# General Business Category > Marketing Forum >  What is SEO

## byron_spy

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine

SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.

The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign.

Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

Feel free to read more about SEO/ Search Engine Optimization here


Yougottohaveit Web Designers and SEO
Support

Getting traffic to any website is the most important task of a web master. Getting this traffic repeatedly is the key if you want your website to rank so you can reap the benefits. We have listed below, the top 10 internet marketing techniques that will get you website traffic.

Optimize your site for search engines

Search engines are the greatest way to attract traffic and SEO is the most powerful way to attract free traffic from search engines. One needs to do their homework and optimize the website to rank for certain keywords.

Frequently update the contents of your website

We all know by now that âcontent is kingâ, so the obvious approach would be to add in as many articles in your niche as possible. For SEO, this is great, as each article will be optimized for certain keywords pertaining to that article and this will positively affect your rankings. If your content is good and frequently updated you will not only build a loyal audience of recurring visitors, who will often come to see what is new, but search engines will also love your site.

Get Links to your site from similar websites

This is a good way of getting free traffic from other websites within your niche. It is also very good for SEO especially if you manage to get links without the famous ânofollow attributeâ. But even if the links are nofollow (i.e. they are useless for SEO), they still help to get traffic to your site. Coupled with this, you will need to do some research and get a list of sites within your niche where you could get backlinks from.

Social Bookmarking

Take advantage of social bookmarking sites (Digg, Delicious, etc.) as these sites offer an abundance of quality free traffic.

Social Networks: Facebook and Twitter

Social networks are also a way to get traffic for free. If you are popular on networks, such as Twitter or Facebook, the traffic you get from there can easily surpass the traffic from Google and other search engines. It is true that building a large network of targeted followers on Twitter and supporters on Facebook takes a lot of time and effort but generally the results are worth it.

Create a free product or service

When creating a free product or offering a free service it must pertain to your niche market and in doing so â when this product or service becomes popular and people start visiting your site, chances are that they will visit the other sections of the site as well.

Free online promotion

Any free online promotion is welcome, so donât neglect it. There are many ways to promote your site for free and some of the most popular ones include free classified ads, submissions to directories, inclusion in various listings, etc. It is true that not all free ways to promote your site work well but if you select the right websites (highly ranked) to promote your site for free, this can also result in tons of traffic.

Use Viral content

Viral content is called so because it spreads like a virus â i.e. when users like your content, they send it to their friends, post it on various sites, and promote it for free in many different ways. Viral content distributes on its own and your only task is to create it and submit it to a couple of popular sites. After that users pick it and distribute it for you. Viral content can be a hot video or a presentation but it can also be a good old article or an image.

Leave your URL behind

URLs in forum signatures for example are also a way to get traffic for free. There are forums that get millions of visitors a day, and if you are a popular user on such a forum then you can use this to get traffic to your website. When you post on forums and people like your posts, they tend to click the link to your website from your signature. Another way to leave your link behind is via blogs. This seamless process also applies to blogging.

Offline promotion

Offline promotion is frequently forgotten but it is also a way to get traffic for free. Yes, computers are everywhere and many people spend more time online than offline but still life hasnât moved completely on the Web. Offline promotion is also very powerful and if you know how to use it, this can also bring you many visitors. Some of the traditional offline ways to promote your site include printing its URL on your companyâs business cards and souvenirs or sticking it on your company vehicles. You can also start selling T-shirts and other merchandise with your logo and this way make your brand more popular. Getting traffic for free is a vast topic and it is not possible to list all the methods. However, if you know the most important ways (listed above) and you apply them properly, it is guaranteed that you will be able to get lots of traffic for free.

This was taken from my website http://www.yougottohaveit.co.za/What%20is%20SEO.html

----------

jeccyka (04-Jul-12)

----------


## Chatmaster

So what is your opinion about the duplicate content filter?

----------


## byron_spy

> So what is your opinion about the duplicate content filter?


Duplicate Content has become a huge topic of discussion lately, thanks to the new filters that search engines have implemented. This article will help you understand why you might be caught in the filter, and ways to avoid it. We'll also show you how you can determine if your pages have duplicate content, and what to do to fix it.

Search engine spam is any deceitful attempts to deliberately trick the search engine into returning inappropriate, redundant, or poor-quality search results. Many times this behavior is seen in pages that are exact replicas of other pages which are created to receive better results in the search engine. Many people assume that creating multiple or similar copies of the same page will either increase their chances of getting listed in search engines or help them get multiple listings, due to the presence of more keywords.

In order to make a search more relevant to a user, search engines use a filter that removes the duplicate content pages from the search results, and the spam along with it. Unfortunately, good, hardworking webmasters have fallen prey to the filters imposed by the search engines that remove duplicate content. It is those webmasters who unknowingly spam the search engines, when there are some things they can do to avoid being filtered out. In order for you to truly understand the concepts you can implement to avoid the duplicate content filter, you need to know how this filter works. 

All my SEO techniques are white hat none of my domains have been blocked so I would not say that I am creating duplications rather *repeating quality contents*

----------


## Chatmaster

Good answer  :Smile:

----------


## byron_spy

> Good answer


Thank you  :Smile:

----------


## BryanCasson

You should always be the originator of your content. If you copy or rewrite your copy there is a good chance your copy will not have the value that new out-of-the-box article will have. With Google's canonical tag you can be sure that you will always get full "fresh content" credit for that article. Google has now implemented the new "faming" update so websites that copy even the smallest bit of information will not receive much benefit. EZarticles just took a huge 80% drop in traffic because of this update.... come up with original content worth reading.... It is ok to resource information  but write your own opinion about the topic to keep it unique.

----------


## basati

Good and Quality Content Brings Good Traffic.  Thats how google works.

----------


## techfreakd

nice information to share for all SEO members.

----------


## JohnSilver

> You should always be the originator of your content. If you copy or rewrite your copy there is a good chance your copy will not have the value that new out-of-the-box article will have. With Google's canonical tag you can be sure that you will always get full "fresh content" credit for that article. Google has now implemented the new "faming" update so websites that copy even the smallest bit of information will not receive much benefit. EZarticles just took a huge 80% drop in traffic because of this update.... come up with original content worth reading.... It is ok to resource information  but write your own opinion about the topic to keep it unique.


some of us are not as creative to write our own content and rely on existing content like EZarticles

----------


## abc2bee

I make use of SEO LinkVine to get articles.

----------


## sosoandu

In SEO, orginal content is King

----------


## harounkola

With Google's new Penguin update, they're focussing their attentions more on those thin content sites with little or no original content. But as Vishen Lakhani of MindValley say's, if you use another's article and give your own opening paragraph, then Google considers that article original, so if you do use other people's content, I do too sometimes, as their are people who've made their excellent content available either with a creative commons licence or uncopyright.

I think at the end of the day it comes down to are visitors to your site coming and visiting your site and engaging with you, and do you create value for them to stay and come back?

----------


## abc2bee

Yes, you can choose which category you want articles, and you can approve or decline articles that become available in you account.  I only approve articles that are 90% and higher original.

----------


## primeoutsourcing

Yes. I agree with this.  :Smile:

----------


## Rod

The old way of doing SEO is over now since the penguin update. Link Directories, Article Directories, etc. are not worth going after any more if you are specifically looking to rank on Google. It's a sad but true fact. White hat SEO is key.

----------


## dfsa

> The old way of doing SEO is over now since the penguin update. Link Directories, Article Directories, etc. are not worth going after any more if you are specifically looking to rank on Google. It's a sad but true fact. White hat SEO is key.


OK then, What is white hat seo?

----------


## Rod

White hat SEO is spreading your backlinks "naturally". When I say naturally I mean writing a blog post that relates to your site or creating an infographic. Here is an example:

*White Hat:* Write a single article and post it onto your blog. You link twice to 2 different pages on your main website.
*Black Hat:* Write/steal an article and post it into a 5 different article directories and 2 different forums. 

*White Hat:* You reply in someones forum thread about "On-Page SEO" and you link back to an article you wrote on the subject on your blog/website. 
*Black Hat:* You go onto any thread and hide links within periods [.] and you add a single keyword to the end of every reply linking to your website that has nothing to do with the thread topic.

Google has changed their algorithms a lot. This means that websites are penalized for applying black hat SEO. Google wants things to be natural, not forced.

----------


## Norri

I think that, ultimately, the folks who will do the best are those that focus on attracting the right people to their websites, irrespective of their ranking. Those are often the folks that DO rank well in any case.

What I mean by that is buy a link because it will get you targeted visitors from that site, not because of the link's PR.

Write a GREAT article and post it on Article Directories because of the PEOPLE who will read that and come to see more. (And the people who will re-post it on their sites so that other people can read it and come see more).

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Old school tactics, with a slight angle to work online, still seems to be what works best.

----------


## Rod

You are correct Norri but the problem now with the penguin update is that if you have one too many links coming in from dodgy sites, google will un-index you. A lot of sites have been affected from this update and have had to move away from old tactics and employ white hat SEO tactics.

But I understand what you mean. You have a good point.

----------


## Norri

Thanks Rod  :Smile: 

Matt Cutts keeps saying that they don't so much penalise your website as they penalise those links -> making them count for nothing. Which makes you wonder about all the people who were hit: How much value were they adding if they ONLY had links from dodgy sites?

Which brings me back to my belief that, if you're really adding value, you have nothing to fear but work :P Lots and lots of good, honest, strategic work! And by strategic I'm just trying to make sure that everyone understands that I still think Keyword Research is INCREDIBLY important. Rather find 100 easy-to-rank-for, money keywords (people searching for a solution) than 1-5 hard-to-rank-for, if-I-get-this-I'm-made-for-life keywords :P

----------


## Dave A

Right from the outset, I've always believed the key to enduring SEO is to focus on what Google is trying to achieve, not a particular method that happens to work well at any particular time.

For so many years I've seen SEO pieces pumping "at the end of the day, the number of inbound links is king". And they've produced study after study that pretty much proved the point. And to be fair once you had reasonably relevant content, focusing on link building from there on has given the best return on your efforts for many, many years.

Obviously, the problem is link counts can be artificially manipulated. But links were also one of the earliest cornerstones of Google's search relevance indexing strategy for very good reason - it *is* a powerful sign.

It's simplistic to think Google's challenge is separating organic links from artificial ones. If you want "simple", put this in your head above all else:

*Google wants to deliver the page with the information the searcher wants in as few clicks as possible.*
Everything else pales into insignificance by comparison.

What is SEO then? To my mind it is this:
Having relevant content - the information the searcher is looking for.Displaying that content in a format that Google can interpret - including making sure the content is identifiable from "non-content".Building credibility - and that works exactly the same way as it does in "real life."
Do that and you'll have SEO that will stand the test of time.

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all the time.
People aren't stupid. 
Neither is Google.

----------

Mark Atkinson (23-Jun-12), Norri (23-Jun-12), Rod (23-Jun-12)

----------


## Norri

Excellent, excellent post, DaveA!

----------


## Rod

Very well put Dave.

----------


## Ann.J

Rod you made a very informative post. surely White Hat SEO is a more contributing and effective method. one contributes to the other's articles, blogs, forums as well as invite others to look up his own work. No forcing nor cheating like in the Black Hat :Smile:

----------


## Rod

Thank you Ann.J  :Smile:  Exactly! Thats exactly why Google is focusing alot of value on social signals now. They are more relevant and valuable. Takes the lazy SEO's and makes them work for their ranking. We were discussing it the other day here

----------


## jeccyka

I wanna to study SEO, that's good for my work, i think. 

My friend told me SEO is very popular in E-commerce field.

----------


## Rod

> I wanna to study SEO, that's good for my work, i think. 
> 
> My friend told me SEO is very popular in E-commerce field.


Hi jeccyka

Yes, SEO is an important aspect of any online business but can be extremely difficult for ecommerce sites because of their layout.

----------


## petershaw

Nice information shared..... as a part from my side i just got seo as ...........
The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign.
There are two types of seo that i have come to know...
On site seo
Off site seo

----------


## Dave A

> My friend told me SEO is very popular in E-commerce field.


I'd suggest it's absolutely *critical* for an e-commerce site.

----------


## jeccyka

> Hi jeccyka
> 
> Yes, SEO is an important aspect of any online business but can be extremely difficult for ecommerce sites because of their layout.


Hi Rod,

There's so many procedures to arrange for ecommerce  sites. Also, there's no doubt that e-commerce industry has enormous pressure.

----------


## primeoutsourcing

Woah. Nice thread going on here. The post was really something to read, wasn't it?  :Smile:

----------


## BryanCasson

> some of us are not as creative to write our own content and rely on existing content like EZarticles


Google has shown in the new Penguin and Panda updates that they do not like websites like EZarticles. Unfortunately, if you do not want to write original content then you will never really be a source or value to your visitors or Google. 

You can always hire a SEO copywriter for R1 a keyword, I have a few that are very good at making your content original

----------


## BryanCasson

> OK then, What is white hat seo?


I wrote and article a while back around this topic: http://seocowboy.co.za/seo-practice/...ad-boys-in-seo

----------


## BryanCasson

> Nice information shared..... as a part from my side i just got seo as ...........
> The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign.
> There are two types of seo that i have come to know...
> On site seo
> Off site seo


I have a wiki going where you can find out what all the acronyms in the online marketing industry are http://seocowboy.co.za/wiki/index.ph...tegory:Acronym

----------


## kailashseo368

SEO is a technique which helps search engines find and rank your site higher than the millions of other sites in response to a search query.

----------

