What is Search Optimization Software?

If you build it, they won't necessarily come. A common e-commerce mistake is when a business spends time and money to create an attractive and functional web site, but stops short of making sure that people know it's there.

Search optimization software is a tool that helps drive traffic to your site. Most people use the internet for searching for information, and they use search engines to conduct this search. The goal of search optimization software is to make sure that the search engines deliver a link to your site when people conduct their searches.

A good search optimization software tool should contain several elements. In addition to helping you create web pages that are well-suited for searches, the software should also contain a wide variety of administrative tools to let you know where you stand.

A keyword density analyzer is a primary element of search optimization software, and presents a detailed analysis of your web pages after you create them. Keywords are an important concept; these are the words that people use when using search tools. This analyzer shows the frequency and density of words and phrases, and lists the major keywords on each of your pages. A good tool will not only show this report, but make recommendations on where to make changes. If a major keyword is not mentioned often enough on a page, this tool will let you know.

The software should also conduct a search to determine how your keywords, and your individual pages, stack up. This will let you know if your site is getting a top ranking in the various search engines, and what other sites are also in the top ten.

In addition to search engines, traffic is also generated when people visit another site, and click on a link to your own site. A search optimization tool may also include a utility that finds all the links pointing to your site.

Search optimization software may also assist you in submitting your site to the major search engines. Search engines crawl the entire web using a program called a spider, indexing every site it comes across. Eventually, it will come to your page, but submitting your site's URL manually will make sure each search engine knows you are there.

Creating a good web site that gets the most traffic is not completely an automated process however. The search optimization software is certainly an excellent and necessary tool, but don't expect it to do everything for you. You need to select keywords that are going to get the greatest return on the search engines, and the best ones are not always the most obvious. A common but erroneous strategy is to fill a page with hundreds of keywords that only marginally relate to the content. This does not generate quality leads, and will not put your site at the top of the list. Choose your keywords strategically, and then use your search optimization software to do the rest.

Note that some search engines may penalize a site for over optimization. If you stuff your page with excessive keywords, for example, the search engine algorithm may not take your page seriously. In the end, if you perform some honest search engine optimization (sometimes referred to as "white hat optimization") and make your content well-suited for visitors, you will eventually rank well.