Search engine optimisation

A series of technical processes webmasters undertake to achieve good rankings in search engines, by making their web pages friendly to the web crawlers used by search engines. This constantly evolving set of methods is aimed at improving the rankings by responding to the changing needs of the web crawlers used by Google and other search engines. The term also refers to an industry of consultants that carry out optimisation projects on behalf of clients' sites. If search engine optimisation is done using deceptive techniques (which is not always the case), it is called spamdexing. Using search engines, visitors can find sites in a variety of ways: via paid-for advertisements in the search engine results pages (SERPs), via third parties who are listed in the search engines, or via "organic" listings, i.e. the results the search engines present users. SEO is primarily concerned with improving the visibility of a site in the organic search results.

Links:

• Digital Strategy Consulting for reports and best practice on search engine advertising and marketing.