Search Engine Friendliness vs. Search Engine Optimization

Rich,

What's the difference between "search engine friendly" and "search engine optimized" when it comes to Web sites? I've heard you use these terms before...are they interchangeable?

--Wondering in Windham

Dear Wondering,

I'm not sure if these are Search Engine Professional approved phrases, but they're what I use to describe differing levels of search engine work that you can do on your site.

All sites should be built to be search engine friendly. Search engines, such as Google or Yahoo, have little programs that are called spiders or bots that scour the internet, gobbling up content, following links, and then returning to the search engine with their new found bounty.

As intelligent as the programmers are at search engines, these bots aren't very clever. They can only follow certain links, and have an easier time understand text links as opposed to image links. Unfortunately, a lot of sites use images for primary navigation.

These bots also have trouble dealing with javascript navigation, Flash, Ajax and Ruby on Rails, and other popular methods of building Web sites. The goal of your Web designer should be to build a Web site that makes it as easy as possible for the bots to get around your site and get to your best content.

Search engine optimization (SEO) goes one step further. I liken this to 8-ball, the popular game of pool. If you shoot the eight ball in the wrong pocket, you lose. If you have a perfectly search engine friendly Web site, but for the wrong terms, you lose.

For example, if you're a plastic surgeon and you have lots of good content on "rhinoplasty" but your prospects are searching for "nose jobs", you put the ball in the wrong pocket. Ditto for "maine cottages for rent" vs. "coastal vacation rentals" or "maine lodging." Or "maine real estate" vs. "maine homes" or "portland maine homes for sale."

To determine what keywords your best prospects are using, you need to do some additional research. You can either hire an SEO firm, or do it inhouse. (SEO isn't rocket science, but it is a skill that takes time and energy. You should always ask yourself: is this my core competency? I know I ask that when it comes to bookkeeping, accounting, and subtraction--addition's tricky friend.)

Some popular tools for keyword research are Keyword Discovery and WordTracker. There are also plenty of tools you can use to track and benchmark your ongoing visibility at the major search engines.

If you'd like to learn more, I have a Web marketing seminar coming up that may be helpful:

• Search Engine Optimization: Rank Higher, Sell More - 4/16/08, Portland, Maine

The seminar requires registration, so register now!

Rich Brooks
Search Engine Optimizer

Comments

[Troy Duncan]

Keyword Discovery offers more in my opinion than WordTracker. Also, Keyword Discovery is only a few dollars more per month.

[CS Thompson]

Hey Rich,

Love the plastic surgery analogy. It illustrates the point that heaps of small business people forget when it comes to marketing - they forget to think like the customer!

Keep the good stuff coming