Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | PageRank

Search engine optimization, known far and wide as SEO, is an important factor in the success of websites small and large. No matter how popular you think your site is, it's vital that you and your team put some thought and energy into optimizing your search engine rankings and your visibility within search results. But where to begin?

Webmonkey Bryan Zilar recently sat down with strategy consultant and SEO guru Jason McQueen to talk about all things search. They discuss trends in the SEO world and the philosophies behind "white hat" and "black hat" techniques. Jason also offers advice for webmasters who want to adopt an SEO strategy that produces results on a limited (or non-existent) budget.

This Webmonkey Q&A is also available as a .

Webmonkey: Today, I'm here with Jason McQueen, who is a strategy consultant for Mindshare Interactive Campaigns. Today, Jason's going to tell us about search engine optimization technology.

Jason, How do search engine algorithms work on a high level?

Jason McQueen: Search engine algorithms, by nature, are a well-guarded secret. Search engines do not give away the particulars of how they work. We know, as an SEO community, generally what they do and how they index web pages.

I would say that most crawler-based algorithms are particularly interested in location and frequency of keywords on the web page. That's probably the most focused area of the algorithm. Each engine has a set keyword saturation, meaning it allows a certain number or percentage of keywords within a particular block of content.

It's important as an SEO to know where the keyword density stands for a given page. That means the number of keywords per page and per relevant topic. If you have a page that's selling radios, you want to explain that in your content and talk about the benefits of having a radio. But you don't want to over-talk and stuff the page with keywords to the point where the algorithm will pick it up and eliminate it because of an "illegal practice." This would be keyword stuffing.

I also want to discuss linking with concern to the algorithm itself. Not only is keyword density ratio important as far as the algorithm is concerned, linking is as well. Google is particularly interested in a site's linking schema — meaning a site's inbound links. These are more important to Google than outbound links. It's not just about getting an inbound link, but a relevant inbound link for a site.

WM: You've also been talking about "white hat" versus "black hat" SEO. What is that?

McQueen: In terms of search engine optimization, you're talking about two different real techniques as far as how to perform it. Black hat SEO is the practice of using techniques deemed illegal or unethical. These can include using hidden text in your site. The search engine can read the text in the site, but it's not visible to the human eye. That's just an example of keyword stuffing. There are "door-in pages," which allow users to come into your site through a page and then push you to another thought or product or service — things the consumer didn't initially want to visit. Those are all some examples of illegal techniques.

White hat is the opposite of that — basically ethical SEO, which is using established SEO practices to increase a site's ranking. White hat is a more long-term strategy, and black hat can be more immediate.

WM: What's your opinion on using either one? You say illegal, but come on, that's just a word.

McQueen: "Illegal" is a strong term. You get posed that question a lot. It depends on your business model and what you're going after.

I would never request or recommend that a company use black hat SEO, but there are some instances where it can be helpful. It just depends on what your marketing strategy is. The only driver behind using black hat SEO is that the results can be much quicker. You can see the jump in search engine rank happen relatively quickly. The downside to that is that you will eventually get caught and can be penalized by the search engine. You can even be banned and removed from a search engine. That can be detrimental to retail clients specifically.

WM: What would I want to do if I don't have a dedicated SEO resource and can't afford a consultant to help me out? What are some techniques I can use to boost my page count?

McQueen: I get asked that question a lot. Not everyone has an SEO budget, and not everyone is a technophile who understands SEO on that level. I think it's mainly about using common sense. You have to assume that search engines are most concerned with relevant content.

All the major search engines — Google, MSN, Yahoo, et cetera — are specifically interested in providing relevant content. So if you're providing content on your page that's fresh, relevant and useful to the user, you're pretty much going to be OK. That sounds very obvious. However, when you start looking at content delivered on home pages and read it from an SEO or content perspective, you actually realize you aren't doing that.

I've had quite a few clients end up surprised when we started to dig in on the content on their home pages. They thought for years that they were delivering exactly what their clients needed, but (they weren't).

From a content perspective, I recommend rotating the content and keeping it fresh. It can be a huge boost to your site ranking. You'll see immediate results if you do that. I usually suggest that we switch out content every other month and continue that trend.

WM: Speaking of content, blogs often get brought up regarding search results. It's very easy for a blog to interfere. Do you feel that blogs are skewing the web?

McQueen: There's a polarized view about that. I personally like it. The more information you can bring up about a relevant search topic, the better. The reason that blogs are showing up is simple. Blogs that are sitting on a searchable URL satisfy two of the main search ranking criteria. First, they are constantly changing content — daily, sometimes twice daily. Second, they are filled with inbound linking. They're getting ranked. Some of the major sites that have been sitting at the top of search results for years are getting irritated that a bunch of blogs are showing up and skewing (or diluting) the results.

WM: What about things like video, audio and images? How are they getting cataloged? Do you use tags?

McQueen: I think you answered the question. There's still a lot of "wild, wild Westing" going on in those areas. They're still new in terms of search. Google's caching videos. My company's doing a lot of that. It's interesting to see the type of traffic generated from that.

WM: What are your favorite resources for SEO news?

McQueen: I always follow Danny Sullivan's site Search Engine Watch. He's kind of the godfather of SEO. He's been around since the beginning and speaks at all the SEO events. He has always verbalized or set the standard in the industry. He's a good person to watch, because he believes in white hat SEO and he forces the industry to go there. Also, he speaks clearly and helps even a beginner understand.

I have my own blog, appliedseo.com. Me and a couple of other SEOs are on there giving advice and talking about issues in the industry.

I also just have Google News alerts for anything coming out for "SEO." A lot of clipsy articles are coming out and talking about the new emphasis on SEO. There's a lot of chatter about it and you don't have to hunt that far. At the least you can find the defined SEO best practices online.

(Research) is really important if you're a decision maker in a company that's looking to hire an SEO or a firm to do work for you. You need to know a little bit more about the technology to make sure the person you're hiring knows what they're doing. If your company uses SEO the wrong way, it can penalize you and it can be a nightmare to get out of.