search engines deliver to surfers, called search engine results pages (SERP), and the surfers keep coming back for more on those Web pages because the surfers are satisfied with the content. The more time surfers spend on respective Web pages the more advertising dollars they spend when they click on ads on those Web pages.

The more advertisements sold to surfers, the more revenue the search engines bring in. The more surfers that buy specific categories of ads, based on specific "keywords" the more the search engines can charge Web advertisers to advertise for those keywords.

Google Adwords and Google Adsense programs are revenue streams for Google.

Google Adwords advertisements are the text link ads you see on the top or far right page of a search results page when a surfer types a keyword or keyword phrase into the search field, and clicks "Search."

Google Adsense advertisements are ads placed on the Web pages of your website pages by people that have websites of their own. Those other website owners pay you to advertise their products or services on your website. Google gets a piece of the ad dollars, and you get a piece.

There are two broad categories of algorithms that search engines use with respect to search engine marketing to determine how search engines rank Web pages, either high or low. They are,

On-page criteria, and

Off-page criteria.

The on-page criteria include metrics such as,

Keyword relevance,

Keyword density (just the right amount),

Inbound links (which SEO consultants call "back links"),

And most importantly, content.

The off-page criteria are what humans do when and after they visit a respective Web page. Things such as,

• How long the surfer stays on a Web page,
• How often they visit the Web page,
• When they click on an ad,
• When they purchase from an ad, and many, many more.

Search engine marketing consultants can only guess at all the off-page metrics due to the fact that search engines keep them close to the vest.

The best way to rank better in the search engines is to #1 - have relevant, quality content those searchers want, and #2 - have as many inbound links from other websites to your site as possible. The higher ranking websites as inbound links to your site boost your site rank.

Trying to outsmart the search engines (called black hatting) is a waste of time. White hats, search engine consultants that try to play by the search engine rules, can certainly be helpful, but they too fall short of figuring the whole search engine game out.

There is a formula for search engine optimization that works, which is,

For more on this search engine marketing method click on the link at the bottom of this page titled, "Powered By: Solo Build It!"

Search engine marketing is a big subject that will be covered in more detail elsewhere in this site. Hopefully, this discussion has helped demystify the subject.

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