Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer's Guide to SEO

Chapter 2. A Primer in Basic SEO

Although this book addresses search engine optimization primarily from the perspective of a web site's architecture, you, the web site developer, may also appreciate this handy reference of basic factors that contribute to site ranking. This chapter discusses some of the fundamentals of search engine optimization.

If you are a search engine marketing veteran, feel free to skip to Chapter 3. However, because this chapter is relatively short, it may still be worth a skim. It can also be useful to refer back to it, because our intent is to provide a brief guide about what does matter and what probably does not. This will serve to illuminate some of the recommendations we make later with regard to web site architecture.

This chapter contains, in a nutshell:

• A short introduction to the fundamentals of SEO.

• A list of the most important search engine ranking factors.

• Discussion of search engine penalties, and how you can avoid them.

• Using web analytics to assist in measuring the performance of your web site.

• Using research tools to gather market data.

• Resources and tools for the search engine marketer and web developer.

Introduction to SEO

Today, the most popular tool that the users employ to find products and information on the web is the search engine. Consequentially, ranking well in a search engine can be very profitable. In a search landscape where users rarely peruse past the first or second page of search results, poor rankings are simply not an option.

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