Search Engine Optimization Does Not Happen Naturally

I’ve heard from many people that Search Engine Optimization will happen naturally for any site. People have told me that everything placed on the web will get indexed and ranked in Google over time.

None of that is true.

Search Engine Optimization Does NOT Happen Naturally.

The source of the confusion: Google indexes almost all sites. Indexing isn’t optimization.

Google indexes all the sites it crawls. If a site|page specifically tells Google not to index that site|page (by using a noindex Meta tag, or robots.txt file) then Google won’t include that site|page in it’s SERPs. The thing is, just because your site|page is indexed by Google doesn’t mean it’s optimized to rank highly on Google. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art|science of getting your site|page to rank high on Google (and other SEs).

SEO requires optimization of your site’s content. That process doesn’t happen naturally. To explain, let’s first look at how search engines work:

1. The search engine locates a site through direct URL submission or by following links from already indexed sites
2. The search engine scans the content of the site and the search engine’s ’spider’ crawls the site, following links from one page to the next and back again. What content ’spider’ crawls is now indexed by the search engine
3. The search engine monitors the site’s relevancy of content and keywords, as well as the site’s popularity (how many incoming links there are from other trusted sites)
4. The search engine adds the site to the index, and using a proprietary algorithm ranks the site for specific keywords and keyword phrases
5. When the end user searches the on the search engine for these phrases and keywords, the search engine returns a list of relevant sites – ranking the more optimized (a.k.a. “obviously relevant”) higher than the less optimized (a.k.a “sites with a fuzzy signal”).

This process can sometimes take months sometimes; sometimes it can take a day. As you can see, the process that Search Engine’s use to rank a pages content depends a great deal on what keywords are emphasized on the site, the context of those keywords among the other keywords on the site, incoming links from other sites, and link structure. Sometimes, sites just weren’t built in a way that Search Engines prefer. This is not to say that those sites aren’t rad or highly interactive. They are just not going to be ranked high by Search Engines. Essentially those sites are “search engine pessimized” even though they might be “interactivity optimized” (like agency sites built entirely out of Flash).

The few big things, and all the little things that cause search engines to rank your site higher than others add up to Search Engine Optimization. There are two kinds of SEO: onpage SEO and offpage SEO. Onpage SEO includes things like making sure that your URLs, your navigation and link text all match the terms in your keyword strategy. Offpage SEO includes a variety of things, but emphasizes link building (getting on topic links, getting off topic links, high authority links, and ensuring your anchor text is mixed up but relevant). Speaking from experience, these onpage and offpage tasks are really an art and a science. Understanding how they’re done most effectively requires a body of knowledge that the average web developer just doesn’t have, much less the average business owner. Further, since these specialized tasks are just that (specialized tasks), they require specialized labor. Specifically, a creative professional (a.k.a. “knowledge worker“) familiar with SEO.

Next time someone tells you that Search Engine Optimization will happen naturally for their site|page, be sure to point them here. Particularly because of the onpage SEO factors, search engine optimization has to be worked into a site from the beginning for that site to serve most effectively. Delaying onpage SEO delays one’s site from bringing in the highest ROI possible. Not optimizing your web site costs you money every second it isn’t being optimized (or costs you traffic if it isn’t a web-based business [my non-optimized site GlennRaps.com is a good example (I'm trying to keep traffic low while it's being built)]).

Final thought: The Internet is manmade. Google is manmade. Nothing on either happens naturally. Except humans working.

What are your thoughts? Any stories of low rankings from an assumption of natural optimization of your site? Any words of wisdom? Please leave a comment below.

Related articles:

• A Quick Look At MSN Optimization (content123.com)
• SEO For Google – How To Get Search Engine Success (content123.com)
• Necessity Of Search Engine Optimization (content123.com)
• Search Engine Marketing: Why Is It So Crucial? (content123.com)
• 12 Things You Really Should Know About SEO (content123.com)
• Keywords in Anchor Text Produce SEO Power (wordsellinc.com)