Search Engine Optimization – A Basic Primer
Search engine optimization can seem like a big hairy beast that is known and practiced by a select few geeks who’ve been glued to their computer screens 24/7 for the last several years. This is far from the truth. Search engine optimization, or SEO, as it is commonly called, is the art of structuring your website in such as way as to maximize its value in the eyes of the search engines, these days Google in particular. It is neither difficult nor inaccessible. It can and does change regularly however, so there is a need to keep fairly abreast of goings-on in the SEO world, but with the availability of information at your fingertips these days that is not a hurdle that can’t be jumped.
The reason people want to make sure that their sites are optimized for the search engines is because a large part of where their sites are ranked comes from the value perceived on the page. When a web surfer is looking for a site on say, goldfish, and performs a search on Google or any of the other engines, they are presented with roughly 11 million results pages (at this writing) which they can comb through and find what they need. The most inveterate surfer may only get through 2-3 pages of this, before either finding what they need or giving up. This is why it is vital to get your pages to rank as highly as possible in the search engine, and search engine optimization is a great way to accomplish this.
Basic SEO involves making sure that certain elements on your page are serving your visitors as well as they can. Some basic tenets of SEO include steps like
- Page Relevance – Is your page consistent with what it says it is.
- Page Title – The most important part of your page, hopefully containing your primary keyword.
- Enough Content – Is your page full of ads, or does it offer real, relevant content to visitors.
- H1, H2, H3 – Using these header tags with keywords will help.
- Using Relevant Language – Make sure the language you’re speaking relates intimately with the topic of your page. There is a lingo for every niche, and this needs to be present.
- Incoming Links – Garner as many links to your page as you can, though only by using legitimate means. No link farms, etc. Use keyword anchor text for these, making certain to change it up a bit, and not using the same keyword all the time.
- Outgoing Links – Limit the number, and make them of great value to the visitor, ideally leading them to an authority site.
There is much more you can learn, but this will get you started. A good internet marketing forum, such as DigitalPoint or Sitepoint, will be good sources of information. While search engine optimization may seem like a tough nut to crack, it can be done, and faster than you might imagine.
Tags: Search Engine Optimization, SEO
