Why Does Search Engine Optimisation Exist?

In a nutshell, search engine optimisation exists simply because search engines exist. Without search engine optimisation, prime real estate at the top of the search engine results pages would be unattainable for all but the oldest and most authoritative websites.

Although most people use search engines without giving it so much as a second thought, the task undertaken by a search engine every time a user enters a query is unimaginably complex. Search engines must deliver results that match the user's query, but they must also rank the results in order of perceived relevance and value.

In the early days of internet search, search engines were unable to rank results in order of relevance or value because they had no effective means of calculating it. If the World Wide Web were not so vast, it would be possible for human beings to sift through, rank, and categorise results manually, as librarians and book reviewers do. With hundreds of millions of web pages online - a number that increases daily - this must happen automatically, which is where the amazing technology that underpins search engines comes in.

Search engines use web crawlers to investigate and index content on the web. These crawlers look for specific indicators they can use to determine the subject of a website, and what search queries it is most likely to be relevant to. Once this has happened, modern search engines use sophisticated mathematical processes to determine the potential relevance and value of the content on that particular website. These algorithms take many factors into account, among the most important of which are the number and quality of inbound links each website has.

Next time you enter a query into a search engine and see results almost instantaneously, spare a thought for the people whose incredible efforts make the system possible. Returning to search engine optimisation, although search engines are amazingly sophisticated, they are not infallible. The system they use to attribute relevance and value is inherently biased towards older websites that have collected inbound links and accrued authority over a greater period of time.

If the owner of a new website wants to compete with these already well-established alte
atives, they must ensure that their websites are designed in such a way that search engines can understand and navigate them with a minimum of fuss. As web crawlers have become more intelligent, this has become less of a problem, although search engines should still be taken into consideration during web development.

Perhaps the greatest tool at the disposal of the SEO professional (or enthusiast) is the ability to build links with other websites. As mentioned earlier in this article, the number and quality of inbound links a website enjoys is a strong indicator of its relevance and value in search engine eyes. Although search engine operators would like it if these links only ever appeared naturally, the reality is that the system works most effectively with a human helping hand. Getting in touch with the owners of similar websites to your own, and offering to write guest blog posts or articles in exchange for a link to your site, is one of the best ways to influence your search engine results page ranking positions.