Search Engine Optimization or Web Radar
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- What it means
- How it works
- Is it important to a web page?

by Stu Marks B.F.A. Illinois Institute of Art Schaumburg

Archive; Appropriate Tools Part II

Search Engine Optimization is the be all and end all of web presence. It is the deciding factor of whether you are known as a household word in your community or still as unknown as my Uncle Richard. (Do you know my Uncle Richard? No? See what I mean?)

S.E.O. has developed into such a complex composite of varying and ever changing factors that it is virtually completely safe from being compromised by either mini-hackers who might want to self promote their own twisted cause, or by corporate entities who might attempt to more subtly tweak the system to serve their own profits.

In my opinion, even Bill Gates is free from suspicion as any attempt at “cheating” would be noticed by too many people who would be all too glad to find something to blab about Bill Gates.

S.E.O. operates by an ever changing criteria of factors that rate and judge every web page in the world by an automatic set of factors managed by a small number of computer programs, mostly located in three separate geographic locations in the US, and soon to be globally. Each web page is prejudged so that when an individual calls upon Google or some other search engine to look for information on any topic, the search engines can deliver the right stuff to the seeker, oriented in order of significance to the search words entered by the searcher.

Some, but not all of the various criteria are listed below;
- date last entered or edited
- number of other like searchers reading this page recently
- current event significance; i.e. what has appeared in posted news papers or TV articles that reflects your search criteria is a valid current event issue?
- spelling and grammar issues; i.e., did you spell a word close to a top rated issue?

In order to post something of significant value to other’s searches on the Internet, one must be able to fill the general public’s needs in one or more areas of expertise. If your post does not really fill a need, then your efforts to make the post S.E.O. relevant is largely useless in the long term. One might be able to properly word something to temporarily fool the all mighty S.E.O. oracles, but I haven’t seen it done in several years. I’m not even sure if it’s possible any more.

If you are selling a really cool new product that is a tool for cleaning tooth brushes, there is really no way to make your new product show up on people’s searches unless they are asking for information about that tool. That is the way the old S.E.O.s used to work. In today’s advanced world of big market shares being decided by the likes of Google, any business can post anything and get it to the top of the search engine results pages in minutes, and have it stay there; for a price.

If you hire the right company to properly format your web page to market tooth brush cleaners, that company should use the key words that include your pages in searches for like products. So, if an individual searches for anything to do with tooth brushes, water picks, floss, cavities, braces, dental hygiene etc; they will also get your pages on cleaning of a tooth brush. But, your pages would only show up very high on the list because they appear in the advertised section at the top of the page.

Because tooth brush cleaner is virtually a new concept (unless you’re talking about UV anti-bacterial cleaners), nothing comes up “naturally”, because no one is asking about it; unless they specifically typed in “toothbrush cleaner”. Only then would it show up high but even then not at the top of the list, because UV anti-bacterial Dental Cleaning Lights and Systems are coming up at the top of the list right now. Probably because up to now they largely used by professionals and anal retentives at home who just have to kill their dental bacteria between brushings.

Until President Obama announces from his bully pulpit that “I am sending every home in America a toothbrush cleaner as part of the stimulus package…”, then, over night, your little project would become a tremendous success on the search engines because all of a sudden you would have a million searches a day for those key words that best represent your product. You’d also be investigated for ties to the Democratic Party or Chicago politics to figure out how you positioned yourself so well just before such an announcement. Remember Joe the Plumber?

By now you should be getting an idea of how S.E.O. works. Technically there are some areas that your web page builder needs to properly fill out with the appropriate words in order for your pages to become relevant. Your web builder would also need to buy some space in the Google and other major search engines that quickly introduces your new pages into the blogosphere. This will jump start your pages to the front of the line depending on what your competition is doing. It won’t keep you there. That takes constant management in most cases.

S.E.O. is for the one who is in an industry for the long haul. Applied properly it will certainly add to any business over the long term. Generally speaking, a short term use of S.E.O. is not for general consumption and is only for very specific applications, such as political agendas.

Who should have a web site?
Considering this from a commercial point of view, it is my opinion that any business can benefit from a web presence. There might be a specific set of circumstances that trumps my opinion, but I haven’t thought of it yet. If you think of it, then email me at stu@stumarks.com. If valid, I’ll share it with everyone in my next article.

Next article; What About Blogging?