10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You

10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You

Engineering design process

Leveraging White Space for Maximum Impact


In the realm of web design, theres this sneaky little trick that the pros over at Langleys top-tier sites are using, but they just wont spill the beans on it. Get more details Web Design Services Near 19935 75a Ave, Langley, BC here. Its all about leveraging white space – yeah, thats right, the empty stuff – for maximum impact! Now, you might be thinking, "How can nothing be something?" website builder But thats where the magic lies, my friend.


So, heres the scoop (and dont expect to find this gold nugget just lying around everywhere).

10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You - Outline of web design and web development

  • Web standards
  • Web engineering
  • Design brief
  • Philosophy of design
  • Design thinking
  • Content designer
  • Design paradigm
  • Graphic design occupations
  • Design specification
  • web accessibility
  • Web development
  • Design for All
  • Work design
  • Style sheet (web development)
  • Design leadership
  • World Design Organization
  • .design
  • Web design
  • Tableless web design
White space, or negative space, is not merely empty space – its a crucial element of design that helps in creating a visual structure. Its kinda like the pause in a conversation that lets you digest whats been said, you get me? Without it, things would just be a jumble of words (or elements, in our case).


Now, when you dont use white space wisely, your website could look cramped, like its gasping for air – thats a huge no-no. On the flip side, do it right, and bam! You guide your users eyes effortlessly across the page, leading them to whats most important – be it your call-to-action, your branding, or that killer headline you spent hours on.


But, oh boy, its not just about slapping on some empty space and calling it a day. Design paradigm Design pattern Its an art, really. Youve got to balance things out (think yin and yang). Too much white space can leave your visitors floating in a sea of confusion, wondering where to land. Too little, and its like being stuck in a crowded elevator – nobody wants that!


And heres the kicker – white space isnt always white. Its just the space between elements, regardless of color or texture. So, its more about giving your content room to breathe than about the color itself. Mind-blowing, right?


Now, lets not forget about mobile users (cause theyre everywhere!). With screens getting smaller, white space becomes even more crucial. Its the difference between a site thats a pleasure to navigate and one thats a thumb-scrambling nightmare.


In conclusion, leveraging white space is like having the ultimate secret weapon for your web design arsenal.

10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You - Outline of web design and web development

  1. Design brief
  2. Philosophy of design
  3. Design thinking
  4. Content designer
  5. Design paradigm
  6. Graphic design occupations
  7. Design specification
  8. web accessibility
  9. Web development
  10. Design for All
  11. Work design
  12. Style sheet (web development)
  13. Design leadership
  14. World Design Organization
  15. .design
  16. Web design
Its simple, yet oh so powerful! So next time youre tinkering with your site, remember: its not just what you put in, but also what you leave out that counts (and thats a little secret Langleys top sites would probably keep under wraps!). Whoa, watch out world, here comes another mind-blowingly user-friendly website!

The Art of Seamless Mobile Responsiveness


When diving into the realm of web design, one often stumbles upon a craft thats held dear by the pros but isnt always shared with the masses-its like a secret handshake or a hidden menu at your favorite café. Yeah, were talking about the art of seamless mobile responsiveness. And, let me tell you, its a game-changer!


Okay, first off (and this is something Langleys top sites might not spill the beans on), achieving that perfect fluidity on various devices aint just about squishing content to fit smaller screens. No siree! Its about creating an experience that feels natural and intuitive, no matter if youre tapping on a smartphone or clicking away on a desktop.


Now, some might reckon that you just shove things around until it looks decent on a phone, but thats just not cutting it. Its about understanding the users journey, their behaviors, and preferences. Its a dance, really, where every step is meticulously choreographed to lead your audience through your site with ease (and a wee bit of delight).


Uh-oh, heres the kicker though! Its not just about the technical bits like media queries or flexible grids.

10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You - Web standards

  • Design language
  • web development
  • Web Standards Project
  • Web Design
  • Computer-aided design
  • Interactive design
  • Outline of web design and web development
  • web engineering
  • Web standards
  • Web engineering
  • Design brief
  • Philosophy of design
  • Design thinking
  • Content designer
  • Design paradigm
  • Graphic design occupations
  • Design specification
  • web accessibility
  • Web development
  • Design for All
Nope, the true secret lies in testing, testing, and more testing. Outline of web design and web development You gotta put yourself in the shoes (or should I say, tap-fingers?) of your users. Only then can you spot those pesky glitches that disrupt the flow, and trust me, theyre always lurking around the corner waiting to trip someone up.


But hey, dont get discouraged! Engineering design process Its not all doom and gloom. Embrace the challenge! After all, when you do nail it, the results are nothing short of magical. Your site becomes a chameleon, adapting to its environment with such grace that users cant help but be impressed. They might not realize why they love browsing your site so much, but thats the beauty of it! Its your little secret, woven into the fabric of your design.


And you know what? Its okay if its not perfect the first go-around. Even the best of us make a typo here or miss an alt tag there (Oops!). The key is to keep iterating, keep improving. Because in the end, the art of seamless mobile responsiveness is about offering a seamless experience that feels just right, no matter where your users are or what device theyre using.


So, take a deep breath and dive in! Its a thrilling ride, full of ups and downs, but the view from the top-when you get it just right-is absolutely worth it!

Employing Psychological Triggers Through Design Elements


In the realm of web design, theres a little-known secret that the top sites in Langley are holding close to their chests - the power of psychological triggers. Now, I aint saying theyre doing something sneaky or underhanded; its just smart design, really. But, lets dive into this, shall we?


First off, its all about color. Ever noticed how certain colors make you feel a certain way? That aint by accident, my friend. Designers use colors to evoke emotions and actions. A call-to-action button in a bright orange or red? Thats not just to make it pop; its to get you clicking.


Then, theres the layout. Ever got lost on a website? Frustrating, isnt it? Design thinking Design management The best sites use intuitive navigation (thats a fancy term for making it easy to find what youre looking for). They dont want you wandering around; they guide you, subtly, to where they want you to go.


Typography, thats another one! The font choice isnt just about looking pretty. Nope, its about readability and setting a tone. A clean, sans-serif font screams modern and accessible, while a serif might give you the vibes of trustworthiness and tradition. Web standards


Now, lets talk about imagery. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well, designers use images to connect with you on an emotional level. A happy family, a peaceful landscape - theyre triggers, tapping into your desires and aspirations.


But heres the kicker! (And, oh boy, aint it a doozy!) Negative space – thats the space that aint filled with stuff. Its not just empty space; its a breather for your eyes, a pause in the melody of the design. Its as crucial as the elements that are there.


And who could forget the power of storytelling? A good website doesnt just list features; it weaves a tale. It doesnt say, "Buy this because its good." It says, "Imagine how this will change your life." Its not selling; its engaging you in a narrative.


But wait, theres more! Interactivity – thats a big one. Its not just about looking at stuff; its about doing stuff.

10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You - Design history

  • Style sheet (web development)
  • Design leadership
  • World Design Organization
  • .design
  • Web design
  • Tableless web design
  • Design around
  • interactive design
  • Design language
  • web development
  • Web Standards Project
  • Web Design
  • Computer-aided design
  • Interactive design
  • Design paradigm
  • Graphic design occupations
  • Design specification
  • web accessibility
  • Web development
Design brief Quizzes, calculators, games – theyre all ways to keep you engaged, to make you an active participant instead of a passive viewer.


Now, I must say, this isnt about manipulation. Its about connection. These triggers, theyre tools to create a better user experience, to make websites that dont just serve information but do so in a way thats pleasant, memorable, and, heck, even fun!


So the next time youre browsing one of Langleys top sites, take a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship. The psychological triggers, theyre there, woven into the design, but theyre subtle, almost invisible. Theyre not shouting; theyre whispering, guiding you through the experience with a gentle hand. Its a dance between the site and the user, choreographed with the utmost care.


And there you have it! The hush-hush world of employing psychological triggers through design elements. Its not something these top sites would openly chat about (theyve got an image to maintain, after all), but now youre in the know. Just remember, with great

Advanced Analytics and Heatmaps for Informed Tweaks


Oh boy, when it comes to the secrets of web design that the top sites in Langley keep under wraps, theres one gem that often goes unspoken – Im talkin bout the potent combo of advanced analytics and heatmaps, folks!


Now, lets get real here – this aint just some fancy tech jargon to throw around at parties. No, sir! Advanced analytics, (and I mean the real deep-dive stuff), gives you insights that are like gold for tweaking your website. And talking about heatmaps, well, they are not your average Joes weather forecast! These bad boys show you where visitors click, how far they scroll, and what they ignore. Its like having a crystal ball that shows you what tickles your users fancy.


But wait, heres the kicker – most top-notch sites in Langley wont spill the beans on this! Theyd rather have you believe its all about aesthetics and the latest trends. But, without the nitty-gritty data, youre basically shooting in the dark. And who wants that?


Imagine this: youve got a page thats sleek, sure, but do people even find the Buy Now button? Or are they just bouncing off like a rubber ball on concrete? Thats where heatmaps come in! They light up like a Christmas tree in the areas getting all the attention (and let me tell you, sometimes its not where youd expect!).


But heres a little hiccup – data can be overwhelming. Theres so much of it that it can make your head spin! Philosophy of design Still, it doesnt mean you should shy away from it. No way! Youve gotta embrace it, warts and all. Its only by understanding the ins and outs of your users behaviors that you can make those informed tweaks. And I aint just talking minor adjustments; Im talking about revamps that can skyrocket your engagement and conversions!


Now, I wont lie – its not all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes the data tells you things youd rather not hear. Maybe that funky slider you love so much? Turns out, its as useful as a chocolate teapot. But thats okay! Design research Because knowing what doesnt work is just as important as knowing what does. And lets be real, its better to find out through a heatmap than a drop in sales, right?


So, next time youre pondering why your site aint performing as well as youd hoped, remember this little secret (and dont tell em I told you): advanced analytics and heatmaps are your best pals. Use em wisely, listen to what theyre whispering (or sometimes shouting), and your sitell be cooking with gas in no time!


And just to wrap this up with a neat little bow: dont let the data scare you.

10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You - web engineering

  1. Tableless web design
  2. Design around
  3. interactive design
  4. Design language
  5. web development
  6. Web Standards Project
  7. Web Design
  8. Computer-aided design
  9. Interactive design
  10. Design pattern
  11. Outline of design
  12. Outline of web design and web development
  13. web engineering
  14. Web standards
  15. Web engineering
Embrace it, mess up now and then (its all part of the game), and keep pushing forward. With each tweak informed by real, solid data, youre one step closer to that elusive perfection. Oh, and when you hit that sweet spot – thats when the magic happens!

Design education

10 Web Design Secrets Langleys Top Sites Wont Tell You - Outline of web design and web development

  1. Design specification
  2. web accessibility
  3. Web development
  4. Design for All
  5. Work design
  6. Style sheet (web development)
  7. Design leadership
  8. World Design Organization
  9. .design
  10. Web design
  11. Tableless web design
  12. Design around
  13. interactive design
  14. Design language
  15. web development
  16. Web Standards Project

Top SEO Firm Langley

Entity Name Description Source
Digital marketing Strategies and techniques used to promote products or services online. Source
Search engine optimization The process of improving a website's visibility on search engines. Source
Search engine marketing Marketing strategies aimed at increasing a website's visibility in search engines through paid ads. Source
Local search (optimization) SEO practices focused on improving visibility for local searches. Source
Google A global technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products. Source
Google Maps A web mapping service developed by Google. Source
Audit An examination of records or financial accounts to verify accuracy. Source
Google Search Console A web service by Google that allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility. Source
Website audit The process of evaluating a website's performance, structure, and SEO. Source
Anchor text The visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. Source
Sitemaps Files that help search engines understand the structure of a website. Source
Web traffic The amount of data sent and received by visitors to a website. Source
Meta element HTML tags that provide metadata about a web page. Source
Pay-per-click An online advertising model where advertisers pay each time their ad is clicked. Source
Web design The process of creating the visual layout and usability of a website. Source

Langley Digital Marketing

The City of Langley, commonly referred to as Langley City, or just Langley, is a municipality in the Metro Vancouver Regional District in British Columbia, Canada. It lies directly east of Surrey, adjacent to the Cloverdale area, and is surrounded elsewhere by the Township of Langley, bordered by its neighbourhoods of Willowbrook to the north, Murrayville to the east, and Brookswood and Fern Ridge to the south.

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See also

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(Learn how and when to remove this message)
"SEO" redirects here. For other uses, see Seo (disambiguation).

 

Part of a series on
Internet marketing
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Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.[1][2] SEO targets unpaid search traffic (usually referred to as "organic" results) rather than direct traffic, referral traffic, social media traffic, or paid traffic.

Unpaid search engine traffic may originate from a variety of kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search,[3] news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, the computer-programmed algorithms that dictate search engine results, what people search for, the actual search queries or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by a target audience. SEO is performed because a website will receive more visitors from a search engine when websites rank higher within a search engine results page (SERP), with the aim of either converting the visitors or building brand awareness.[4]

History

[edit]

Webmasters and content providers began optimizing websites for search engines in the mid-1990s, as the first search engines were cataloging the early Web. Initially, webmasters submitted the address of a page, or URL to the various search engines, which would send a web crawler to crawl that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be indexed.[5]

According to a 2004 article by former industry analyst and current Google employee Danny Sullivan, the phrase "search engine optimization" came into use in 1997. Sullivan credits SEO practitioner Bruce Clay as one of the first people to popularize the term.[6]

Early versions of search algorithms relied on webmaster-provided information such as the keyword meta tag or index files in engines like ALIWEB. Meta tags provide a guide to each page's content. Using metadata to index pages was found to be less than reliable, however, because the webmaster's choice of keywords in the meta tag could potentially be an inaccurate representation of the site's actual content. Flawed data in meta tags, such as those that were inaccurate or incomplete, created the potential for pages to be mischaracterized in irrelevant searches.[7][dubious – discuss]

Web content providers also manipulated attributes within the HTML source of a page in an attempt to rank well in search engines.[8] By 1997, search engine designers recognized that webmasters were making efforts to rank in search engines and that some webmasters were manipulating their rankings in search results by stuffing pages with excessive or irrelevant keywords. Early search engines, such as Altavista and Infoseek, adjusted their algorithms to prevent webmasters from manipulating rankings.[9]

By relying on factors such as keyword density, which were exclusively within a webmaster's control, early search engines suffered from abuse and ranking manipulation. To provide better results to their users, search engines had to adapt to ensure their results pages showed the most relevant search results, rather than unrelated pages with numerous keywords by unscrupulous webmasters. This meant moving away from heavy reliance on term density to a more holistic process for scoring semantic signals.[10]

Search engines responded by developing more complex ranking algorithms, taking into account additional factors that were more difficult for webmasters to manipulate.[citation needed]

Some search engines have also reached out to the SEO industry and are frequent sponsors and guests at SEO conferences, webchats, and seminars. Major search engines provide information and guidelines to help with website optimization.[11][12] Google has a Sitemaps program to help webmasters learn if Google is having any problems indexing their website and also provides data on Google traffic to the website.[13] Bing Webmaster Tools provides a way for webmasters to submit a sitemap and web feeds, allows users to determine the "crawl rate", and track the web pages index status.

In 2015, it was reported that Google was developing and promoting mobile search as a key feature within future products. In response, many brands began to take a different approach to their Internet marketing strategies.[14]

Relationship with Google

[edit]

In 1998, two graduate students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, developed "Backrub", a search engine that relied on a mathematical algorithm to rate the prominence of web pages. The number calculated by the algorithm, PageRank, is a function of the quantity and strength of inbound links.[15] PageRank estimates the likelihood that a given page will be reached by a web user who randomly surfs the web and follows links from one page to another. In effect, this means that some links are stronger than others, as a higher PageRank page is more likely to be reached by the random web surfer.

Page and Brin founded Google in 1998.[16] Google attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design.[17] Off-page factors (such as PageRank and hyperlink analysis) were considered as well as on-page factors (such as keyword frequency, meta tags, headings, links and site structure) to enable Google to avoid the kind of manipulation seen in search engines that only considered on-page factors for their rankings. Although PageRank was more difficult to game, webmasters had already developed link-building tools and schemes to influence the Inktomi search engine, and these methods proved similarly applicable to gaming PageRank. Many sites focus on exchanging, buying, and selling links, often on a massive scale. Some of these schemes involved the creation of thousands of sites for the sole purpose of link spamming.[18]

By 2004, search engines had incorporated a wide range of undisclosed factors in their ranking algorithms to reduce the impact of link manipulation.[19] The leading search engines, Google, Bing, and Yahoo, do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages. Some SEO practitioners have studied different approaches to search engine optimization and have shared their personal opinions.[20] Patents related to search engines can provide information to better understand search engines.[21] In 2005, Google began personalizing search results for each user. Depending on their history of previous searches, Google crafted results for logged in users.[22]

In 2007, Google announced a campaign against paid links that transfer PageRank.[23] On June 15, 2009, Google disclosed that they had taken measures to mitigate the effects of PageRank sculpting by use of the nofollow attribute on links. Matt Cutts, a well-known software engineer at Google, announced that Google Bot would no longer treat any no follow links, in the same way, to prevent SEO service providers from using nofollow for PageRank sculpting.[24] As a result of this change, the usage of nofollow led to evaporation of PageRank. In order to avoid the above, SEO engineers developed alternative techniques that replace nofollowed tags with obfuscated JavaScript and thus permit PageRank sculpting. Additionally, several solutions have been suggested that include the usage of iframes, Flash, and JavaScript.[25]

In December 2009, Google announced it would be using the web search history of all its users in order to populate search results.[26] On June 8, 2010 a new web indexing system called Google Caffeine was announced. Designed to allow users to find news results, forum posts, and other content much sooner after publishing than before, Google Caffeine was a change to the way Google updated its index in order to make things show up quicker on Google than before. According to Carrie Grimes, the software engineer who announced Caffeine for Google, "Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index..."[27] Google Instant, real-time-search, was introduced in late 2010 in an attempt to make search results more timely and relevant. Historically site administrators have spent months or even years optimizing a website to increase search rankings. With the growth in popularity of social media sites and blogs, the leading engines made changes to their algorithms to allow fresh content to rank quickly within the search results.[28]

In February 2011, Google announced the Panda update, which penalizes websites containing content duplicated from other websites and sources. Historically websites have copied content from one another and benefited in search engine rankings by engaging in this practice. However, Google implemented a new system that punishes sites whose content is not unique.[29] The 2012 Google Penguin attempted to penalize websites that used manipulative techniques to improve their rankings on the search engine.[30] Although Google Penguin has been presented as an algorithm aimed at fighting web spam, it really focuses on spammy links[31] by gauging the quality of the sites the links are coming from. The 2013 Google Hummingbird update featured an algorithm change designed to improve Google's natural language processing and semantic understanding of web pages. Hummingbird's language processing system falls under the newly recognized term of "conversational search", where the system pays more attention to each word in the query in order to better match the pages to the meaning of the query rather than a few words.[32] With regards to the changes made to search engine optimization, for content publishers and writers, Hummingbird is intended to resolve issues by getting rid of irrelevant content and spam, allowing Google to produce high-quality content and rely on them to be 'trusted' authors.

In October 2019, Google announced they would start applying BERT models for English language search queries in the US. Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) was another attempt by Google to improve their natural language processing, but this time in order to better understand the search queries of their users.[33] In terms of search engine optimization, BERT intended to connect users more easily to relevant content and increase the quality of traffic coming to websites that are ranking in the Search Engine Results Page.

Methods

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Getting indexed

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A simple illustration of the Pagerank algorithm. Percentage shows the perceived importance.

The leading search engines, such as Google, Bing, Brave Search and Yahoo!, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine-indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. The Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ, two major directories which closed in 2014 and 2017 respectively, both required manual submission and human editorial review.[34] Google offers Google Search Console, for which an XML Sitemap feed can be created and submitted for free to ensure that all pages are found, especially pages that are not discoverable by automatically following links[35] in addition to their URL submission console.[36] Yahoo! formerly operated a paid submission service that guaranteed to crawl for a cost per click;[37] however, this practice was discontinued in 2009.

Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by search engines. The distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled.[38]

Mobile devices are used for the majority of Google searches.[39] In November 2016, Google announced a major change to the way they are crawling websites and started to make their index mobile-first, which means the mobile version of a given website becomes the starting point for what Google includes in their index.[40] In May 2019, Google updated the rendering engine of their crawler to be the latest version of Chromium (74 at the time of the announcement). Google indicated that they would regularly update the Chromium rendering engine to the latest version.[41] In December 2019, Google began updating the User-Agent string of their crawler to reflect the latest Chrome version used by their rendering service. The delay was to allow webmasters time to update their code that responded to particular bot User-Agent strings. Google ran evaluations and felt confident the impact would be minor.[42]

Preventing crawling

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Main article: Robots exclusion standard

To avoid undesirable content in the search indexes, webmasters can instruct spiders not to crawl certain files or directories through the standard robots.txt file in the root directory of the domain. Additionally, a page can be explicitly excluded from a search engine's database by using a meta tag specific to robots (usually <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> ). When a search engine visits a site, the robots.txt located in the root directory is the first file crawled. The robots.txt file is then parsed and will instruct the robot as to which pages are not to be crawled. As a search engine crawler may keep a cached copy of this file, it may on occasion crawl pages a webmaster does not wish to crawl. Pages typically prevented from being crawled include login-specific pages such as shopping carts and user-specific content such as search results from internal searches. In March 2007, Google warned webmasters that they should prevent indexing of internal search results because those pages are considered search spam.[43]

In 2020, Google sunsetted the standard (and open-sourced their code) and now treats it as a hint rather than a directive. To adequately ensure that pages are not indexed, a page-level robot's meta tag should be included.[44]

Increasing prominence

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A variety of methods can increase the prominence of a webpage within the search results. Cross linking between pages of the same website to provide more links to important pages may improve its visibility. Page design makes users trust a site and want to stay once they find it. When people bounce off a site, it counts against the site and affects its credibility.[45]

Writing content that includes frequently searched keyword phrases so as to be relevant to a wide variety of search queries will tend to increase traffic. Updating content so as to keep search engines crawling back frequently can give additional weight to a site. Adding relevant keywords to a web page's metadata, including the title tag and meta description, will tend to improve the relevancy of a site's search listings, thus increasing traffic. URL canonicalization of web pages accessible via multiple URLs, using the canonical link element[46] or via 301 redirects can help make sure links to different versions of the URL all count towards the page's link popularity score. These are known as incoming links, which point to the URL and can count towards the page link's popularity score, impacting the credibility of a website.[45]

White hat versus black hat techniques

[edit]
Common white-hat methods of search engine optimization

SEO techniques can be classified into two broad categories: techniques that search engine companies recommend as part of good design ("white hat"), and those techniques of which search engines do not approve ("black hat"). Search engines attempt to minimize the effect of the latter, among them spamdexing. Industry commentators have classified these methods and the practitioners who employ them as either white hat SEO or black hat SEO.[47] White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing.[48]

An SEO technique is considered a white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines[11][12][49] are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see. White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the online "spider" algorithms, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility,[50] although the two are not identical.

Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines or involve deception. One black hat technique uses hidden text, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off-screen. Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking. Another category sometimes used is grey hat SEO. This is in between the black hat and white hat approaches, where the methods employed avoid the site being penalized but do not act in producing the best content for users. Grey hat SEO is entirely focused on improving search engine rankings.

Search engines may penalize sites they discover using black or grey hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. Such penalties can be applied either automatically by the search engines' algorithms or by a manual site review. One example was the February 2006 Google removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for the use of deceptive practices.[51] Both companies subsequently apologized, fixed the offending pages, and were restored to Google's search engine results page.[52]

Companies that employ black hat techniques or other spammy tactics can get their client websites banned from the search results. In 2005, the Wall Street Journal reported on a company, Traffic Power, which allegedly used high-risk techniques and failed to disclose those risks to its clients.[53] Wired magazine reported that the same company sued blogger and SEO Aaron Wall for writing about the ban.[54] Google's Matt Cutts later confirmed that Google had banned Traffic Power and some of its clients.[55]

As marketing strategy

[edit]

SEO is not an appropriate strategy for every website, and other Internet marketing strategies can be more effective, such as paid advertising through pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, depending on the site operator's goals.[editorializing] Search engine marketing (SEM) is the practice of designing, running, and optimizing search engine ad campaigns. Its difference from SEO is most simply depicted as the difference between paid and unpaid priority ranking in search results. SEM focuses on prominence more so than relevance; website developers should regard SEM with the utmost importance with consideration to visibility as most navigate to the primary listings of their search.[56] A successful Internet marketing campaign may also depend upon building high-quality web pages to engage and persuade internet users, setting up analytics programs to enable site owners to measure results, and improving a site's conversion rate.[57][58] In November 2015, Google released a full 160-page version of its Search Quality Rating Guidelines to the public,[59] which revealed a shift in their focus towards "usefulness" and mobile local search. In recent years the mobile market has exploded, overtaking the use of desktops, as shown in by StatCounter in October 2016, where they analyzed 2.5 million websites and found that 51.3% of the pages were loaded by a mobile device.[60] Google has been one of the companies that are utilizing the popularity of mobile usage by encouraging websites to use their Google Search Console, the Mobile-Friendly Test, which allows companies to measure up their website to the search engine results and determine how user-friendly their websites are. The closer the keywords are together their ranking will improve based on key terms.[45]

SEO may generate an adequate return on investment. However, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of continued referrals. Due to this lack of guarantee and uncertainty, a business that relies heavily on search engine traffic can suffer major losses if the search engines stop sending visitors.[61] Search engines can change their algorithms, impacting a website's search engine ranking, possibly resulting in a serious loss of traffic. According to Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, in 2010, Google made over 500 algorithm changes – almost 1.5 per day.[62] It is considered a wise business practice for website operators to liberate themselves from dependence on search engine traffic.[63] In addition to accessibility in terms of web crawlers (addressed above), user web accessibility has become increasingly important for SEO.

International markets and SEO

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Optimization techniques are highly tuned to the dominant search engines in the target market. The search engines' market shares vary from market to market, as does competition. In 2003, Danny Sullivan stated that Google represented about 75% of all searches.[64] In markets outside the United States, Google's share is often larger, and data showed Google was the dominant search engine worldwide as of 2007.[65] As of 2006, Google had an 85–90% market share in Germany.[66] While there were hundreds of SEO firms in the US at that time, there were only about five in Germany.[66] As of March 2024, Google still had a significant market share of 89.85% in Germany.[67] As of June 2008, the market share of Google in the UK was close to 90% according to Hitwise.[68][obsolete source] As of March 2024, Google's market share in the UK was 93.61%.[69]

Successful search engine optimization (SEO) for international markets requires more than just translating web pages. It may also involve registering a domain name with a country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) or a relevant top-level domain (TLD) for the target market, choosing web hosting with a local IP address or server, and using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve website speed and performance globally. It is also important to understand the local culture so that the content feels relevant to the audience. This includes conducting keyword research for each market, using hreflang tags to target the right languages, and building local backlinks. However, the core SEO principles—such as creating high-quality content, improving user experience, and building links—remain the same, regardless of language or region.[66]

Regional search engines have a strong presence in specific markets:

  • China: Baidu leads the market, controlling about 70 to 80% market share.[70]
  • South Korea: Since the end of 2021, Naver, a domestic web portal, has gained prominence in the country.[71][72]
  • Russia: Yandex is the leading search engine in Russia. As of December 2023, it accounted for at least 63.8% of the market share.[73]

The Evolution of International SEO

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By the early 2000s, businesses recognized that the web and search engines could help them reach global audiences. As a result, the need for multilingual SEO emerged.[74] In the early years of international SEO development, simple translation was seen as sufficient. However, over time, it became clear that localization and transcreation—adapting content to local language, culture, and emotional resonance—were far more effective than basic translation.[75]

[edit]

On October 17, 2002, SearchKing filed suit in the United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma, against the search engine Google. SearchKing's claim was that Google's tactics to prevent spamdexing constituted a tortious interference with contractual relations. On May 27, 2003, the court granted Google's motion to dismiss the complaint because SearchKing "failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted."[76][77]

In March 2006, KinderStart filed a lawsuit against Google over search engine rankings. KinderStart's website was removed from Google's index prior to the lawsuit, and the amount of traffic to the site dropped by 70%. On March 16, 2007, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose Division) dismissed KinderStart's complaint without leave to amend and partially granted Google's motion for Rule 11 sanctions against KinderStart's attorney, requiring him to pay part of Google's legal expenses.[78][79]

See also

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References

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