When it comes to the success of a website, search engine standards and practices are parts of many factors that will increase search engine rankings. The most common search engine practices are on-site optimization, keyword researching, and building backlinks. There are thousands of ways to practice search engine optimization to improve your site. Search engine standards are the relationship made between the website and the search engine. This relationship benefits both sides as the search engine receives permission from the website to gather data from the website and the website receives referral traffic from the engine. The relationship between website and search engine is tenuous at best and often breach each other’s contracts. When it comes to search engine optimization there are three main players. There are the clients who are the owners of the website, the search engine, and the search engine optimization firms.
There is a lack of formal definition of what search engine optimization is and everyone that works in the industry has their own idea and definition. The lack of industry standards for search engine optimization reduces the credibility of many people who work in the industry. There are search engine models created in the past but faltered by web marketers as they had no interest in forming standards groups. This is also difficult for a university to teach courses on search engine optimization as to the lack of standards. There are colleges and universities offer classes on search engine optimization but are designed and marketed by companies to push for search engine optimization standard. These are general guidelines for search engine optimization but not always accepted.
1. Keywords should be applicable and stay parallel to the rest of the body content.
2. Keywords should be accepted by search engine optimization.
3. Keywords should not use too many times within a page.
4. For the use of redirection technology, it should be for the improvement of the user experience. This can be a problem as it is considered a trick and could be removed from the index.
5. If redirection technology is used, then the body contained within the page must not contain clickbait or any inappropriate content.
6. If redirection technology is used, then it must not make changes to the URL and should not create a loop.
7. When creating pages, it should not be sent to the search engines often.
A search engine must contain at least some standards from the Robots Exclusion Standard. This should be the standard but not always the case. When adding or revising content it should mainly be done to improve user experience, but this can be subjective and must be interpreted carefully. Google’s guidelines name Search Quality Evaluator gives is a great document for providing examples for a website’s high and low web contents.
Co-founder Custom Design Partners
Alexander Hatala is the co-Founder at Custom Design Partners. He specializes in e-Commerce operations, performance marketing strategies, and behavioral analytics.