What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
In this highly competitive world of the Internet, in order for your website to draw in new customers, you will need to have your site listed highly in the organic results of the major search engines. In order to do this effectively, and with any chance of remaining on the first page, you WILL need to involve search engine optimization, or SEO as it is often referred to.
1. Search Engine Optimization is an continuous and ongoing process. It’s something you have to keep researching and modifying because search engines are always evolving and changing their methods of finding sites of value.
To do this you will first have to find out where your site is currently rated amongst all the others. This will give you somewhere to start and highlight the areas of your website you need to work on. It will also show you how your current visitors/customers are finding you, and the keywords or search engines they are using to do so.
There are a lot of tools available to help you with this research. There are also services available if you have the budget available and want to leave it up to the pros, although I have always found it better and more effective it I do it myself. After all, who knows your site better than you do?
The keyword meta tag is highly under-rated, and should be used correctly as it has heavy bearing on what the search engines associate with your site. There are many tools available to help you with your keyword research which will show you which keywords and phrases are search the most. However, you are best not to target the highest keywords or phrases as there will be many other sites using the exact same terms, thus meaning you have a lot more competition. It is better to formulate a short list of some keywords that are heavily searched but only have a moderate amount of hits. Also, don’t fill your keyword meta tag with dozens of possibilities, it is better to have a small number of targeted keywords otherwise the search engines may think you are keyword spamming.
2. Optimizing your page and including valuable content. This is the next most important area of your website search engine optimization. If you have valuable content then search engines will love you.
Think of your site like a newspaper or magazine. If you don’t have valuable content then what reason do people have for coming back and reading it next time? None of course, so having good content that is added to on a regular basis has a two-fold effect. People keep coming back to read what you have published, and you are also give search engines exactly what they like to find, thus ranking you higher and higher on their search results page. This is why blogs are used more and more every day, because it is easy to add content which your readers and search engines like to find.
Make sure the titles of your articles contain the search term you are targeting in the article. Again I use the analogy of a newspaper or magazine. What is the first thing you see when flicking through them? it’s either the headline or the picture (which you can title on your website using the alt tag). It is exactly the same for readers of your site or search engines. The navigation system of your site is important as well. I see a lot of people using image based navigating systems. This is nice for a reader to see, but search engines can only read text, so it makes sense if you want to gain a good search engine ranking that you should have a text based navigation system. people are used to this as well, just think about a contents page in a book.
3. Let the search engines know you are there. To do this you can manually submit your site to most of the major search engines, however, in the long term you will have better results if the search engines find you through links from other sites.
Remember, search engine optimization is an ongoing process. See how your site is progressing after it’s the first month of changes, then check it at least once a month from then. You can compare results and continue to change things each time. I suggest only changing one or two things, then based on the results you can continue to improve, or revert to what you had previously.
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Hello!
I’ve chosen your blog post in my latest blog carnival! You can view the entry here:
http://bsetc.ca/blog/2007/11/19/internet-marketing-virtual-assistance-blog-carnival-results/
Thank you!
Erin Blaskie
http://www.bsetc.ca
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[…] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptSearch Engine Optimization is an continuous and ongoing process. It’s something you have to keep researching and modifying because search engines are always evolving and changing their methods of finding sites of value. … […]
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thanx for ur nice seo information where i can find more information about? would be glad if u can send me via email or say it here i will return after the weekend think monday or thur.
Breisgau Seo Blog’s last blog post..Seo Blog Farming, die neue Art des Backlinks grabben.
Interesting article. However…
Quote: “The keyword meta tag is highly under-rated”
It is just reality that all big SE players do not look into keyword meta tag at all.The time when the keyword meta tag was import is past.
Most import part of On-site optimalisation are title en description following interest content
nice seo information where i can find more information about? would be glad if u can send me via email.
seocontest2008’s last blog post..Pinoy SEO Joins 2008 UK Webmaster World $1000 SEO Contest
I also came across your blog in Google, wonderful resources, I will sure to implement them!
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I’m no SEO expert, but after years of ignoring my business site and watching my place in the search engines drop, I embraced basic on-site SEO and within a month raised my site for key phrases from page 6 or 7 in google to page 1 or 2. And my Alexa rank rose over 1 million positions. I have a long way to go to be where I want to be, but I see SEO as a means of “greasing the tracks” to let people find you. It’s not the one and only answer to all site or blog issues, but it’s an important part.
[…] presents Some Competition From The Ranks posted at jamesbrausch.com. Ian Richardson presents What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123. Joshua C. Karlin presents Missed Marketing Opportunities - […]
Good clause on a theme SEO, very much to be useful in bookmarks!
Some useful stuff! Thanks! For those who know nothing about seo it’s a kind of small miracle;)
Its sad how many people are out there that buy websites, write content and then ignore them thinking that people will just find them. Even the smallest amount of SEO will do wonders for most websites. Just imagine what can be done when yuo can devote 15-30 hours to your site a week! Nice Post.
Wonderful article about SEO. Its almost a must these days, especially if your in a niche with any type of competition.
The keyword meta tag is highly under-rated - should that be over-rated? My thought is that off-site SEO is much more effective currently than any onsite SEO.
It is not worth submitting to search engines, they will find you soon enough if you get some quality links in from external sites.
That’s a great post on SEO and i have a few tips to add to it. First, when optimizing for Google (and the other 2 Yahoo and MSN) it’s best to keep your keyword density between 3 and 5 percent. Alot of new webmasters keyword stuff there pages thinking that it will help rank for a certain keyword, but it’s a mistake. To check your density you can use the tool at http://www.keyworddensity.com.
Also, alot of people waste alot of money o ppc programs that do not convert. In my honest opinion, i think the money you would spend on ppc programs would be better spent on high quality paid links. Not all paid links are bad. ALl you have to do is use common seo sense when deciding which website to advertise on.
Great tips on basic SEO. I also agree with the comment above wholeheartedly. Money is probably better spent on link building related activities, which can be buying/renting one way links, or like me, join an automated one way link exchange community that builds one way links for you gradually over time.
Alexiss last blog post..An Effective Link Building Strategy Must Include One Way Link Building Automation