SEO for Beginners
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by: Joe.Maelstrom
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Search engine optimization is the process of making your web site irresistible to search engines. Search engines use algorithms to decide how relevant and important a page is, using factors like the pages content, URL, meta tages, site history, and inbound links. How well the page does determines how prominently it is featured in the search engine results when a browser searches for a given keyword. A page that ranks well according to appropriate principles is called "SEO friendly." The average reader does not look past the first couple of pages of search results, often not even past the top two or three results, so appearing in the top ten or twenty results for your sites keywords is essential for getting traffic to your site.
How do you use Seo to do that? First, you decide which keywords you plan to compete for. Everyone would love to rank high in the search results for a general term, such as "coffee," but the competition makes that almost impossible. The more specific the keyword, the lower the competition, and the easier it is to rank well. "Roasted coffee" is a better keyword, but "roasted coffee beans" is even more specific, and "roasted Blue Mountain coffee beans" is superb. When competition is too high, you may need to use an even longer keyword phrase, like "roasted Blue Mountain coffee beans mail order."
Once you have a list of keywords, retool each page to target one keyword apiece. The best practice is to put the keyword in the pages file name, title, and description meta tag. (The keyword meta tag, despite the name, is irrelevant to good SEO. It was so overused that search engines generally ignore it now.) Any anchor text that points to the page should also include the keyword, and the main content on the page itself should repeat the keyword a certain number of times. The number of times a keyword should appear in the body is a delicate and tricky part of search engine optimization; to prevent abuse, search engines change their algorithms frequently, so one year the most SEO friendly percentage of keyword appearances is 10%, then the percentage drops to 6%, then to 4%. Stay on top of the latest developments in the industry by reading good SEO forums, and keep track of the preferred keyword percentage.
When you have optimized the individual pages, take a look at your overall site design. Is the content of your site at the top of each HTML page, or do search engine spiders have to wade through unfriendly walls of code to find the body of the page? If the code is now at the top of the page, can you relocate it after the page body? Are pages linked with Javascript and Flash, or do you have plain HTML links to and from each page? Do you have a sitemap that spiders can read?
As you can see, making your site SEO friendly is not an abstruse, magical process. It is simply a matter of creating search engine friendly content that readers enjoy, and adding a few minor enhancements that are visible only to spiders. Read search engine blogs and spend some time on reliable forums, and soon you will know everything you need to make your site SEO friendly. Related sites Organic traffic . Search engine optimization . Dc seo firms . Targeted web site traffic . Seo company .
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