Research Journal of Computer and Information Technology Sciences ____________________________________
Vol. 1(1), 10-13, February (2013) Res. J. Computer & IT Sci.
Review Paper
Search Engine Optimization: A Study
Patil Swati P.1, Pawar B.V.2 and Patil Ajay S.2
1
Department of Computer Science, S.S.V.P.S’s Science College, Dhule, Maharashtra, INDIA
2
Department of Computer Science, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, INDIA
Available online at: [Link]
Received 3rd November 2012, revised 24th December 2012, accepted 27th December 2012
Abstract
As popularity of web increases, millions of people use search engines to discover information. But search engine users are
interested only in top few result pages. So promoting a website in search engine result is a major task in website
development. Search engine optimization (SEO) is to complete this work. But sometimes black hat SEO techniques are used
which mislead the search engine and increase page ranking higher than deserved in search engine results. This paper
present feature of search engine page rank algorithms, SEO techniques and black hat SEO techniques.
Keywords: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Black Hat SEO, Page Rank.
Introduction The goal is to provide reference for the developers of websites
in their search engine optimization.
Now a day, the enormous content of the Internet has made it
difficult to find relevant information on a subject. Methods Search Engine Algorithm
helping retrieving information have become particularly
important1. So search engine becomes an integral part of Page Rank (PR): Page Rank is an algorithm in which a
everyone’s life to search information. We rely on search engines numerical weight is assign to a webpage according to its relative
to provide us right information at right time. To satisfy users need importance. It uses incoming link information to assign global
search engine must find and filter most relevant information importance score to all pages on the web. Number of incoming
matching a user query and display that information to the user. If links from quality sites measures the popularity of a page. It is
search engine fairly judge quality and relevance of every page and based on quantity and quality of both inbound and outbound
return high quality pages to user then “search-engine-bias” may links. Pages which have higher rank are most important and it
not be a significant problem2. But unfortunately, quality of page is has chances to be listed on search engine’s top result list. Page
very subjective assumption and difficult to measure in real life. rank value is divided into levels 1-10 of which 10 represent
Major search engine like Google rely on page rank to measure higher PR value means that page is more popular while page
quality of page3. Higher page rank value indicates website is very rank value 1 means page is not popular. The web page which
popular4 In order to score a higher rank in search engine result got position among first 25 top results, PR value should be 6 or
many website promotion techniques are used by website above6.
designers. To promote website in search engine natural listing,
search engine optimizers analyses the search engine results and Suppose t1,t2..tn are pages linking to page A then Page-A has its
according to that search engine optimization techniques are used PR value as follows:
by website designers. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the PR(A) = (1-d) + d { PR(t1)/C(t1)+PR(t2)/C(t2)+...+PR(tn)/C(tn) } (1)
process which improves the volume and quality of traffic to a web
site from search engines via natural search results for targeted Where d is damping coefficient, usually its value is 0.85.
keywords. Search engine optimizers use knowledge base. This is PR(t1)...PR(tn) is page t1 to tn page rank value, C(ti ) means
domain knowledge which evaluates interestingness patterns from number of outgoing links page ti . PR(ti)/C(ti) means page ti’s
search result5 Search engine optimizers use search engine contribution to page A’s PR value2.
optimization techniques which follow search engine guidelines
are called white hat SEO techniques. Sometimes search engine HillTop Algorithm: When a query is given, HillTop first
optimizers use website promotion techniques in web page compute list of most relevant experts on the query topic. Then
development which does not follow the search engine rules and identify relevant links within the selected set of experts and
policies. Such techniques are called black hat SEO techniques. follow them to identify target web pages. According to number
and relevance of non-affiliated experts that point to them, target
This paper discusses the features of search engines: i. Page pages are ranked. So the score of a target page reflects the
ranking algorithm, ii. White hat SEO techniques, iii. Black hat collective opinion of the best independent experts on the query
SEO techniques.
International Science Congress Association 10
Research Journal of Computer and Information Technology Sciences ________________________________________________
Vol. 1(1), 10-13, February (2013) Res. J. Computer & IT Sci.
topic. When expert’s opinion is not available, Hilltop provides search engine ranking results in such a way that search engine
no results. Thus, Hilltop is tuned for result accuracy and not for don’t punish the site like blocking the site from their search
query coverage. Hilltop is topic sensitive. It generate list of results. Using white hat SEO techniques search engine returns
authoritative pages on topic of query. Each page is given a quality content. These techniques are beneficial to both users as
weight on binary scale. Value “1” represent good page on the well as search engines.
topic and “0” indicate not relevant or not found. Thus HillTop
is for result accuracy and not for query coverage. SEO include major two factors On-site optimization and Off-
site optimization10.
Thus, we compute the score of an expert. Let k be the number of
terms in the input query, q. The component Si of the score is On-site Optimization techniques: Keywords are short
computed by considering only key phrases that contain descriptions. Users enter keywords to search information on
precisely k - i of the query terms. search engines. Keyword represents the relationship between
search term and several billion of web pages. On-site
Si = SUM{key phrases p with k - i query terms} LevelScore(p) * Fullness optimization includes website design elements such as keyword
Factor (p, q) (2) formatting, keyword in meta tag, keyword in title tag, position
LevelScore(p) is a score assigned to the phrase by virtue of the of keywords, external link, keyword density etc., which are
type of phrase it is. FullnessFactor(p, q) is a measure of the controlled by site itself.
number of terms in p covered by the terms in q. The score of
each expert is converted to a scalar by the weighted summation Location of keyword: Search engine crawler check whether
of the three components7: keyword appear in <title> tag; <header> tag; <alt> tag; <meta>
tag; <body> tag, in anchor text, in URL etc.
Expert_Score = 232 * S0 + 216 * S1 + S2. (3)
Title tag: Title is the biggest ranking factor. Most search engine
New algorithm (Combination of PR and HillTop): Now to use the website’s title tag as main factor of sites listing in search
give more accurate result in scientific and rational way, Google result pages11.
combine features of PR and HillTop to calculate ranking value
of webpage. This algorithm has formula as: Keyword density: Density of Keyword means frequency of
{(1-d) a(RS)} * { (1-e) + b(PR*fb)} *{(1-f)+c(LS)} (4) keyword present on web page compare to total number of words
on the page. Frequency of keyword in title tag and frequency of
where a, b, c are the regulating controls of weight and d, e, f, are keyword in body tag should be strong optimization factor.
damping controls . RS = relevance Score. It is translation of all Density of keyword should be within 2% -8% for improving
SEO factors.(Score based on keywords appearing in Title tag, website ranking12.
Meta tag, Headlines, Body text, URL tag, Alt text, anchor text
etc.) PR = Page Rank score. LS = Local Score. It is translation Keyword in URL: Keyword included in URL, The website will
of links from expert documents8. be found more easily by search engine crawlers if keyword
included in URL. Search engine pays priorities to different
Search Engine Optimization domain name suffixes like edu or gov. Also shorter length URL
is preferred in Search Engine Optimization13.
SEO Concept: Generally people visit a website to find out
information according to their need. But if they did not find Keyword in Meta tag: The meta description tag contains
right content, they became frustrated and immediately click description of page that is informative and reflects the content of
away from site. So in order to draw their attention and bring web page. The website will be indexed if related keywords are
them back maximum number of times, website is built up with found in meta description tag.
proper target and quality content. It fulfills user need as well as
improves rank position in search engines result list. Search Keyword in alt text: Alt text or tag specifies alternative text for
engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the images. Descriptive text associated with alt tag that serve same
number and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines purpose and convey same essential information the image. Alt
via natural listing for targeted keywords. Search engine tags are short and descriptive which reflect the body text that
optimizers help in building a website such that it can be found describes the image.
easily to search engine crawler with relevant keywords9. SEO
help the web site designer to get top ranking position in search Keyword in anchor text: Search keyword in anchor text
result list, attract more online visitors and finally improve the represents what is linking. Pages using link text based on search
marketing capability of site. keywords often rank higher.
White hat SEO: White hat SEO techniques are ethical which Title Length: The most important on-page factor is appropriate
follows search engine’s rules and policies. White hat SEO use of keyword in title tag14. Website title should be such that it
International Science Congress Association 11
Research Journal of Computer and Information Technology Sciences ________________________________________________
Vol. 1(1), 10-13, February (2013) Res. J. Computer & IT Sci.
reflects the subject of website. Using title name user techniques will not have any benefit to user. Some black hat
understands brief information within website at first glance. SEO techniques used by search engine optimizers are
Title length within limit returns good result12.
Content Spamming
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Length: URL represents
the address of site on internet. Search keywords are included in Invisible text: To raise keyword density SEO optimizers insert
URL so that crawler will find it easily. Short length URL’s are text in website which is unrelated to that website content.
preferable by search engines13. Inserted text includes the words which are popular or frequently
search. Such unrelated text is invisible to user but visible to
Outgoing Link: Webpage contain links to other related search engine. Spammers add the text to page with similar
websites. Related outgoing links provide useful information to background colour or with white colour, with very small font,
user. More number of unique outbound links improves ranking located in an area that is define as hidden or invisible through
of website. CSS, text placed behind an image, text located so far right, far
left or very below.
Off-site Optimization Techniques: Off-site optimization
revolves around the links that point to the site from other web Keyword Stuffing: Spammers repeat the keywords in various
pages. These links back to the site are called back links. Site HTML tags like title, meta, body, anchor etc. Also keywords are
with most back links in most cases will come out on top. Offsite stuffed by spammers in URL. Instead of consecutively repeating
optimization includes the following techniques: the key terms they are placed in between different sentences.
Also spammers dump large number of unrelated keywords so
Link Reputation: Web pages and websites with more number that certain page becomes relevant to many different queries.
of back links improve ranking in search engine result. But it is
important that the quality of external links is also very Link Spamming: Search engines like Google rely on quality
important. External links must have good reputation, relevant or and quantity of sites that link to a web site to determine its
similar content. Also have key phrases similar to search term. ranking.
Click Popularity: More number of clicks to the site is known Link Farm: Groups of heavily interconnected pages referred to
as click popularity. It is also significant factor to lift website top as link farms. Search engine optimizers dumps hundreds of links
in ranking result. If visitor clicks websites, search engine to different sites within different categories that are unrelated to
provides certain value to that site. But Search Engine keeps site content9. Using this they increase link popularity by
track of who is clicking by tracking their IP address. So owner including site into link exchange program.
can’t click to his site hundreds of times to improve click
popularity as clicks from single IP address will be consider as Link Exchange: Spammers make a group in which their sites
only once. point to each other. In this way link count of each in a group
increases and hence link popularity increases. One site contain
Inbound Link: High quality external links pointing to a website link to other site and that other site have link to back to site. In
are called inbound links. Total number of inbound links is called this way link count is increased and so link popularity increases.
as link popularity. In Google, page rank of website determine
according to quantity and quality inbound links. To promote site Hiding Techniques: Spammers hide the sentences, text and
in top ranking list, the quantity and quality of external links are links so the users are not able to see them but search engine
still recognized as the major ranking factor15. Web page must does.
contain more number of relevant inbound links to rank high in
search engine result. Inbound links in textual form and not in Link hiding: To hide a hyperlink, spammers use small image or
graphic form like banners, advertisements and images are not black image and the link redirecting from that invisible image.
preferred by search engines. Also spammers uses link colour same as background colour to
hide link from user.
Black hat SEO: To develop a website is a marketing strategy
which is more effective and least costly to reach many people. URL Redirection: URL redirection means URL forwarding.
Promoting a website in search engine result list is one of the key Spammers hide the spam pages by redirecting the browser to
of creating a profit producing web site. Sometime to get higher another URL as soon as page is loaded. So in search engine
ranking in search engine result listing, SEO techniques are used index spam page is return but through redirection the target page
in an unethical manner called spamming. Such black hat SEO is return to user.
techniques break search engine’s rules and regulations and place
the undeserving site on top list. Such technique not only Doorway pages: Doorway pages are primarily designed for
misleads the search engine algorithms but also lowers the search engines and not for human beings. Users who access
quality of search results and increase traffic. Also these doorway pages are redirected to fake scanning or video
International Science Congress Association 12
Research Journal of Computer and Information Technology Sciences ________________________________________________
Vol. 1(1), 10-13, February (2013) Res. J. Computer & IT Sci.
streaming pages that then lead to different malware binaries. MIPRO, Proc. 33rd International Convention, 1193-1196
Before user reach the target page, series of redirection takes (2010)
place which hide the actual URLs. 5. Raorane A.A. and Kulkarni R.V., Association Rule –
Extracting Knowledge Using Market Basket Analysis
Cloaking: It is a technique by which spam web servers returns
Research Journal of Recent Sciences, 1(2), 19-27 (2012)
different web page to user and different web page to crawler.
When user enters a query sites normal page is returned but when 6. Feifei X. and Guangnian Z., Design and implementation of
search engine request for same URL the page that has been a Java-based search engine algorithm analysis system,
created for search engine is returned and normal page is hidden Proc. 4th International Conference on Computer Science
from search engine. So such websites may lead to user to some and Education, 1040-1043 (2009)
other domain. Spammers implement cloaking with scripts that 7. Bharat K. and Mihaila G.A., Hilltop: A Search Engine:
are not read by search engines16. Based on Expert Documents, Technical Report, University
of Toronto (1999)
Content Scraping: Spammers copy the content from high
ranking websites and paste that content in their website to boost 8. Yunfeng M., A Study on Tactics for Corporate Website
their site’s ranking position in search engine result. It is a Development Aiming at Search Engine Optimization,
violation of copyright law. Second International Workshop on Education Technology
and Computer Science, 3, 673-675 (2010)
Conclusion 9. Somani A. and Suman U., Counter Measures against
Evolving Search Engine Spamming Techniques Proc. of
This paper studies page ranking algorithms, search engine International Conference on Network and Computer
optimization techniques, black SEO techniques. Website Science, 6, 214-217 (2011)
ranking in search result is strongly depends on how SEO is
implemented. White hat SEO techniques return quality content. 10. Shi J., Cao Y. and Zhao X., Research on SEO Strategies of
These techniques give slow results but for long time. These are University Journal Websites, Proc. 2nd International
beneficial to both users as well as search engines. Black hat Conference on ICISE, 3060-3063, (2010)
SEO techniques provide quick results but for short time and if 11. Gyongyi Z. and Garcia-Molina H., Web Spam Taxonomy,
search engine find out the unethical activities of the site, then Proc. 1st International Workshop on Adversarial
site can also penalized. The goal of paper is provide awareness Information Retrieval on the Web, 12, (2005)
and stimulate further research in this area.
12. Wang F., Li Y. and Zhang Y., An Emphirical study on the
Search Engine Optimization Technique and Its Outcomes”
Acknowledgements Proc. 2nd International Conference on AIMSEC, 2767-
This work was supported by a grant from UGC, WRO, Pune 2770 (2011)
under Minor Research Project scheme (No. 47-948/09). 13. Zhu V., Wu G. and Yunfeg M., Research and Analysis of
Search Engine Optimization Factors Based on Reverse
References Engineering, Proc.3rd International Conference on
Multimedia Information Networking and Security, 225-
1. Belsare S. and Patil S., Study and Evaluation of user’s
228 (2011)
behaviour in e-commerce Using Data, Research Journal of
Recent Sciences, 1(ISC-2011), 375-387 (2012) 14. Kent P., Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, Wiley
Publishing, 2, 67-68 (2003)
2. Cho J. And Roy S., Impact of search engines on page
popularity, Proc. 13th International conference on World 15. Kumar R. and Saini S., A Study on SEO Monitoring
Wide Web, 20-29 (2004) System Based on Corporate Website Development,
International Journal of Comp. Sci., Engg. and Infor.
3. Page L., Brin S., Motwani R. and Winograd T., The
Tech., 1(2), (2011)
PageRank Citation ranking: Bringing order to the web,
Technical Report, Standford Info. Lab (1999) 16. Wikipedia [Link] (2012)
4. Knezeric B. Vidas-Bubanja M., Search Engine Marketing
As Key Factor For Generating Quality Online Visitors,
International Science Congress Association 13