Whether you’re just starting on the great search engine optimisation adventure,
or you’ve been doing it for some time, there are a lot of terms and expressions
thrown around that don’t immediately make sense. In fact, at first glance,
it seems like SEO has its very own development language with expressions like
spiders, bots, algorithms, crawling, and indexing being among the first words
you’ll probably hear but are unlikely to understand straight away.

Search Engine Spiders And Bots

Search engine optimization is primarily about pandering to the requirements
of the search engines. In order to help them determine whether your site is
relevant to a particular keyword and whether it deserves to be ranked highly
or not, the search engines deploy small pieces of script. These are referred
to as either spiders or bots. They are called spiders because they are said
to crawl around the web while the term bot is used as a shortened version of
the word robot.

Search Engine Algorithms

An algorithm is a mathematical equation that is used by search engines to
give your page a “rank”. This rank compares your page to other pages on the
web to determine which ones should be displayed for a given search term and
in which order. The algorithms used are complex, regularly change, and are
a closely guarded secret by the search engines themselves. Search engine optimisation
is about taking an educated and largely tested view on what the algorithms
are and then optimizing a site accordingly.

Crawling

Search engine spiders crawl the web, going through every page and following
every single link that they can find on each of those pages. When they find
a new link, they transmit details back to the search engine and then continue
on their journey. In search engine optimisation terms, this means that a web
site needs to include navigation from page to page that is easy for the
spiders to follow. Typically speaking, this means using text links because
these are the types of link that spiders can follow.

Another consideration of crawling is that your website first needs to be discovered
by the search engines. Early stages of search engine optimisation link building
ensure that this can happen by garnering your pages with inbound links from
other sites.

Indexing

Search engines index every page that their spiders crawl. A numerical value
is assigned to each page in the index for each search term that is relevant
to that page. When a surfer then conducts a search, the result pages display
the index in order of the most relevant and valuable first. Being indexed high
in the rankings is one of the goals of SEO and helps to ensure greater traffic
levels.

Understanding SEO

SEO, or search engine optimisation, can appear a complex subject at first
glance. While it is true that there are many different facets to an SEO campaign,
by understanding some of the more baffling and widely used acronyms and terms
it begins to make much more sense. Spiders and bots are nothing more than bits
of code or software applications, while indexing is the act of listing pages
according to the rank that they are given using search engine algorithms; mathematical
equations used to determine the relevance and value of a given page.

One of the biggest challenges facing an SEO marketer is the regular provision
of high quality website content. Good content not only works to improve conversion
rates but is also known to help with search engine optimisation. More pages
means more targeted keywords and stronger intra-linking while the regular addition
of content attracts search engine spiders more frequently. As such, adding
a blog to your online portfolio enables you to leverage all of these benefits
in your own search engine optimisation.

Regular Content Addition

Good SEO means attracting search engine spiders. Initially this is done by
directing the spider to a web page using a link from another page. However,
spiders are known to more regularly visit those sites that update more often.
Because a blog naturally encourages the regular addition of fresh content,
this will encourage the spiders back more frequently and ensures that any new
pages you add to your site will be indexed and ranked quicker.

Increased Keywords

Updating a blog that is based on the same, or a similar topic, to your main
website enables you to target a greater number of keywords. Long tail search
terms are those that are almost impossible to specifically target and while
they are only searched for very infrequently, they combine to offer an excellent
number of sales or conversions. Natural blog writing as part of an SEO campaign
will offer pages that organically include these terms.

Linkbait

A major aspect of the blogging and online social community is linking. Blogs
regularly link to one another’s posts providing a flow of traffic and also
helping improve the search engine ranking for the target blog posts. Blog posts
are usually incisive and contain informational content making them highly linkable
for other website and blog owners. This will improve search engine optimization
by increasing the strength of your link profile.

Intra-Linking To Deep Pages

Within the content of some blog posts, it is possible to include deep links
to pages of your main website. A deep link can point to a service page or product
page by way of offering supporting information. Not only will visitors be inclined
to follow these links but it will help to share the benefit of inbound links
between a blog and the main website. Accurate intra-linking is an important
facet of search engine optimisation.

Non-SEO Benefits Of Blogging

As well as being of huge benefit to SEO, blogging provides a number of benefits.
Blogs encourage users to bookmark your website and visit more often, or to
sign up for RSS feeds. Either way you are able to keep in regular contact with
many visitors that you would otherwise lose. It also adds a personable face
to a business website and builds trust between you and your readers. Well written
and on-point posts also improve your image as an authoritative figure on your
chosen topic.

The Blogging Craze

Blogging is one of the biggest phenomenon to hit the Internet and, in part,
signalled the beginning of the web 2.0 evolution. It encourages social networking
and provides businesses and individuals with an opportunity to post regular
content online for others to read. By adding a blog to a website, it can be
used to greatly improve SEO efforts, improve conversion, and generally give
your main website greater appeal to visitors.