Search engine optimization

Web Science

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the online visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results—often referred to as "natural", "organic", or "earned" results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a website appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users; these visitors can then be converted into customers.

How to ethically improve SEO

According to Google, these specific strategies are a good place to start SEO:<ref>

• Create unique, accurate page titles
• Make use of the "description" meta tag
• Improve the structure of your URLs
• Make your site easier to navigate
• Offer quality content and services
• Write better anchor text
• Optimize your use of images
• Use heading tags appropriately
• Make effective use of robots.txt
• Be aware of rel="nofollow" for links
• Notify Google of mobile sites
• Guide mobile users accurately
• Promote your website in the right way

White hats and black hats

In general terms:

• when you see white hat you should think "ethical, legal, in line with terms of service"
• when you see black hat you should think "unethical, illegal, not in line with terms of service".
• when you see grey hat you should think "skirting along the boundary of white hat and black hat".

Standards

• Discuss the use of white hat and black hat search engine optimization.

See Also

Media:Search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Give a sequence of brief answers with no explanation.

Apply knowledge or rules to put theory into practice.

Offer a considered and balanced review that includes a range of arguments, factors or hypotheses. Opinions or conclusions should be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.