Understanding SEO in Layman’s Terms

Have you ever tried to explain SEO to someone who doesn’t know as much about it as you? People are genuinely interested but it can be an overwhelming topic for most people.

SEO is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. Firms that practice SEO can vary; some have a highly specialized focus, while others take a broader general approach.

Optimizing a web site for search engines can require looking at so many unique elements that many practitioners of SEO consider themselves to be in the broad field of website optimization (since so many of those elements intertwine).

Human eyes see and judge the visual page. Usability is the art of making what people see and interact with user friendly.

SEO is like usability for spiders. Search engines use programs called spiders to “see” and judge web pages.

Spiders can’t see the visual page. They rely on what can be seen or inferred from what you see in a page’s source code.

Spiders count up different kinds of information from a page, categorize it, and store it on a search engine’s server, so that when someone searches for related information that page can be found and put in search results.

Search engines use very complicated math to judge what sites should appear in search results and what sites get to be on the first page where customers are more likely to see and click on the result. These mathematical algorithms are like trade secrets that are constantly readjusted, in an effort to reward quality sites and devalue “tricks” like spam.

Then, go into a few simple points of on and off-site factors, especially using concrete language, having *relevant* incoming links and offering fresh content that reads like *quality* to human eyeballs.

Here is a list of common acronyms used in computer technology:
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) is the method that your web browser uses to talk to a web server. When you type a URL into your web browser, it sends a message to a web server in order to retrieve the elements for the site you want to view.
The message to the server and the information sent back to your web browser are relayed using HTTP.HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer)is a secure method your web browser uses to talk to a web server. When you arrive at a page where the URL begins with HTTPS, it means the information from your web browser that is being sent to the web server is encrypted before it is sent.

In this way the information is secure. Any time you make an online purchase, before entering your credit card information look at the URL to make sure it has the HTTPS.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address for a website (i.e. resource) on the Internet.

It tells your web browser how to find the information you are seeking from a specific set of files on a specific server.

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address); every server connected to the internet has an IP address assigned to it. It’s usually broken up into 4 segments separated Viagra Professional by periods (22.101.112.01). It’s like the servers’ phone number which the entire Internet calls up every time they are trying to reach cialis soft tabs online that server.

DNS (Domain Name Server) means when you type in a URL, what happens in your web browser is a message is sent to a domain name server. When the message arrives at the server, it says to the server “Here is the URL I am looking for.

Please give me the IP address of the server it is Brand Cialis on.” The domain name server is like a giant phone book that cross references URLs with the IP addresses of the servers they live on.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the original language of the Internet. It is not a true programming language in the sense that it does not include logic statements (i.e. if this happens, then do that).
Instead it is a language that literally tells the web browser how to display the contents of a page. So things like paragraph breaks, bolding a headline, colors, images, etc. are specified in a HTML file so the browser knows how to arrange the contents of a page. Not all browsers read HTML the same, which is why sites do not always look the same across different browser types.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a way to deliver information about layout and appearance that is more specific than regular HTML. For example, with CSS you can specify that your menu bar be 20 pixels from the top of the browser window. In this way you can accurately compile your website layout based on specific parameters without having to rely on the web browsers interpretation of HTML.

CMS (Content Management System) is a program used for creating and managing website content. A CMS utilizes a database to store the site’s content, and it provides built-in functionality for displaying that information. Generally a CMS allows the site owner to update their site using a WYSIWYG editor.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the method used to transfer files on and off a server. Putting files on a server is like copying files from a CD onto your computer’s hard drive. When files are transferred onto a server, as they are transferred the software used needs to know what type of file it is because different types (i.e. text vs. image) require different types of coding when uploaded.

The coding for different file types is handled by the FTP program you use.

Author Bio: Jack R. Landry has worked in online marketing for the last 10 years and written hundreds of articles about internet advertising and Strategic Internet Marketing. He has consulted for SEO firms since 2001.
Contact Info:
Jack R. Landry
JackRLandry@gmail.com
http://www.Leadgenix.com

Category: Business/Advertising
Keywords: Strategic Internet Marketing

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