What is Search Engine Optimization?

24 January 2008 - By Ahson Rafiq - Filled in SEO, Webmaster

I was listening to Shoemoney’s new webmaster.fm session with Danny Sullivan and i thought this might be a good post, defining Search Engine Optimzation.

First of all i’d like to clarify i’m a full time seo for myself like i always say “practice seo don’t sell it” because most people just end up screwing up other people’s site like Traffic Power, I like to experiment with SEO (white or black ) and post whatever results i get on this blog for everyone to read.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

SEO is basically tweaking your site so that its more se friendly and you get listed in search engines faster and at a higher rank, which is called on-site SEO but that expanded to off-site seo where you buy links to improve your search engine rankings but the true essence of SEO lies in on-site seo where all you need is good quality content whether you have meta tags or not it will be listed in search engines faster and at a good rank as well.

Some people think of off-site seo as the only true form of seo but that is not correct, if you build links for a site without having good content or proper content management then you won’t get anything out of any search engine out there, everything has to be balanced in order for you to get the most results, isn’t that what seo was meant for in the first place? - Optimizing your site to its MAXIMUM potential?

SEO includes these..

URL structure
Meta tags
Dup-Content Management
Taking care of 404s
Setting up 301s
Buying/Selling links - yea it does fall in here..
Content generation
Search Engine Ad Campaigns

SEO DOES-NOT includes these..

Link Bait
Marketing Pitches
Sales Pages
Blogging Tactics
Social Media Marketing

Who are SEOs?

SEOs are people who practice SEO to make it really simple once again people take things a little too far, these days people tend to learn borderline basic SEO on day1 and on day3 they are selling their so called “SEO Services”. A simple fact is that a good SEO earns enough on his own that he won’t be looking for a job anyway and even if he/she or them were up for hire their fee would be a really huge chunk like SEOmoz :

They are doing really great with their blog, along with their serps and their authority on their OWN SITE why wouldn’t anyone hire them?
If a SEO can’t even do good on his/her or their own site why would anyone else hire them?

How many SEOs are there?

As far as i know just about everyone today calls themselves a SEO, since there is no real qualification test for it, just about anyone can call themselves a SEO and start hustling people. Hence 95% of the SEOs are slimy..

785CommentsWhat+is+Search+Engine+Optimization%3F2008-01-24+10%3A42%3A14Ahson+Rafiq to “What is Search Engine Optimization?”

Matt Ridout Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I would say there are less “slimy” seo’s around today then there were 4-5 years ago. There are more blogs and resources out there, such as seomoz to help educate people!
Ahson Rafiq Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Well i don’t agree there, i’d say there are more slimy seos today then there were 4-5 years ago because back then no one really cared for seo now they know it pays well so every other day a new seo is born, kinda takes the fun outta it
Matt Ridout Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Well there has been seo for over 10 years and people have “cared” for it and spent a lot for a long time! Prices are more reasonable now, with more work being done to websites in terms of design and maintenance rather than just hitting a “submit” button and creating Meta data. Of course you should look at results from “trusted” seo companies that rank well themselves for most seo terms.

I also disagree about what you consider “not” to be seo. I think there is a definitive merge between Social media optimization and search engine optimization happening. Although it is off-site optimization there are relationships.
Ahson Rafiq Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
The fact that “people spend alot on seo” is the reason the number seos today is more then ever (this includes people who call themselves seo for no darn reason). What i did was outline the very basics of SEO, things that people can do themselves rather then paying a 6 figure amount to “seo companies”.

The “nots” consist of all the marketing/promotion based tactics i use to drive traffic usually while you’re doing Social Media Optimization, they bookmark pages on those sites rank higher for your keyword then your site, so all you really get from that is traffic, i do-not consider that onsite or offsite seo by any standards.
Matt Ridout Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Your first point makes no sense in reply to what I said. People are more aware of seo “slimers” by posts like this one. The cost for good seo companies includes much more work and better long term results. I doubt anyone would pay a 6 figure number to be told what you have just said though

If you don’t think SEM is not going to effect SEO then im afraid you may get left behind.

Anyway my posts were not criticisms for your post but on the subject as a whole, take it how you will
Ahson Rafiq Says:
January 24th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Well i’m afraid you didn’t quite get what i meant back there, ah well..

As for the 6 figure seo companies, after all the linkbuilding and content management it all boils down to the very basics on-site seo. I am not speaking from “results” from “trusted” seo companies im speaking out of my own experiments with seo.

As for your last point, SEO and SEM have their own elements some do effect each other but mostly you are either ranking better or getting more traffic from those. The only time i go for SMO is when i need more traffic and i have seen great results for it.

I really don’t care what other people think to be honest, i blog about the facts that have proven profitable for me. hehe ;p

Thanks for the comments though, much appreciated. I like it when people add their 2c to the topic at hand, makes me aware of the view from the otherside.
You have a nice blog by the way.
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mikego Says:
February 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
SEO is the most important process if you want to earn money in the web. If you have done great SEO to your site then you will rank highly in SERPs where the real money is.
Bobba Says:
February 12th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I run a forum (IPB1.3.1 Final with lots of security patches) and I don’t think its url is Search Engine friendly (?showtopic=123).
Why do certain URLs become Search Engine Friendly compared to others?
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March 16th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
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thinkingSeo Says:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:02 am
Well written and and got some very good points regarding SEO