Search Engine Optimization
SEO Basic Info
SEO or "Search Engine Optimization" is all about optimizing your web site for search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Windows Live Search (formerly MSN). This page will cover basic SEO information that you can use to help improve search engine rankings for your website. Keep in mind, there are companies completely devoted to SEO, so the information here is really only the tip of the iceberg. "On-page Optimization" deals with the effort you take to make your website appeal to search engines (SE's) for site-specific keywords. "Off-page Optimization" deals with what you do to boost rankings across the Web, usually by building quality one-way links from other websites.
On-Page SEO Tips
Choosing the right keywords is crucial to your optimization efforts. You will need to use the keywords you have targeted in specific areas on your webpages to optimize them for the search engine spiders. While some people only optimize their homepage (or index page), it's good to optimize each of your individual webpages as well.
Here are some solid, easy to implement tips:
* Use your main keyword in your domain name, if possible.
* Ensure that the 'Title' tags on your pages include your keywords. Concentrate on one or two important keyword phrases and don't overstuff or the SE's will see it as spam.
* Use your keywords in the headline tags (H1, H2, & H3 tags)
* Make sure that the first readable occurance of text contains your keywords
* Include your keywords in the initial paragraph.
* Sprinkle your keywords throughout the text of your page Be careful not to overdue it.
* Bold or italicise a few of your keywords. The SE's give them greater weight, but again don't overdue this.
* Use your keywords in the 'ALT' tags of your images. Be careful not to overdo this either. It's good to add "image" or "graphic' after your keyword so this is not confused for spam by the SE's either.
Off-Page SEO Tips
Building backlinks to your site is important because it increases your site's "link popularity" (an important consideration for SE ranking). The way SE's see it, when another website links back to you it's a sign of importance. This is no longer the case for "reciprocal linking" (swapping links between sites) which used to work well for SEO purposes. One-way links are now the best way to increase your sites rank, especially if you have already done some on-page optimization. The key is to use your keywords as the "anchor text" of your backlinks. So, when you create your "hyperlinks" when you do your article marketing, make sure you use your keywords in the anchor text. If you submit your site to directories, you want to try to use your keywords in the anchor text as well.
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