What is Search Engine Optimization? What is the purpose of search engine optimization (SEO)? How does SEO work?
There are two main areas to consider when deciding whether to use SEO. There's first, and most important, is how much you want people to find your website in a search engine search. This depends on what you do for a living, and where you're trying to get business from. If you're an online retailer, you may need a lot more traffic than someone who has a job that only involves working in their own home office.
The second consideration is what type of traffic you want. That's because there are different types of websites, and different types of searches performed by users. For example, there's keyword research, which helps you decide which keywords or phrases to include in your site content, then there's site design, which includes everything from choosing colors to where to place images and videos. You'll also have to think about whether you're creating a blog or not, and if so, what kind of posts to create, etc. In terms of traffic, it's possible to get a good amount of traffic without spending any money at all. This is called free traffic, but it can be very unreliable. Free traffic comes from things like forums, social networking sites, articles, blogs, etc. But you definitely have to do some work before you see results, and this can take anywhere from weeks to months.
If you're willing to spend money on advertising, you can get much faster results. It takes less time to build up your reputation as a trusted source of information, and you'll start seeing a steady stream of new visitors every day. Of course, you won't make much profit until you've built up enough credibility with your target audience, and you know how to convert them into paying customers. So if you don't mind losing money in the short term, paid advertising will almost certainly give you better results than free traffic. If you're willing to spend money, there are plenty of tools available for both paid and unpaid traffic generation. Paid traffic generators include Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Twitter ads, and others.
For unpaid traffic, one great tool is social media sites such as LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and many others. Many people visit these sites daily, and they often share links to interesting stories and other articles. The best way to use these sites is to post links to your website in relevant groups, and let the members of those groups decide where to send the link.
Many groups also provide ways to submit comments in order to increase visibility, but be careful. Some groups ban people for submitting spam, or simply for making insulting comments. Others allow people to post whatever they wish, so long as they follow the rules. Be sure to check out the group's rules before posting a comment. Another great way to get free traffic is to write articles and submit them to article directories. Just remember that many of these directories ban people for submitting duplicate articles. So if you write several similar articles, make sure you submit each one separately.
When writing articles, keep in mind that you should always link back to your website whenever possible. And you should also add some sort of call-to-action to encourage readers to click through to your site. That way, even if they don't buy anything, they still learn something new.
To improve your rankings in search engines, it's important to pay attention to the latest developments in web search technology. Keep up with changes in search algorithms, and use them to your advantage. For example, using keywords that are too specific might hurt your ranking by forcing Google to choose between pages with that same exact phrase. Instead, try including keywords that relate to your subject matter.
Google gives preference to websites with lots of backlinks pointing to them. Google is constantly looking for ways to determine trustworthiness, so they look for websites that have lots of external links coming from high-quality sources. You can help Google determine your trustworthiness by creating lots of quality links to your website. You can achieve this by writing articles, commenting on blogs and forums, and sharing information on social networking sites.
Some people believe that using keywords in anchor text is bad because it will harm your ranking. However, this isn't true. Google doesn't care if you use keywords in anchor text. They just care that it makes sense. For instance, if you have a page about "how to sell shoes," you shouldn't put "how to sell shoes" in your anchor text. Instead, you should use words related to selling shoes. An example would be "buy shoes" or "best places to sell shoes." Google looks for websites that have a lot of incoming links. When people visit your website, they leave links behind in their browser. If you have lots of outgoing links, Google knows that you're probably trustworthy.
Finally, don't forget to optimize your website for mobile devices. While you probably aren't going to go out of your way to design your website specifically for mobile devices, you should still make sure that it's responsive so that it works well no matter what size screen the user is using.
There are tons of other tips and tricks for improving your website's SEO value. To learn more, read my complete guide to search engine optimization.