Factors That Influence SEO

SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization is the art or science of obtaining top spots in search engines for keywords that are relevant for the particular page we aim to rank.

As no search engine would disclose exactly how their ranking algorithms work, SEO can't promise certain positions in SERPs, therefore a specialist that claims to know the secret of becoming number one, is probably only a fraud and should be tackled with great care.

However, SEO is not a blind endeavor, either. There are guidelines published by search engines for web developers and webmasters, guidelines which may contribute to your website's pages send good relevancy signals to search engine robots, thus determining them to include them in their top ranked results for those particular keywords.

One of the factors that influence SEO is the number of links a page has from other relevant and authoritative pages within the same niche. If several very high authority sites in a particular niche quote and link to a certain page, search engines will identify that page as being also a resource worth to be mentioned in relationship with a certain topic, thus promoting it in the list of results for searches related to that topic.

Another factor that will send signals of relevancy to search engines is the presence of the keyword or keyphrase in the text of the page itself. This should be approached with great care by SEO specialists, because over optimization may attract penalties, therefore instead of ranking high, the page won't be found anywhere close to the top for the particular keyword it has been over optimized for. Experience has shown that the title of the page is the most important place where the keyword should appear. Some SEO professionals say it's best the title starts with the keyword, but others say it's best that the title just makes good sense for humans.

Another influence factor is the presence in social media of a certain page. Social media used to be ignored by search engines until the latest years, when Facebook and Twitter became so big, that it didn't make sense to ignore such signals anymore. It's logical to think that if a page has millions of likes, shares or twitter mentions, it has to be something good about it. Search engines followed this trend, so today no respectable SEO professional can afford to leave social media out of their SEO plans.

The Google Authorship markup is also believed to influence SEO, not directly perhaps, but because people are more inclined to click on photos, therefore showing the author's photo next to the page description will lead to an increased click rate. It is also possible that in the future, this signal to be used in the ranking algorithm as well. Matt Cutts stated that if an authority in a field posts something on a low authority website, that page deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, regardless the reputation of the site itself.

These are all things to reflect on when developing an SEO plan for your website.