SEO for Newbies



You don't have to be an SEO expert to optimize your site for search engines.

Of course more knowledge is better, and it can be worthwhile to hire an SEO professional. On the other hand, you can optimize your site yourself with basic SEO knowledge and see results. If you choose to hire a search engine optimization company, you can make more informed decisions if you understand basic SEO.

Choose a website hosting provider that offers tools, tips and how-to articles that can help you to get started faster and be more successful at SEO.

Overview of SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the use of various techniques to make web pages rank high in relevant search engine results. The goal of SEO is to bring more people to your website when they search online for content that you have at your site.

SEO is only part of making your website successful. Increased traffic will benefit you only if the visitors are your target audience and they find what they're looking for. Good SEO brings your targeted audience to your site. Good website content and design help keep them there.

The first part of SEO is creating quality content with relevant keywords in the right places. The second part is getting inbound links. Both are ongoing projects. Your competitors are working on their sites, and search engine algorithms (how search engines score web pages) change.


Content and SEO

Search engine bots look for is content that's good, fresh, unique, and focused.


Of course bots can't tell if your pages are well-written, but they can tell if you've overused (stuffed) keywords on them, and they will penalize your site.


Fresh content gives bots reasons to come back and crawl your site more often. Add new content when you can, and update existing content. Give each page its own topic, and it will do better in search results for that topic.

If you use content that's already online elsewhere, search engines may choose to display only one of the pages in the search results, and chances are that it won't be yours. Create unique content that's tailored for your site. Site visitors as well as bots will appreciate it.


Be sure that bots can read your content. They can't read Flash or graphics, and poorly formatted HTML can hinder bots from crawling your site.

Keywords and SEO
Keywords are words and phrases that people use to search online. They go from short and general (short tail), such as, "health," to long and specific (long tail), for example, "best home remedy for a sore throat." More specific keywords are more likely to bring a targeted audience to your site.


Research and identify the keywords that people will be using to find information at your site. Then, use those keywords in the right places on your web pages. Avoid keyword stuffing, which is overusing keywords or using them out of context. Make the text sound natural.


HTML and SEO

HTML is a markup language to define how web pages and their content display. For example, if you look at the source code of this page, you'll see <h2> and </h2> around each heading. They're level 2 heading start and end symbols. Look at the <head> section of the page (at the top), and you'll see the <title> tag.


The <title> tag and <h1> heading are the most important places to place keywords for each page. The <title> tag appears at the top of browsers and in search results. It can be up to 64 characters long (or longer, but some search engines may truncate it). If you're offering a local service, be sure to include the name of your city and other keywords for your location. Each page should have a different title. The <h1> heading appears at the start of the page content.


The highest heading level is <h1>. The higher the heading level, and the more weight it's given. Keywords are still given weight in <h2> and lower-level headings. Each page should have only one <h1> heading, but it can have numerous <h2>, <h3> etc. headings. Headings help site visitors as well as search engines.


Use your chosen keywords in the title, the headings, and within the rest of the content, particularly near the top of the page. Keywords in bulleted items are thought to carry more weight as well.


Link anchor text is a good place for keywords, as is alt text (the alternate text for images). Keywords in URLs are also valuable for SEO.


Meta tags and SEO


Meta tags also appear in the <head> section of the source code. The relevant tags for SEO are the description tag and (possibly) the keyword tag.


The meta description tag should contain a description of the web page and be unique to that page. With some search engines, it appears in search results, so it can influence whether people click on the link to your page.


Search engines used to rely on the meta keyword tag until too many webmasters stuffed it with keywords that weren't on their web pages. Most search engines disregard it, but some still use it, so it can be useful to include the keywords you use in the meta keyword tag for that page.


Links and SEO


Links from other sites count as votes for your site. Some webmasters will link to your site on their own. You can also contact webmasters of related sites and ask for one-way or reciprocal links. The best inbound or backlinks are from sites with these traits:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SEO: How Can It Benefit A Small Business?

Online trade is a means of doing business that has many advantages to many people. For one, the fact that you may not need as much money to start an online store as you would to start a regular store means that even if you are low on funds, you can still make some money. In addition to that, such stores often need minimal supervision . This is especially so when you run a business such as a download site, where users can pay for downloads and then get them instantly without having to involve you in any way. In most of such cases, it is very possible to make money even in your sleep. Getting there, however, is an issue that often needs a bit of work . One of the most important things you would need to think about when you want to boost the sales from any online facility is search engine optimization. This is something that has been around for ages, and it has helped many companies grow from strength to strength as far as sales are concerned. Of course, you have to make sure that you
Read more

Study at Home Digital Photography Classes

For anybody intrigued by concentrate at home advanced photography classes , there are an abundance of alternatives accessible on the Internet. From expert online photography schools to free online photography exercises, there are really more examination at home computerized photography classes accessible now than at any other time. Given that advanced photos are so broadly dispersed on the Internet, it bodes well that such a significant number of online assets are accessible. This article will manage you through the three most normal choices for concentrate at home advanced photography classes. Online Digital Photography Schools For the genuine understudy of computerized photography, there are certify colleges that currently offer whole photography degree programs on the web. The Academy of Art University, established and situated in San Francisco, CA, is one such school that offers a totally online photography degree program . The significant educational plan is intensely centered ar
Read more

How Can Custom Music Creation Help You to Become a Musician?

You often find several people combine many beautiful songs together in cassettes and CDs. You get to listen to those combined music in parties or functions . Don't you get surprised how do they do it? This has been possible through the advancement of technologies. You will find several people are there who creates their own music without the help of any publishing company or any brand level. They gets popular too selling those music and earns a livelihood. These all are possible through the help of different musical software. What is virtual music studio? Virtual music studio is excellent helpful software . Through it you can create your own music and on the top of that it is affordable too. Especially for those who are at the nadir of their music career; such kind of software acts as a gift for them. These days music producers are always in a search of new kind of music. Hence you can find the latest songs are sung by new talents. But if you are a rising musician or a singer you
Read more