A website which has been Search Engine Optimized, simply means that the website has been designed and coded in a way that most search engines can find and catalog a website's content.

Many website owners think that it is possible to "optimize" or somehow manipulate a website so that all search engines will push their website to the top of search engine results.

Common SEO Misconceptions

• Any website can be made to come up first in results
• Search engines naturally find your website
• Website content does not matter
• All search engines work the same

Any Website Can be Made to Come up First in Results

While there are many SEO "consultants" and specialists who promise number one positioning, the reality is that there may be dozens of keywords associated with your website and you have no control over over what someone will type into a search query.

Also, search engines differ in how they categorize a website and determine what website deserves a higher ranking over another.

That being said, many websites simply fail to be pro-active and typically disregard basic SEO strategies—either by lack of knowledge, or the website was created many years ago, and hasn't kept up with current SEO practices.

Search Engines Naturally Find Your Website

While it is true that Google is great at finding new websites and adding them to their database, sometimes how a website is structured can prevent a search engine from finding anythng beyond the home page.

Some search engines have to first be pointed to your website and many now use website sitemaps and other website files to find all your website pages.

Website Content Does Not Matter

Before Google, meta tags ruled and almost any website which followed the various search engine rules of the time could easily get higher search rankings.

With Google, your actual content is rated including the number of pages you have, how much of your website content is relevant, who you are linked to, and who in turn has linked to your website. Google rewards websites that offer lots of relevant content and have links in and out of your website.

Websites which have a handful of pages and just focus on typical company information typically will not come up high in Google search results using general keywords or phrases, but may be fine for more specific search terms such as your company name.

All Search Engines Work The Same

If this were true, then the same phrase should produce identical search results for Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. Every search engine has different ways of determining what search results will displayed for any given keyword or phrase.

Making a website Search Engine Optimized so that it will appear at the top of search results on the top search engines for the same keywords is impossible. It is possible, however, to try and build your website to encompass as may of the different search engine requirements as possible, so your website has a better chance of working with a particular search engine.

Additional Articles

Our SEO - Search Engine Optimization category offers several articles about different approaches in SEO and how to go about making your website more "search engine friendly".

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