What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s a process that involves getting your website ranked high on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. If you want to rank highly in the search engines, then there are some things that you must do. Here’s what they are:
1) Make sure your site has good content and unique content. If you have only one page, then it won’t get much traffic; but if you have 10 or more pages, then it will get plenty of traffic. The more information you provide about your service or product, the better. You must make sure that your site has good content and that your content is unique. This is important because when people search for something, they expect to find good quality information about your business or product. So if they don’t see any good quality information, then they just move on. But if the information they see is good enough, then they are likely to buy from you.
2) Get links to your site. There are many ways to get links to your site. One way is to submit articles to article directories and blog networks. Another way is to use free article marketing sites to write articles and post them on blogs. Then ask other bloggers to link back to you. Other ways include blogging, forum posting and social media networking.
3) Use keywords in your website and/or your blog posts. Using keyword phrases in your website and in your blog posts helps the search engines know which pages you want to show up for certain searches. When someone does a search with a specific phrase, the search engine shows relevant results based on how closely related those words are to each other. For example, if I type in “how to lose weight fast”, the search engine will show the most popular websites that have this phrase in their titles and in their meta descriptions. Because I used this phrase in my title and meta description, I am now showing up as a natural fit for this phrase. That means that I am going to be higher in the search rankings, so my website appears at the top of the result list instead of somewhere farther down.
4) Submit your site to various search engines. There are many search engines out there. Some of them are paid while others are free. In order to get listed on these free search engines, you need to submit your site to their directory. Most often, you can do this by filling out a form and submitting it to the search engine. Once they approve your submission, you will start seeing your site appear in the search engine results.
5) Don’t spam! Spamming refers to sending your site to all sorts of websites hoping that they will add your site to their index. This is not an effective strategy because it doesn’t work and the search engines don’t like it either. They view this as unethical behavior. If you try to send your site to 100 different sites, most of them will reject you. And if they accept you, chances are that your site won’t get anywhere near the top of the search engine listings.
6) Write great content. Great content is what makes your site stand out above the rest. The more quality content you put on your site, the better. The search engines love quality content, especially if it’s original and unique. So make sure that you don’t duplicate content. Instead, make sure that you create new content that is useful and answers questions that people might have. People like to read content that is interesting, entertaining and informative. They also like to share it with friends and family. So if you offer a product or service that is valuable, then you should be able to generate lots of traffic to your site.
7) Do link building. Link building is another important part of SEO. This is where you build links (links between two websites) that point to your site. These links tell the search engines that your site is trusted and authoritative. The more links that point to your site, the better. Many websites have thousands of links pointing to them. However, if you only have five or six links, then those few links are extremely powerful.
8) Keep doing SEO. It’s not over once you reach the top. You still have to maintain your position. You need to keep coming up with new ideas, writing new content and getting new links pointing to your site. It may take time to get back to the top, but you can always get there again. Just don’t stop trying.
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That’s it. These eight simple steps are all you really need to do to get your site into the search engines.
Now you know what SEO is and you understand why it’s important.
Now let’s talk about how to actually optimize your site. What exactly do we mean by that?
How To Optimize Your Site
Once you put your site together, you need to optimize it in order to get the best possible ranking. There are several ways to go about optimizing your site.
1) Add relevant content. Content is king. It’s the lifeblood of your site because without it, no one will ever visit your site. So make sure that you have lots of good quality content. If you don’t, then you probably shouldn’t bother with SEO.
2) Include your keywords throughout your content. This is one of the most important parts of optimizing your site. As mentioned earlier, the search engines rely on using keywords to determine relevance and authority. So if your content isn’t optimized around your keywords, then it’s useless.
3) Create a keyword rich title. A keyword rich title is one that contains your primary keyword phrase plus up to three additional keywords. It works well because it tells the search engines exactly what you want them to know. If you want to rank for the term “web design”, then your title would be titled something like “Web Design Services by Web Designer”. This way your title is telling the search engines what you do and who you are.
4) Use meta tags. Meta tags are HTML codes that you add to your webpages. Each webpage needs its own set of meta tags. But they work in unison to help the search engines figure out what your site is about. If you use the right meta tags, then you can increase your chances of being seen by the search engines.
5) Use keywords in your header tag. The header tag is the very first thing that a visitor sees on your webpage. It tells the search engines what your website is about. If your header tag doesn’t contain your primary keyword phrase, then it’s not going to help you.
6) Use keywords in your page titles. Page titles are also known as metatags because they allow the search engines to categorize your webpages. If you don’t use your keywords in the title of your webpage, then your webpage will never get indexed.
7) Use keywords in your H1 and H2 tags. Both of these elements are found within the body of your webpage. They are used to categorize your webpages further. If you don’t use your keywords here, then neither will your visitors.
8) Use keywords in your URL. The URL is the address of your webpage. It helps the search engines know what your page is about. If your URL doesn’t contain your keywords, then your site will never rank well.