Pengertian SEO

Optimisasi mesin pencari bahasa Inggris Search Engine Optimization biasa disingkat SEO) adalah serangkaian proses yang dilakukan secara sistematis yang bertujuan untuk meningkatkan volume dan kualitas trafik kunjungan melalui mesin pencari menuju situs web tertentu dengan memanfaatkan mekanisme kerja atau algoritma mesin pencari tersebut. Tujuan dari SEO adalah menempatkan sebuah situs web pada posisi teratas, atau setidaknya halaman pertama hasil pencarian berdasarkan kata kunci tertentu yang ditargetkan. Secara logis, situs web yang menempati posisi teratas pada hasil pencarian memiliki peluang lebih besar untuk mendapatkan pengunjung.

Sejalan dengan makin berkembangnya pemanfaatan jaringan internet sebagai media bisnis, kebutuhan atas SEO juga semakin meningkat. Berada pada posisi teratas hasil pencarian akan meningkatkan peluang sebuah perusahaan pemasaran berbasis web untuk mendapatkan pelanggan baru. Peluang ini dimanfaatkan sejumlah pihak untuk menawarkan jasa optimisasi mesin pencari bagi perusahaan-perusahaan yang memiliki basis usaha di internet.

Sejarah SEO

Menurut Danny Sullivan, istilah search engine optimization pertama kali digunakan pada 26 Juli tahun 1997 oleh sebuah pesan spam yang diposting di Usenet. Pada masa itu algoritma mesin pencari belum terlalu kompleks sehingga mudah dimanipulasi.

Versi awal algoritma pencarian didasarkan sepenuhnya pada informasi yang disediakan oleh webmaster melalui meta tag pada kode html situs web mereka. Meta tag menyediakan informasi tentang konten yang terkandung pada suatu halaman web dengan serangkaian katakunci (keyword). Sebagian webmaster melakukan manipulasi dengan cara menuliskan katakunci yang tidak sesuai dengan konten situs yang sesungguhnya, sehingga mesin pencari salah menempatkan dan memeringkat situs tersebut. Hal ini menyebabkan hasil pencarian menjadi tidak akurat dan menimbulkan kerugian baik bagi mesin pencari maupun bagi pengguna internet yang mengharapkan informasi yang relevan dan berkualitas.

Larry Page dan Sergey Brin, dua mahasiswa doktoral ilmu komputer Universitas Stanford, berusaha mengatasi permasalahan tersebut dengan membangun Backrub, sebuah mesin pencari sederhana yang mengandalkan perhitungan matematika untuk memeringkat halaman web. Algoritma tersebut, yang dinamakan PageRank, merupakan fungsi matematika yang kompleks berupa kombinasi antara perhitungan jumlah link yang mengarah pada suatu halaman web dengan analisis atas kualitas masing-masing link tersebut.

Berdasarkan prinsip kerja PageRank, secara umum bisa dikatakan bahwa halaman web yang memperoleh peringkat tinggi adalah halaman web yang banyak di-link oleh halaman web lain. Nilai PageRank juga akan semakin tinggi apabila halaman web yang mengarah kepadanya juga memiliki kualitas yang tinggi. Nilai sebuah link dari situs berkualitas tinggi seperti Yahoo! atau DMOZ dapat bernilai lebih tinggi daripada kombinasi nilai link dari seratus situs web berkualitas rendah.

Backrub hanyalah sebuah permulaan. Pada tahun 1998 Page dan Brin mendirikan Google yang merupakan versi tingkat lanjut dari Backrub. Dalam waktu singkat Google memperoleh reputasi dan kepercayaan dari publik pengguna internet karena berhasil menyajikan hasil pencarian yang berkualitas (tidak dimanipulasi), cepat, dan relevan. PageRank lantas menjadi standar baik bagi mesin pencari lain maupun bagi webmaster yang berusaha agar situs webnya memperoleh nilai PageRank setinggi mungkin sehingga menempati posisi tertinggi pada hasil pencarian.

 

Webmaster dan mesin pencari

Sejak tahun 1997 perusahaan mesin pencari menyadari bahwa beberapa webmaster melakukan segala hal untuk dapat terindeks pada urutan teratas hasil pencarian, termasuk dengan cara-cara yang manipulatif dan ilegal. Infoseek, salah satu mesin pencari generasi pertama, melakukan perbaikan pada algortima mereka untuk mencegah manipulasi dengan meta tag yang tidak relevan.

Bagaimanapun, dalam beberapa hal mesin pencari juga menyadari nilai ekonomi yang besar dari peringkat hasil pencarian, dan mereka terkadang memiliki kepentingan terselubung dari aktivitas perusahaan SEO. Beberapa perusahaan mesin pencari mengirim perwakilan atau menjadi tamu pada event-event rutin yang diselenggarakan komunitas SEO.

Mesin pencari besar seperti Google dan Yahoo! menyediakan program dan panduan yang memungkinkan webmaster mengoptimalkan situsnya agar terindeks dengan baik. Google menyediakan aplikasi Webmaster Tool dan memperkenalkan sitemap berbasis XML standar mereka, sedangkan Yahoo! menyediakan program Site Explorer yang memungkinkan webmaster mendaftarkan URL situs, mengecek jumlah halaman web mereka yang telah terindeks di Yahoo!, dan melihat informasi link masuk. Namun demikian mesin pencari tidak mentolerir metode SEO yang manipulatif dan menghalalkan segala cara.

Etika dan legalitas

Sistem PageRank, walau menerapkan algoritma yang kompleks, belakangan juga tidak lagi sepenuhnya mampu menghadapi trik dan manipulasi. Sejumlah webmaster dan praktisi SEO telah mengembangkan beberapa metode yang memanfaatkan cara kerja PageRank agar halaman web klien mereka berada pada peringkat pertama hasil pencarian. Google secara resmi telah melarang penggunaan beberapa teknik ilegal seperti link farming, doorway pages, keyword stuffing, dan auto generated pages atau scraper pages. Situs atau layanan SEO yang tetap menggunakanannya terancam akan dihapus dari indeks pencarian.

Ancaman Google dan mesin pencari lain bukan hanya gertakan. Beberapa perusahaan layanan SEO beserta klien mereka yang tidak mengindahkan larangan tersebut menerima penalti yang serius karena perbuatan ilegal mereka. Pada tahun 2005, Matt Cutts dari Google mengatakan bahwa URL sebuah firma SEO bernama Traffic Power beserta klien-klien mereka telah dihapus dari indeks Google karena menggunakan teknik SEO ilegal. Kasus lain yang terkenal adalah ketika Google pada Februari 2006 menghapus situs web perusahaan BMW dan Ricoh Jerman dari daftar karena terbukti menggunakan metode SEO yang manipulatif. BMW dan Ricoh dengan segera meminta maaf kepada Google dan memperbaiki situs mereka. Google kemudian memasukkan kembali situs web mereka ke dalam indeks pencarian. Namun skandal tersebut tetap meninggalkan citra buruk dan memalukan bagi kedua perusahaan tersebut.

Berdasarkan panduan resmi mesin pencari, SEO bukanlah teknik ilegal sepanjang dilakukan dengan mengikuti etika dan aturan yang ada. Hal tersebut untuk menjamin setiap situs web memperoleh kesempatan yang sama dalam pencarian, dan pemeringkatan dilakukan dengan obyektif, di mana yang paling berperan dalam menentukan peringkat suatu halaman web adalah kualitas dan manfaatnya bagi pengguna internet

sumber: wikipedia

Optimasi Website Anda

Optimize Your Website with These Simple Tips - Think Links

By Greg Newell
As more and more marketing functions move to the web, businesses are at least starting to understand the requirements of ranking for keywords relevant to the business. Most however still don't understand how Google and other search engines determine who gets top placements. The guidelines here will at least put you in position to achieve higher search engine ranks.

For businesses that want to wade into this arena, here are some guidelines that might save you the cost associated with website optimization. Bear in mind that there's no free ride here. Expect to put some time in this effort if you really want to see results.

Consider this a short lesson in "on-page" SEO, things that you can do to your website to improve search engine visibility. This list should be applied to EACH PAGE of your site. (You should measure your results by tracking site rank and monitor your traffic with Google Analytics).

For all pages on your website, you should:
1. Pick a primary keyword phrase that you want the page to rank for (a keyword phrase can be one or more words).

2. Pick a couple of secondary keyword phrases related to the main keyword phrase.

3. Put the primary keyword phrase at the beginning of the list of keywords in your metatags.

4. Include the secondary keyword phrases also in the keyword metatag list.

5. Use the primary keyword phrase in the description metatag. (try to also include the secondary keywords in the description)

Don't load in keyword phrases that you won't be discussing on the page in either the keyword or description metatags. (It doesn't help).

6. Put the primary keyword phrase in the url (if you can). Use underscores to separate words.

7. Put the primary keyword phrase in the Title of the page (this is a biggie!)

8. Use the primary keyword between H1 Header tags in the content area.

9. I usually recommend the content follow a five paragraph essay broken up with graphics etc. Open the page introducing the main keyword phrase and mention the secondary keywords in context (1st paragraph). Each paragraph after this should discuss a secondary keyword and relate it back to the primary keyword. You can highlight sub-paragraphs with H2 or H3 Header tags using the secondary keyword terms to make them stand out. The closing paragraph summarizes the importance of the primary keyword as it relates to secondary keywords (again using those terms in context).

10. Put keywords in alt-text of the images. Use images to break up the text and enhance the content. Keep the images relevant.
Note: Secondary keywords could become primary keywords for sub-pages. In that way, your site is a never-ending work in progress.

NEXT STEP: When you've shored up the content of your site, you should then take a look at your internal linking. Use keyword loaded hyperlinks. For example, if you have an inner page about wedding flowers and find occasion to call attention to that page, hyperlink the words "wedding flowers" to that page. The point being: the words that you use in the hyperlink define what Google thinks the target page is about. Same goes for your home page. Instead of "Home", you should link "Keyword Phrase" (whatever that keyword phrase is) to the home page. One way to do this: Imagine creating an index to your site that enumerates the keywords that you want to rank for and links those keywords to appropriate pages within the site (for example). You can get creative but again keep your link text focused on the keywords that you want to show up for in the search engines. Include a "mini" index of keyword links on a page linking the reader to related pages of content. You can see that this will make it easier for the site visitor to find related information AND it will also send the search engine spiders in a frenzy (in a good way).

Need a mantra? THINK LINKS!

NEXT STEP: That pretty much covers all you can do for your site. Next, pay attention to the in-bound links you have coming to your site. The same rule above applies to those links as well. So first, approach your existing link partners whom you already have inbound links with and ask to redefine the links that they have. You should provide the code to them if they don't know how to do it. Use keyword defined hyperlinks instead of just linking the URL. If you redefined all the links that you had TO your site with your primary keyword phrase instead of your URL, you very likely will see a significant bump in your rank relative to that keyword phrase.

I think once you get this far, you should be seeing significant improvements in your rank. The key to SEO beyond this is finding ways to generate inbound links of this nature.

THINK LINKS!

Most Marketers Forget the Local Directories - Did You?

By Richard Day 
We all need backlinks to our websites.

A backlink is an inbound html code that points to your website. You are probably wondering why you would want a backlink.

I will explain it this way: If you have many websites with one-way links to your website, the search engines interpret this in your favor. You want to make sure that your website is at the "hub of the wheel" so to speak -- all the spokes, or links, are pointing to your website.

Your goal should be that the search engines view your site as an "authority site". If a website provides excellent, interesting articles and other content, and has many readers, that website could be called an "authority site". Websites mention and point to, or refer to, articles and videos on the authority site.

Let's step back a bit and explain links in an example:

If Sally's site links to you, then you have one inbound link. However, if your website links back to Sally's site, the links balance each other out and no one wins - that is called a reciprocal link. Don't look for reciprocal links. You should look for links back to your website from other websites where you don't have to link to them.

Now who is going to do that? Any website marketer who has been around for some time does not want reciprocal links. He wants one-way links to his site.

Sources of Inbound, One-Way Links:

Links from directories - Directories aren't as popular as they once were now that people use search engines to find what they want, but directories still provide free inbound links. All you have to do is apply for them. There are several companies that provide free software. Just search for a directory submitter. There are several to choose from. You will find one that is easy to use and makes submittíng to directories a snap.

Links from articles you write - There is probably no better way to get people to visit your blog than to write good articles. When you write a good article, you need to send that article to a large number of article directories.

They will post your article for free and most of them will allow you to put a couple of self-serving links in the "resource box". The resource box is where you can advertise your website, tell them what they will find, and perhaps send them to your subscription optin page.

As you might guess, sending your articles out to thirty or forty sites can be a daunting task. I would suggest that you do a search for article submitter software.

You may find an article submitter that works very well and saves you hours of valuable time. You type the information into the article submitter once and it will automatically fill it in to the article site. It even keeps track of your username and password for those sites where you have to register.

You should spend the time to find a company that will do this for you. It costs me money every month to submít eight articles to many, many article directories. I think it is worth the money, but if you are just starting out, perhaps the free way is better.

Comment on "dofollow" blogs

Some WordPress blog owners have installed a plugin called "dofollow". This overrides the default of "nofollow" that the blog comes setup as. If the blog has this plugin installed and activated, you will get a backlink to your website when you make a comment on that site. (Most blog owners aren't aware that this may be a reason they don't get as many comments on their articles as they could.)

There is software that I use that finds blogs that have the "dofollow" plugin installed. I look for them and I am more inclined to comment on those blogs because it gets me a backlink.

Search for a blog submitter. It is the software that you use to help find those blogs. Most blog submitters are free too. All you do is type in keywords that refer to your website and it will find blogs that have similar keywords.

Free Directories You *Must* Know About:

Most blog owners and internet marketers have forgotten this one. It is right under their noses, but they haven't lísted their sites in local directories. Here is a short list of local directories that you must do tonight.
• Google Local
• Yellowpages.com
• Yahoo Local
• Yahoo Yellow Pages
• Superpages.com
• Yellowbook.com
• www.your nearest big city.com (ex. Atlanta at a Glance and
• www.big city chamber.org (your Chamber of Commerce)
Even if you don't have a physical address where you accept the public, you can still put your website on these various directories. You don't have to show your physical address, if you don't want it to show.

To Summarize:

Every website marketer needs backlinks. The website marketer's goal should be to grow their site in size to become an authority site in his area of specialty.

It is not difficult to get backlinks, but it is time consuming and laborious. I would suggest that you use software to help you speed up these repetitive tasks. Get free software called directory submitter. Obtain an article submitter product. Use a blog finder to help you comment on blogs that give you a backlink.

Lastly, don't forget the obvious. Use the líst above to get listed in the local directories.