What is SEO & IRM

What is SEO? How about IRM?

IRM is Internet Reputation Management, a sub-set of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. We'll discuss SEO first.

SEO is simply making your site more popular in the 'eyes' of search engines. The best explanation we've ever heard is the high school example (thanks to whoever originally coined it).

Back in high school there were always popular students. Let's call them Football Girl and Cheerleader Guy. If Cheerleader Guy were a website, he'd be CNN.com or Yahoo.com. On the other end of the spectrum there is Art Kid. You remember Art Kid, he sat at the back of the class and had few if any visible friends. If Art Kid were a website, he'd be... well, probably your site or close.

All sites have a Google Page Rank, which is essentially a guage of site popularity. Cheerleader Guy has a GPR of 8 or maybe even 10. Art Kid has a GPR of 0 or 1. Just like in high school, if Cheerleader Guy befriends Art Kid, Art Kid's popularity will go way up. If he were a website, his GPR may jump to 4 or even 5.

Lets say Art Kid was not befriended by Cheerleader Guy, but by another low-popularity student, lets call her Science Girl. If Science Girl befriends Art Kid, Art Kids popularity score, or GPR barely goes up. This is because if Science Girl were a website she would be like that website of your cousin Gus' seven year-old daughter... you know, what's her name, the one with the braces who doesn't blink.

Like high school, who links to you is important. The more popular the site in Googles eyes, the better. It takes many more unpopular sites to increase a site's page rank than it does links from popular sites.

What is SEO? Its the art and science of making your site relevant and popular in the eyes of other web sites. What is IRM (internet reputation management), making a lot of sites (and other content such as video, blogs, etc.,) rise in the search rankings - often with the objective of driving negative results down in search rankings.