Search Engine Optimization FAQ

How Search Engine Optimization Works

Search Engine Optimization is the practice of optimizing a website for search engines and increasing the websites rankings for selected keywords.

Search engines use thousands of factors to determine the relevancy of a website for a certain keyword. These factors are divided into “On-Page SEO” and “Off Page SEO”.

Example search and website

Let’s pretend you are selling a product that uses “Blue Widgets” and a page on your website is dedicated to listing “Blue Widget Wholesalers”. A user performs an internet search for “Online Blue Widget Wholesalers” and is looking for a list of companies to contact for purchasing bulk blue widgets.

Sample On-Page SEO Factors:

  • Does the page link to multiple blue widget dealers, preferably those with shopping carts (with products indexed in Google Shopping results)?
  • Does Blue Widget Dealers appear in the title tag, first heading, or other headings on the page? Does the copy of the page mention keywords such as “list of dealers”, “bulk”, or other related terms?
  • How many company names are mentioned? Do multiple phone numbers, website URL’s, or addresses appear on the page?
  • Do you list businesses using a microformat like the hCard format that is easy for search engines to index?

Sample Off Page SEO Factors:

  • How many authoritative websites are linking to the page?
  • Do websites linking to your page contain relevant keywords within the page content (not necessarily the link text)?
  • Do other pages that list “blue widget wholesalers” link to your page, ideally at the end of their own list?
  • How authoritative is your website? How authoritative are other websites similar to yours with a similar page?
  • Does your page contain information or companies that are not listed on other sites? Does your page contain information other relevant pages contain?

These are just a couple factors search engines would take into consideration.

What sets Placement Edge apart?

Knowing how search engines behave is what makes any SEO successful. You need to be able to draw accurate conclusions on why a search engine chooses to display a website for a certain keyword, and why that website places higher in the search engine result pages (SERPS) than other websites

Experience is key in this industry. We have been around long enough to notice when changes are made to the algorithms, how they have affected rankings, and pinpoint what change was made.

Sharing knowledge and networking with other professionals is also key. We network with hundreds of other SEO’s to share knowledge and continually reeducate ourselves on the latest trends. We attend conferences, share case studies, and communicate regularly with other industry professionals. We also perform our own split testing to detect what changes produce what results.