Just like Yahoo, Google and every other search engine, MSN uses crawlers to build their index of sites and “crawls” the web to find new and altered information. Complex algorithms are then used to find the sites that are the best “hits” or more relevant to the search keyword inputted on the search box. This process is strictly mathematical and has fixed rules on how to rank the results of the searches. The results are ranked according to relevance, but there are also some special specifications for a website to get a top ranking on the results page.

While most any search engine discussion tends to just focus on Google for its sheer domination in the marketplace, ignoring Yahoo would not be a smart choice. According to Comscore, Compete.com and Hitwise Yahoo holds approximately 20% of the US search engine market share – a very large number. Yahoo, unlike Google is also a content provider and therefore has bit of a different approach to search and the SERPs (search engine results pages) than does Google. By the way, YAHOO stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle” – how’s that for a mouthful?

There is no official definition from Google yet about their Google TrustRank (nor is there ever likely to be one), but they did just register the trademark for the name “TrustRank”. They might be introducing it to the public in the near future, and perhaps the introduction of the Sandbox is just an extension of the TrustRank implementation.

With this new system, Google will only give high search engine positions to those websites who are deemed trustworthy and legitimate. The system will also seek to eliminate any websites using blackhat or spamming techniques to get a higher search rank.

The PageRank formula is proprietary to Google and it is a method by which Google calculates authority for a given page on the Internet. It is commonly referred to as PR or by its numeric value PR0 thru PR9, the higher being the more authoritative. In other words, a PR0 site is an “unknown” and a PR9 site (there are very few of them, Google is one) is the top of the totem pole. Many people mistakenly believe that PageRank is site specific – completely false – it’s all in the name. Your home page may carry a PR4 but every other page on your site may be a PR0.

Understand some of the core organic principles of SEO is critical, but when you start to look at the way SEO really works, you must take it down to the individual search engine you are targeting. Just look at the very definition of SEO – search engine optimization – clearly the ‘specific’ search engine is critical. There are certain core elements of SEO that universally apply to all search engines, but the specifics of how they are interpreted and enforced vary from search engine to search engine.

SEO optimization, as previously discussed, is primarily broken down into onsite and offsite optimization. While you may have more direct control over onsite optimization factors, offsite optimization is even more critical. The reason it is even more important is that offsite optimization is what governs how many sites are linking back to you site and that, after all, is the prime factor effecting your sites popularity and/or PageRank (along with the quality and relevance of those backlinks).

SEO is a multi-faceted process that you have to tackle from several different angles. SEO is basically comprised of Onsite Optimization and Offsite Optimization. To truly be effective at SEO you have to tackle it on all of these fronts simultaneously – they each have their own importance and relevance to your overall goals of ranking well in the SERPs (search engine results pages). You can’t expect to be successful if you ignore any one portion of the complete picture.

Before launching any SEO campaign on your site, you have to do some fairly extensive research. In fact, probably 80% of the effectiveness of your SEO campaign will tie back to the quality of the initial research, market and competitive analysis. Remember that SEO is primarily targeted around search keywords and you will have thousands if not hundreds of thousands of competitors for the keywords that you wish to rank for. Competitive analysis is crucial in the creation of a solid SEO strategy for your business.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is both a science as well as an art form. If all of the rules of the game were known, such as the rules of chess, then strategy and tactics would merely be a matter of math and science. However, SEO has an unfair disadvantage and that is that it is trying to win a game that without definitive knowledge of all the rules and, to complicate the task further, the rules are constantly changing.

SEO has many twists and tangles, but through it all, there are some core principles that need to be adhered to – these are the basics and are generally viable in all of the search engines. Sure there are loads and loads of advanced SEO optimization tactics, but in order to apply them you really must first adopt the basic core principles of organic SEO.