What is SEO

What Is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the name given to the techniques and methods used by webmasters and search engine optimizers to improve your site's ranking in Internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo!

There are two basic types of search engine ranking: Natural (or organic) and sponsored (or paid) listings.

Natural Search:
Natural or organic search results are the listings a search engine provides for free. These listings are generally compiled from a large database of sites and ordered by a computer using an algorithm, a complex program which sorts the listings into the results you see on your screen. From time to time the various search engines will update their algorithm in search of greater relevancy or to remove spam or some other unwanted element from it's results. These results are called natural or organic results as they are (generally) free from human or paid influence and are achieved naturally from the computer's algorithm.

Denial Design are experts in achieving affordable top results in the natural search engine rankings on the main UK search engines (Google UK, Yahoo UK, MSN UK, BBC, etc). Top 10 rankings in the natural results are very important as 83 - 92% of first time visitors to a site find that site through search engine rankings*, 55% of online purchases originate on sites found through search engine listings** and most searchers only visit the top 3 results!*

Paid Listings:
Paid or sponsored listings are search results that companies have paid for to appear in certain positions on a search engine's results page. Paid listings are usually ordered on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis where the company sets the amount it wishes to pay per click (visit) through to their website, the higher the bid per click the higher the company's advert appears in the sponsored listings.

Denial Design can advise your company on which of the PPC companies to use to get maximum bang for your buck and we can even manage your PPC campaigns for you.

Blogs / Social Media:
Blogs (or web logs) and social media such as myspace, facebook, deli.cio.us and other bookmarking sites are becoming increasing important as indicators of what's hot and what's not online. The search engines have been quick to grasp this phenomenon and use sites such as these and the links to sites that every day joe public posts to these social sites as an indicator of quality and popularity in their algorithms.

Denial Design utilise a variety of these sites and other social media (or web 2.0) sites in our UK search engine service and as part of the ongoing link building service we provide to boost your site's link popularity and search engine positioning.

So how does search engine ranking work?

The search engines use a complicated process called an algorithm to rank your website in their listings. For instance, Google uses hundreds of different factors, each with different weighting or impotance, such as relevance, domain age, keyword density, number of inbound links, number of outbound links, anchor text, proper semantic markup and many, many more. Each of these factors are calculated and a rank assigned to your pages for each keyword or phrase your site is relevant to.

Denial Design know how to manipulate these factors to benefit your site, not just in Google but in all the major UK search engines (MSN / Live, Ask, Yahoo and Google). Together we can increase your site's rankings, traffic and turnover. For more information on how we can help your site improve it's search engine rankings please see our Search Engine Optimization Services page or contact us to learn more.

Confused about any of these technical terms? Look them up in our search engine glossary!