Description: Every company wants to be the first listing in a Google search. Some spend thousands of dollars making sure their websites are search accessible. This process is called search engine optimization (SEO). It’s certainly legal and quite common.
Source: USAToday .com.
Date: Sept 16, 2011
Big problems arise when you employ illegal tactics, often referred to as “black hat SEO.” It’s usually masterminded by outside firms to lift your company to the top of the search results.
J.C. Penney was on the receiving end of a lot of bad publicity earlier this year when they were accused of black hat SEO. It wasn’t Google that exposed the alleged scheme but the New York Times, following an investigation.
How had JCPenney.com been able to show up as No. 1 in organic search rankings — meaning those that occur naturally — for hundreds of items ranging from dishes to dresses?
Questions for discussion:
- How can you optimize your position in Google search?
- What are the benefits of employing a SEO strategy for an organization?
Meagan
To optimize your position in Google search you must first have your site in Google’s index and then follow the steps required. The first of these steps is that your information is looked at by googlebot which will analyze the information of your site. This brings up two key thoughts. The first of which is your information. Googlebot does not development pictures so if this is what your whole site is composed of then it will not be seen. Next you need to link other sites to you because googlebot finds other sites to index. This will add your site to Google but it will not put it at the top. To bring your site to the top you must have a Google account where you can access tools like crawl error page which shows you the unclear information that googlebot didn’t find. There is also sitemap that goes over your whole site. Another tool is one that recognizes keywords and your information that might not correspond with what you thought. Knowing this you can make necessary changes. There is also a free program called Google analytics which shows you what parts of your site are the most visited. Use this to fix your information and SEO ideas. Lastly if this does not work then you can simply buy advertising from Google to ensure that your site is at the top of the page.
IveS
Search engine optimization gives companies big possible opportunities to be known by many more customers. By making their information available to the public, companies can create links with potential buyers. It is important for organizations to take advantage of the facilities offered by search engines like Google which not always need to get paid big amounts to do the promotion work.
To optimize its position in Google search an organization has to make sure they are listed in Google’s index. One of Google’s tools, Googlebot, scans and analyses web pages. However, for this tool to work, the information displayed in the web page has to be clear and not based on images because images can’t be processed by it. Also, Googlebot will work better if credible sites link to the organization’s webpage. When the website is well-designed and appropriate links exist it will be added into a Google search. This doesn’t guarantee top spots though, and to change this, Google offers tools which are accessed using a Google account. These tools help identify weak features on the web pages and give information regarding popular areas in them. Information can then be translated into improved SEO strategies.
If none of those tools work to make to organization’s web page more visible to people, advertising from Google can always be bought. The organization has to agree with Google’s guidelines because if dishonest actions are made it could result in the company not having access to a SEO advantage with Google anymore.
Jason
In a world that’s increasingly driven by technology, the need for search engines on part of the consumer is immense. It is the easiest way for us to filter through the world wide web to locate everything we need with only a few keys typed.
The importance of appearing on a search engine becomes doubly important for business as well, especially those businesses that offer online transactions. If a company doesn’t employ SEO strategies to launch themselves as high on the radar as possible they’re taking money out of their own pockets. Most of the time consumers type what they want, find the first two or three sites that offer it, and make their purchase. If your company doesn’t appear on the first page it won’t even enter in to consideration.
Because of the technology revolution it has become paramount for businesses to put as much time and effort in to they online business as well as they brick and mortar locations. If they don’t do this, then they will be left behind.
Jillian Kruschell
In today’s business world, it is almost safe to say that the extent of your internet presence can determine the extent of your company’s success. To Google has become a verb (in spanish they say googlear) and is something we do anytime we are looking for information on just about anything. Personally, when I google someone I am most likely to trust the links that appear first. I will rarely go more than a few pages into my search results even when hundreds of pages are returned. A company’s ability to be one of the first companies to appear when a user searches for their field of work can result in significantly increased visits to their site and in turn in significantly increased profits. A failure to do so can make you obsolete in your field. If I was searching for Hotels in Los Angeles I would be way more likely to pick one that came up on the first page. I would never book at room at a hotel that came up on page 15. You don’t even have to say specifically why you wouldn’t, it is just something we know not to do. Pages that don’t have SEO are seen as less legitimate. SEO is becoming an increasingly important success factor for business daily.
Aleigha Hopkins
There are huge benefits for any company that is willing to employ a legitimate SEO strategy. “Google it” has become a catch phrase for any question asked with an unknown answer. This new term speaks to the increasingly technological nature of our society. By utilizing an effective SEO strategy, companies are likely to increase profit shares, customer bases, and bottom lines. There are huge payoffs for being a top listing in a Google search (as listed above). However, failing to come up in the first couple of listing, let alone the first page, can be detrimental to a business that relies on Google searches to bring in new customers. I personally cannot remember the last time I looked at the second page of a Google search. If I do not see what I am looking for in the first five or so links, I refine my search and run it again. Therefore, to me at least, and to many other people I am willing to bet, company pages that come up on the second, third, etc. pages of a Google search are as good as obsolete. Therefore it is a very good idea to employ the techniques suggested by the article (pay for top billing, apply at their website, take advantage of the Googlebot, etc.) and get your company in the top results of a search yielding 245,942 results.
Jake Thorogood
Optimizing a website to receive top Google search rankings has become big business for many companies in an emerging e-marketplace. As “Google” has become synonymous with internet searches, the importance of receiving a high ranking on search results can mean significant differences in website traffic, which often affects company revenues. In order to optimize these results it is a necessity to use every tool Google has provided for analyzing website traffic and search result generation. In addition, Google optimizes search results based on “link-backs”; other websites that link to your own. The more of these that exist, the higher ranking you are likely to receive on standard Google searches. Advertising your website online is also helpful, as the more traffic your website receives, the more likely you are to have people link to you.
In the event that a website is still unable to achieve a high enough ranking on searches, Google provides paid advertisements. This allows companies to spend money to have their results appear at the top of the list for a period of time. In order to effectively make use of this model, companies should use their paid time to generate as much traffic and link-backs as possible in order to receive a higher position on the search results after the paid promotion is over. In this manner, short paid expenditures can be used to generate longer-term positive results via Google’s search algorithms.
Raj Clair
There are quite a few benefits of employing SEO by an organisation.
Usually is by far the best return on investment compared to any other type of marketing campaign. You don’t have to pay for each visitor and top positions for competitive keywords could bring in extra tens of thousands of hits regularly. There are also a lot more people searching randomly through Google for what they are looking for, then those that click paid advertisement s or links that pop up.
Lastly high Google rankings tend to somehow gain websites more credibility. If you rank higher on Google, users tend to think you have a better product as service as people seem to naturally trust Google. People seem to trust the first business that comes up over one on the 3rd page of the search results, and this is why companies are always fighting to be at the top of searches.
Hassan
To optimize your position in Google search, has became a goal for most organizations due to the fact that it would gain more creditability from users whom involved or interested in their website contents. In addition, with the largely growing rate of using online sources to learn, to obtain services or to buy products, organization should consider their position within the internet is obvious and recognizable.
First of all, in order to optimize you position in Google search, your site should be listed in Google’s index by adding its URL and following the rest of the procedure to finalize it. Where Google index has the entire registered site’s contents and links therefore when there is any search had been run, Google would relate to similar information from the index by keywords. Gogglebot is the program which gathers and analyses the content in the index. However, Googlebot can only read text and links; therefore, your site should contain all your important information in text rather than images. Also, you should provide links of other website on your site and get other sites to have your site linked so you could gain more creditability. There are also different tools that can enhance your optimization which are free of charge while you have a Gmail account such as Crawl error page which enables you to know what aspects of your site that Googlebot can’t read. And many other tools that add value to your site it terms of optimization.
Bubba_3
How to optimize your companies your position in the Google search engine? This is a good question that most business people would like to know, as Google is a multi-billion-dollar company and the most common search engine in the world. One way that Google’s search engine works is, the top searches are place in a rank. With this ranking system the most creditable sites or well-known site if they have some like there they use it as a scoring table. For example if I have and website and I sell furniture, and my ad is in a well known site, such as Times or yahoo then my company will have a higher rank then if it was just on a average site. So with this ranking will put me on a higher level then my competitors.
Some benefits of hiring a SEO (search engine optimization) will that I know my business will be easy to access and that my customers or future customers will know where to find me. Also what it could do is make my business more a global business instead of being a smaller corporation. But on the other hand you have to look at weather your getting a return on the investment on hiring a SEO. You could do all the work in hiring a good team, but if your continuing losing money on this then there is no benefit to it.
Jordan Alexander
Hi group member
Jordan Alexander
employiong an SEO as a large organization is crucial in todays e based world. If you are running an international organization SEO allows citizens and business partners from other borders access your information and learn more about your company. If your in the retail indusry a large portion of your martket share could as well be from googles search engine, as many click on the first few results only. I agree with raj claire as well, that high ranking google searches appear more credible and subliminally seem as f they have earned their ranks!
THANKSSSSSSSS
Hassan Al Sarrar
To optimize your position in Google search has became a goal for most organizations due to the fact that it would gain more creditability from users whom involved or interested in their website contents. In addition, with the largely growing rate of using online sources to learn, to obtain
services or to buy products, organization should consider their position within the internet is obvious and recognizable.
First of all, in order to optimize you position in Google search, your
site should be listed in Google’s index by adding its URL and following
the rest of the procedure to finalize it. Where Google index has the
entire registered site’s contents and links therefore when there is any
search had been run, Google would relate to similar information from the
index by keywords. Gogglebot is the program which gathers and analyses the
content in the index. However, Googlebot can only read text and links;
therefore, your site should contain all your important information in text
rather than images. Also, you should provide links of other website on
your site and get other sites to have your site linked so you could gain
more creditability. There are also different tools that can enhance your
optimization which are free of charge while you have a Gmail account such
as Crawl error page which enables you to know what aspects of your site
that Googlebot can’t read. And many other tools that add value to your
site it terms of optimization
Jenny Tashiro
There are many benefits for employing a SEO strategy to your organization. The first is obviously profit if you are a retail store. The better your SEO strategy, the more times you will appear closer to the top of google and therefore people will go to that site first and most likely find something that they want to purchase from that company. Second, is advertisement. The better your SEO strategy, the more times the company will appear within a search and with the more times a person sees it, the more it sticks in ones mind. I know for myself, when I google a topic, I usually click on the first couple of links and don’t search much farther than that because usually they have what I am looking for and either make a purchase through them, or remember them for when I need it next even if its not a retail site. The third benefit for employing a SEO strategy for your organization is that you get to know what is in demand. If you are getting a good amount of people going to your site from google, you can get a better picture of what customers are looking for and their needs that want met. Having a good strategy for your organization allows you to get better research into what people want and what they are searching for so you can improve to accommodate those interests.
Breanne Marton
Search Engine Optimization can be a huge benefit to your company if you are among the top rankers. By doing this you are almost always guaranteed that people will see your site. And as I’m sure we all know you’re more likely to click on one of the first few links than on any of the subsequent ones unless you really can’t find what you’re looking for. In my opinion most people disregard the further down links because you automatically assume that the first links are the ones that are of importance and value. The farther down you go in the links the more disconnected for your individual search they become. By having your link first you are guaranteed to lose these prejudices as people assume that your link is the best one to look at and most relevant. Even if this is a false belief and your sight is not really what your online client was looking for, chances are they will take the time to surf through your site regardless simply because it’s there. As such you have a better chance of making a sale to that person whether they intentionally were looking at your site or not. Based on these assumptions, your company will likely be more profitable If you engage in SEO.
Kelsey Heather
To get onto a Google search, your first step is to register your site in to Google’s index, which has several steps you must complete. Google search is based on keywords, and a Googlebot will analyze the text information within in your site. It will not, however, be able to analyze pictures, so it is important for your site to contain plenty of information within the text so that Googlebot has more information to work with. Google offers tools that can help you to gain headway on your rise to the top of the search list, all you have to do is to create a free Google account and you will have access to all of these different tools.
The benefits of an SEO, is that they do all the work for you in assuring that your website has a spot at the top of list on hundreds of different Google searches. Many companies already spend thousands of dollars on outside companies that specialize in SEO tactics. If you don’t have the money to spend on SEO’s, Google’s tools will provide a great way for you to make the climb to the top. You also have the option to buy advertising from Google, which will put your site in the Sponsored links area at the top of any Google search.
moire
Search Engine Optimization on Google begins with being on Google’s index. Indexing can be completed at http://www.google.com/adduri. Indexing is done through the use of a website’s text content and links. Googlebot, a program used to gather information for indexing by Google, scans web pages to analyze its text and link content. The text and link information gathered from Googlebot is used to index the web site. The more keywords that Googlebot finds through the text and links on the web page the more the web page will come up on Google searches.
Having all of the important information about your website in text and having both links on a website and to other websites will get you on Google’s searches. Placement in on the search pages is done through using the web site tools that Google has. These tools are accessed through a free Google account. Once you have a Google account you can see what Googlebot read on the website and compare it to what you wanted it to read. You can submit a sitemap of your webpage which summarizes the website and improves the webpage’s search scope.
If the website is still not ranked where you want it to be, then it is time to pull out the money and buy advertising from Google. Your website will then appear at the top of the sponsored links area on the search page.
Yanmei Sun
To optimize your position in Google search, the first step is to make sure that your site is in Google’s index.At the same time, you need to consider two important things, the first one is how your website displays information, and the second one is the establishment of external links which is also a crucial factor.Good site design and linking will get you into a Google search.Good website displays information can promote the web bits.A good news is that Google has a collection of web site tools to help improve things, tells you what parts of your site Googlebot couldn’t read,identifies keywords associated with your site which can help you determine what changes you may need to make to your site.Moreover,Google Analytics which is a free program will help you see what areas on your website are the most popular and where traffic originates.
Today, search engine optimization consultation is the best-known online business market service.A SEO strategy expert will offer comprehensive service backed up by rich years of experience in the industry. Also, Activities like article and blog submissions can go a long way in creating awareness of your corporate identity and increasing your web visibility. Furthermore, it can save advertising investment costs and platform maintenance costs.
Kelsey K
Search engines are a huge part of marketing a business and displaying information to the public eye. Because search engines have become so insanely large and display mass amounts of information it is important and creditable to appear at the top of the list of searched items. Consumers and users use search engines as convenience (at least I do) and usually pick the first one or two options that appear after searching (at least I do-again.) It is important to understand that the just because it appears at the top doesn’t mean it’s the most relevant to the search being conducted. All in all, improving the sites SEO is very important and can result in huge benefits, especially in an society that is increasingly relying on the internet and search engines for information and ideas.
brett pudwell
In China, the government monitors the internet and only certain search engines were allowed to operate. A few years back there was a large problem when the main search engine was accused of taking what was essentially bribes to raise companies up in their search results. I find it funny that google, the most major search engine in Canada and the United States now offers tools for companies to do this legally. It is tantamount for a company to show up high on a google search results page. I myself hardly ever go past the third or fourth website down and never off the first page. I catch myself wondering why if a website is important to what I am searching, it is not the top or second website listed. Companies should be paying very close attention to SEO and coming up with strategies on how to increase theirs. With the vast amount of information available on the web today and the exponential number of companies offering the same services and products, finding the best one is next to impossible. Search engines such as google are the main tool used by the general public in order to find what they are seeking. By increasing SEO companies are increasing the chances that a consumer will pick their website out of the thousands of other websites available. This seems like the best way to differentiate a company from its competitors and provide it with a major competitive advantage.
Kristin Schneider
There are many ways to optimize your position in the Google search. Here is just a few tips to get you to the top of the list. The first step is to make sure your site is on the Google index. You simply log in here using your gmail account. This is free, and it improves your site’s visibility in Google search results. Once you enter your site here, Google goes through it and finds each sites content, which is distilled into keywords which are used to find relevant sites; and also links. All of this index information is gathered by what is called a Googlebot. This program scans web pages and analyzes content. The downfall to this, is it only scans text, so any pictures you may have, it will not see. Googlebot also uses links, so adding links to other sites of good, but getting sites to link to you is better. If your still not at the top after all of this, Google has a collection of web site tools to help, including; a Crawl error page telling you what parts of your site Googlebot can’t read; you can submit a sitemap summarizing your site; and also Google Analytics which generates reports telling you what parts of your site are more popular, and where the traffic originates. The last option is to buy advertising from Google so your site appears at the top under sponsored links.
Ivette
1)In reference to the Wiley IS Weekly Update article “How to increase your search engine optimization”, when illegal practices are employed in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the big problems that arise are usually referred to as:
a.SEO illegalities
b.White hat SEO
c.SEO deficiencies
d.Black hat SEO
Answer: d
2)In reference to the Wiley IS Weekly Update article “How to increase your search engine optimization”, a Crawl error page:
a.Means that the keywords entered are not valid
b.Tells you what parts of your site Googlebot couldn’t read
c.Means that your website cannot be summarized
d.Is not a common error
Answer:b
Jenn L
1) In reference to the Wiley IS Weekly Update article “How to increase your search engine optimization”, JCPenny was able to show up as No.1 on organic searches by ____________
1. using “black hat SEO”
2. using “purple hat SE0”
3. paying Google executive
4. being popular
Answer: 1
2) In reference to the Wiley IS Weekly Update article “How to increase your search engine optimization”, what is the name of the program designed by Google that allows companies to generates reports that will help them see what areas on their website are the most popular and where the traffic originates?
1. Google Report
2. Google Analyzer
3. Google Analytics
4. Google Tracker
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