How Search Engine Optimization Works for Your Website

Involved in web marketing or website management? You may have heard the term search engine optimization (SEO) at least once.

If you are in charge of a website or marketing, you should understand the concept and meaning of search engine optimization, as well as the purpose of measures. If you correctly understand how search engines such as Google and Yahoo work and implement appropriate SEO measures, you can achieve great results.

Search Engine Optimization is a strategy to get your website to Rank Highly in search results.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a measure to make a website appear higher in search results (higher search ranking). If a website appears higher in search results, it is more likely to approach potential customers and attract customers as effectively as or even better than advertising.

Google Prioritizes Users When Determining Search Results

The ranking of a website in a search engine depends on the search engine developer's rules for ranking. Therefore, it is important first to understand the thinking behind Google, the world's most widely used search engine. Google co-founder Larry Page said the following:

“The perfect search engine would understand exactly what the user wants and return exactly what the user needs.”

As Google places great importance on users, it is important to create a website that focuses on users, with content that is "user-friendly" and "useful for users." There is also a page that compiles official information about Google searches. You can choose a learning program based on your prerequisite knowledge and study thoroughly, so if you have time, please take a look.

Learn How Search Engines Work in 3 Steps

How do search engines display search results? Here is a simple explanation of how search engines work. There are three main steps from creating a website to appearing in search results. 

Step 1: "Crawling" to collect website information

A search robot called a crawler crawls all the pages on the Internet and retrieves information. This crawling process is called "cloaking." Crawlers efficiently follow links from page to page. However, it is said that billions of pages are created on the Internet every day, and there are a huge number of pages. Therefore, pages that are not worth crawling may not retrieve information. Also, simply creating a website does not automatically mean that crawlers will discover and crawl it. It is necessary to make each page on the website easy to crawl.

Examples of measures to make your site easier to crawl

・Create an XML sitemap (sitemap.xml) for search engines

・Install a breadcrumb list 

・Create high-quality content that attracts links from external sites

Step 2: Storing the information into a database (Indexing)

If the crawler only collects information, it will not appear in the search results. The information collected by the crawler is organized and stored in a database. This process of storing information in a database is called "indexing." Indexing tends to take some time, as information is not only collected but also organized and stored. Also, not all information is registered, and some information may not be indexed for reasons such as "the same content already exists" or "the content is thin."

Examples of measures to make it easier to index

・Content with a solid document structure (title, h tag, body text) 

・Check for duplicate pages 

・Include original information



Step 3. Algorithmic Search Ranking "Scoring" 

The keywords searched by users are compared with the indexed information, a score is assigned, and the results are displayed in the search results. The process of assigning this score is called "scoring," and the scoring rules are called "algorithms." It is said that algorithms change daily. 

Examples of measures to get a good score

・Providing content that is in line with the theme 

・Providing original content that is valuable to users

Summary 

Now that Internet business is mainstream, it has become commonplace to operate your website and perform search engine optimization (SEO). If you understand how search engines work and continue to operate your company's website while focusing on the key points of search engine optimization, it will take time to see results, but you will be able to acquire a stable number of users, which will greatly contribute to your company's growth.