The following only refers to the traditional sense of SEO. Keep in mind that Google and Yahoo just changed their algorithms and most of this is obsolete. But much as in school, we must all start somewhere. This information will give you a solid theory behind the basics of SEO.
SEO or search engine marketing is the process of enhancing your website through following various tips and tricks so that people who are searching on search engines will be able to find your site on the top of the search results. There are two basic approaches to SEO; optimizing the website, itself, and building a campaign where high ranking related websites link to you. This is basically what Google refers to as page rank. The most popular search engines right now are Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Bing. SEO makes your website easily accessed and viewed by thousands or even millions of people around the world. With this kind of technological breakthrough, doing business in the internet has never been this lucrative and exciting.
SEO involves making Web pages more search engine friendly to promote them as the most relevant solutions for the search engines' users. The improvements can mean the difference between achieving top rankings, which can result in thousands of monthly visitors, and being lost in oblivion.
Why is SEO important?
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SEO is basically about following search engine rules. If your Web page fits the criteria that a search engine considers the most important factors in terms of relevance, then it will reward you with a top ranking. Traditionally, search engine optimizers simply modify Web pages to fit these criteria. This gives the Web pages a better chance of being selected by the search engines as the most relevant page for the search query.
Gone are the days when pop ups or banner ads which could be extremely stressful and yielded little results. SEO can take us to outcomes we never experienced before. As long we see to it that our product is worth the buy and possesses remarkable and lasting quality, we can be assured of great profits arising from SEO. The investment we put up in our business is costly. We can't just afford to throw away our money for something that does not give us a good return. We cannot just be confident that our website will certainly be viewed by many in the sense that of the millions of people in every little corner of the world a part of them will surely view our site. |
People these days want instant results so that they cannot spend very long hours in the internet searching for their needed websites down to the bottom of the list. Doing so would mean that the searcher is not doing anything else in life other than searching and searching. SEO can offer you the success that you want if you can only bring out the best in the process and in your business.
Normally, people who search in the internet want to know something about a certain field of business or expertise. In other words they have a lot of questions about something. In this case, the searcher wants a website that can explain everything in the shortest possible time and not do otherwise.
Therefore it is best to fill your site with the most likely titles, phrases, and keywords that people will look for. In this way there is really a better chance for your website to appear in the first page of the results, giving your site the exposure it needs. But doing such a thing requires an intensive knowledge and research on the demands and complexities of the market.
Trusting in your own knowledge and business techniques is good but the fact is you may not know everything as everybody else may not know everything. Doing more intensive SEO study on your own or attending SEO workshops can take your business to a longer stretch. It is essential that you know the traits and the tendencies of the internet searchers in your business field. Another common option is getting the services of a guaranteed seo company that is if you can afford it.
The importance of keyword research
The Internet is basically a massive disorganized library. Search engines are like librarians. They both try to organize the content, so that people can find what they're looking for without too much effort. With books, librarians have the benefit of bibliographic databases and the information on the book covers to help them organize their library.
Search engines don't have such a luxury. There aren't databases of every single Web page ever created. The Internet is just too big. There's too much information to index. The only way a search engine can try to organize the mass of information available on the Internet is by the use of keywords and links.
It makes sense to think that if a Web page contains enough keywords related to a certain topic, it should be relevant to a search for information on that particular topic. So part of the SEO specialist's job is to make sure the Web pages target the keywords that people search for when looking for products, services or information related to what the Web page offers.
The variety of keywords used to search for the same product, service or information is quite staggering. For example, here are the most popular keyword phrases used by people searching for information on SEO:
top seo firms
seo vs sem
website optimization (notice the American - as opposed to English - spelling of optimisation?)
first page placement
top ten placement
increase page rank
guaranteed seo
high search engine ranking
move up in google
Notice how many different variations people use to search for information on the same topic? The fact is, unless a page contains all of the keywords in a search query, then it will have very little of appearing at the top of the rankings.
Before Web pages can be optimized, you must conduct research to determine which keywords to target. This involves finding targeted keywords, determining their popularity, assessing the amount of competition, and then deciding which keywords to use in your Web pages. Fortunately, there are tools to help you find out what people are really searching for.
What are Search Engines?
We all now know about Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile and others where people type in search phrases to find the websites they want to see. These engines use what are called "spiders" to search through existing websites to find the most relevant pages to list for their users. In fact, it's possible you even found us through a search engine by typing "First page placement" or something similar.
How Do I Get My Site Listed By Search Engines? and What is SEO?
Search engines regularly scan the web for new sites, so as soon as even one other site links to you, you're most likely going to get "indexed", or listed. You can also submit your site to a search engine manually, and taking out advertising with a company like Google Adwords will automatically put you in the Google search engine directory as well.
Why Do I Care?
Well, the most obvious answer is that you want more traffic, but the real reason is in the quantity and the quality of your traffic. By using smart SEO techniques, you can drive traffic to your site that is more likely to be real potential customers. If someone finds your site searching for personal trainers, that's great if you're a cosmetic surgeon, but not so great if you're a fast food chain or corporate trainer.
Well, the most obvious answer is that you want more traffic, but the real reason is in the quantity and the quality of your traffic. By using smart SEO techniques, you can drive traffic to your site that is more likely to be real potential customers. If someone finds your site searching for personal trainers, that's great if you're a cosmetic surgeon, but not so great if you're a fast food chain or corporate trainer.
How Do I Get To The Top of the Right Terms?
This is the big question! The formula Google, for example, employs to determine which site gets placed at number 1 is never disclosed, but we do have some clues. Here are just some of the "secrets": (note these are prior to Google's Universal Search)
Take it from the top: your domain name matters.
Flash waists time in loading and even if search engines could read them, they would discount them for a too high of a code to text ratio and a too large of a file size.
Use headers and page structure to show the Search Engines what matters most.
The importance of getting links from relevant sites cannot be overestimated.
Research which terms your users will really use.
How can Search Engine Partner Help?
We're experienced in helping companies get found on the internet. We've done a great deal of research into finding the terms that will work for you and getting your site found. We can go through your existing website and help you make changes that will likely improve your ranking, and help you do the things that the #1 listing in your field is doing. More often than not the changes are simple ones that can make a huge difference.
We have made the investment into professional tools to help analyze your site, so it's not guesswork or trial and error. The techniques we use are proven to be effective!
Keywords: what is SEO?
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