Three Cs of Search Engine Optimization Article | Anvil Media (2024)

The Three Cs of Search Engine Optimization

The building blocks of SEO include content, code and credibility

by Kent Lewis

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to present at industry conferences to a wide variety of audiences on the topic of search engine optimization (SEO). In recent months, the audiences have been from industry organizations that are much less Web savvy. I’m so accustomed to talking with SEO-savvy professionals that I’ve had to change up my approach. In that vein, the following article is an attempt to present the core concepts of SEO strategy in an easy to digest and remember format. Simply put, the fundamentals of SEO can be boiled down to The 3 Cs: content, code and credibility.

Content

As outlined in an earlierSEO article, content is indeed king. Without keyword-loaded HTML text on all key pages, there is little chance for a Web site to gain high visibility in search engines. Search engine spiders can’t read what they can’t see. Without eyes, the spider does not inherently know what an image or Flash animation depicts or contains, and therefore it will never give that content as much weight. In a similar fashion, sites with frames are a problem because the spiders have trouble locating multiple frames and only tend to index one frame before leaving

When a spider indexes a Web site, it looks for HTML text, as it can be easily read and understood. In order to show up in the top 10 (or even top 30) search engine results for any given search phrase, it is important to ensure your target phrases are embedded regularly throughout the page in question. Remember to include the phrases in the headline, high up in the body copy and again at the bottom, as engines like Google like the standard thesis approach to page layout. Also, look for opportunities to emphasize the phrase throughout the body copy by bolding, italicizing, underling or hyperlinking to other relevant content (example:search engine optimization).

Code

With the proliferation of database-driven content management systems (CMS) and WYSIWYG editors, much of the source code behind a Web site that helps define the content and layout is large and clumsy. Spiders have trouble with some forms of programming languages that may make it easier to build or manage a Web site, like Javascript. The ideal solution to ensure your site is thoroughly indexed by search engines is to design it to widely acceptedWeb standards(basically less is more).

In addition to designing for spiders, the benefit of a Web standards-compliant site is that it will be accessible to the broadest set of browsers and connection speeds, improving the experience for visitors. To round out source code optimization, ensure that each and every page has keyword-optimized title, META and ALT tags. The keywords you select should be the same ones you focused on for the body copy on that page. For bonus points, ensure your domain is keyword-loaded, especially if the URL has a dynamic string of database parameters (all of those nonsensical letters, numbers and symbols after the .com should be replaced with keywords).

Credibility

Now that we’ve talked about what site visitors see, and what goes on behind the scenes, it’s critical to understand one more element that affects how search engines like Google determine which site out of millions is displayed for a term like “luggage.” Even if every page of your site has a reasonable occurrence of that term, and the URL and tags in the source code are optimized for the term, you still may never appear in the first 100 pages, let alone #3 on the first page.

To push yourself above and beyond the noisy competition, you need to build a sense of credibility with the search engine. The best way to do that is to acquire links from relevant industry sites that are ideally popular and are also visible in search for your target terms. The more popular and relevant a site is that links to you, the higher your link credibility (or PageRank) will be with Google. Sites that use link farms to boost their rankings often get penalized due to the lack of relevance or popularity of the pages that link to them. Quality over quantity is the mantra when undertaking a link development campaign.

Bonus: Conversion

I said I’d keep it simple, and 3 Cs does the trick for the most part, but we’re missing something. Even if you follow the above steps, you may still fall short for a variety of reasons. A common side effect of a poorly executed SEO campaign is a lack of additional leads or sales. That usually indicates your keyword terms missed the mark and need to be re-evaluated for relevant to the target audience. The right keywords = leads and sales.

The best way to ensure your keyword phrases are relevant is to closely monitor and analyze your site traffic via a Web analytics package like WebTrends. It can tell you what phrases generate traffic and from what search engine. If you have the proper setup and configuration, you can tie those to conversions (leads or sales). You can also utilize free tools from Overture and Google to evaluate new phrases and you can implement their conversion tracking tools to see which phrases convert via paid search and apply those learnings to your SEO efforts.

Your Web site is much more likely to increase in search engine visibility (and revenue) now that you are armed with the 4 Cs of SEO: content, code, credibility and conversion.

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Three Cs of Search Engine Optimization Article | Anvil Media (2024)

FAQs

Three Cs of Search Engine Optimization Article | Anvil Media? ›

Simply put, the fundamentals of SEO can be boiled down to The 3 Cs: content, code and credibility.

What are the 3 components of a search engine? ›

In general, a search engine consists of three main components as shown in Figure 1: a crawler, an offline processing system to accumulate data and produce searchable index, and an online engine for realtime query handling. Their roles are summarized as follows.

What are the three main things in SEO? ›

SEO can be done in many ways but there are three main steps: keyword research, content creation, and link building. By doing all three you should see a significant improvement in your rankings over time! In this article, we will be discussing every aspect and include more information on SEO.

What are the three key considerations for SEO? ›

SEO helps businesses reach their target audience when they are searching for information related to their products and services, ultimately driving conversions and business growth. Three of the most important considerations when evaluating keywords for SEO are: volume, competition and user intent.

What would be the 3 main criteria you would work on to improve the SEO of the website? ›

Learn the three essential pillars of SEO success: authority, relevance, and user experience. Explore how optimizing these factors can skyrocket your website's search rankings.

What are the 3 types of search engine and its purpose? ›

There are three main types of search engines, web crawlers, directories, and sponsored links. Search engines typically use a number of methods to collect and retrieve their results. These include: Crawler databases.

What is a 3 example of search engine? ›

Popular examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search. Search engines utilize automated software applications (referred to as robots, bots, or spiders) that travel along the Web, following links from page to page, site to site.

What are the 3 C's of SEO? ›

Simply put, the fundamentals of SEO can be boiled down to The 3 Cs: content, code and credibility.

What are the main 3 aspects of why SEO is important? ›

SEO is important for brands as it's a highly effective way to improve your brand's visibility through search, drive more traffic to your website, establish your brand as a trusted authority in your industry, sustainably and reliably grow your business, and much more.

What are the 3 steps to successful SEO? ›

To develop an effective SEO strategy, we need three distinct steps:
  • Step 1: SEO research – Keywords, competitors, currently ranking content.
  • Step 2: SEO strategy – How to do something different or unique to stand out.
  • Step 3: SEO planning – The execution plan to deliver your strategy.
Feb 19, 2024

What are the three strategies of SEO? ›

Here are 3 of the main strategies associated with organic SEO for new websites.
  • Perform keyword research. Think about how you find information online. ...
  • Optimize on-page elements. ...
  • Create an off-page SEO strategy.

What are the 4 main components of an SEO? ›

The four pillars of SEO
  • Technical SEO: How well your content can be crawled and indexed.
  • Content: Having the most relevant and best answers to a prospect's question.
  • On-site SEO: The optimization of your content and HTML.
  • Off-site SEO: Building authority to boost trust and rankings.
Dec 18, 2023

What are 3 of the main important SEO factors to rank a website high in the search engines? ›

The Top 8 Factors
  • Quality Content: The most important SEO factor. ...
  • Backlinks: Links from other websites to your website. ...
  • Technical SEO: The technical aspects of your website, such as its website speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawlability.
Mar 24, 2024

When choosing keywords for SEO What 3 things do you need to consider? ›

How to Choose Keywords for SEO (A 5-Step Guide)
  • Step #1: Find Relevant Keyword Ideas.
  • Step #2: Evaluate Keyword Metrics.
  • Step #3: Identify Search Intent.
  • Step #4: Analyze the SERP.
  • Step #5: Select Primary Keywords.
  • Next Steps.
Mar 24, 2023

What are the three elements that you need to think about to improve your SEO? ›

Quality, authoritative, authentic content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content—this is especially true when doing SEO marketing.

What are the three features of a search engine? ›

The basics of search engines

Search engines perform three critical tasks: crawling to discover content, indexing to track and store content, and querying to fetch relevant information quickly. These systems are the backbone of finding information on the internet.

What are the 3 ways search engines work? ›

How do search engines work?
  • Crawling. Search engines use programs, called spiders, bots or crawlers, to scour the internet. ...
  • Indexing. The search engine will try to understand and categorise the content on a web page through 'keywords'. ...
  • Ranking. Search results are ranked based on a number of factors.

What are the three main processes in a search engine? ›

There are three basic steps a search engine takes when searching for content: crawling, indexing, and ranking. Step 1 - Crawling: Crawling is when the search engine spiders or crawlers browse the web to identify and capture available content.

What are the three key foundations of a search engine? ›

There are three basic stages for a search engine: crawling – where content is discovered; indexing, where it is analyzed and stored in huge databases; and retrieval/searching, where a user query fetches a list of relevant pages.

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