First let me say that search engine optimization is a broad topic. There is no way that I can effectively cover all aspects of the subject in this short article. However, I hope to speak to those who have NO idea what it is or why it matters. Maybe they are encouraged to at least take the first steps to have a successful website.
Internet marketing is rough. You are up against millions of other internet businesses. It’s constant education and re-education to keep up with the Joneses around the world. Everyone is doing their best to make their site better than yours, and only the best will end up at the top of the heap.
You see the letters SEO a lot these days and also SEM. SEM simply stands for “Search Engine Marketing” and SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” You do SEO on your site so you can do SEM more effectively. Search engine optimization is what words imply when applied to your website. They are the things that can be done to make your website known to search engines and give it the highest possible ranking.
WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT?
Well, we can probably agree without even knowing why, the best thing for an internet business is to approach a search engine with the most effectively designed and organized website. While it’s somewhat obvious that a well-designed and effective website can be a good sales tool when it comes to humans, it might not be so obvious why you should care so much when it comes to a search engine.
Let’s start with the fact that while we are trying to show our business on the Internet to human eyes, it is the search engine spiders that must first be appeased. After all, according to the figures you believe, up to 85% of all websites visited are found through search engines and directories. When you consider all the people searching the internet for all sorts of “stuff”, you can begin to understand the power search engines have in the online marketplace.
Add to the mix the fact that for any given search term, there are thousands, millions, or even billions of possible sites that may match the query terms provided by the human searcher and you begin to understand the huge competition that develops. at one point. for any given topic.
Of those potential billions of pages that the search engine can present to the searcher, only about ten will fit on one page. So if it’s not on the first page, it’s almost like it’s not there at all. I don’t need to explain this to you if you’ve ever used a search engine. How many times have you bothered to go to page two, and especially page three?
Another aspect of the search engine versus the search engine is something that anyone who has been on the Internet for a week has discovered. You have to be especially specific when searching or you could end up with some really useless results.
As you can see, it becomes imperative that your page be listed in the top ten results returned by the search engine.
HOW DOES A SEARCH ENGINE DECIDE WHICH PAGES TO SEE FIRST?
In reality, each search engine has its own method of assigning value to each website you visit and choose to include in their listings. These determining factors are included in the instructions given to the spiders that visit the sites and the software that controls the search engine listings on the site. Often there are also humans who can override the decisions of software judges. This is what can make SEO a bit difficult. What is top priority for one search engine may not be as important for another. Of course, everyone is trying to figure out how to guess Google, but do not forget that there are other search engines that also provide traffic to many sites.
If you’ve already noticed that I’ve circled around the question, you’re right. You see, not much is actually known about the exact science by which search engines, particularly Google, select and rank the pages they display in response to a searcher’s query. However, a lot can be gleaned by looking at some of the sites that DO make it to the top of the list.
HERE ARE THE BASICS OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
1. Choose the target niche of your website. Don’t just put a site to travel. Make it a site to travel to Ireland. Better yet, make it a site for discount travel to Ireland. Even better, do it for discount family travel packages to Ireland. Each narrowing of the target reduces competition.
2. Choose a domain name that relates to your target words. In the example above, you might want traveltoireland.com. Unfortunately, someone beat us to it on that site, so now we have to play around with some ideas. Maybe we can still get traveltoireland.net. Unfortunately, someone beat us to that as well. Do not lose hope. There’s traveltoireland.biz, traveltoireland.us and traveltoireland.ws to look at. In fact, I just took a look and all three are available. If they weren’t, maybe we could have used irelandtravel.com or familytraveltoireland.com, although it’s getting a bit long… especially if we want to put it on a business card or a magnetic sign on our car.
3. Choose a title for your website that includes the basic idea and the words, keywords, that you hope people will search for. However, don’t just stick with words. Let it be a headline. It will be the first thing the search engine and the human learn about your site. Make it a headline that captures the attention of both … ahem … sensory apparatus. “Travel to Ireland on a dollar a day!”
4. Create a description that includes and expands on the information and keywords indicated in the title. Some search engines will display the first few words of a site, but others will display the description Meta tag. “Travel to Ireland doesn’t have to be expensive. Find out how you can visit the Emerald Isle for as little as a dollar a day.”
5. List five to ten keywords related to your topic. Make these words appear logically in the content of the site. “travel, ireland, travel to ireland”
6. Provide logical, relevant and valuable content throughout the site. Make sure your keywords appear at intervals, but don’t overuse them. Also make sure they appear on the first few lines of your site. “Welcome to our site where you will learn how to travel to Ireland without breaking the bank.”
These are just the first steps towards search engine optimization. There’s more to learn, like putting a statement with your keywords in the form of a title near the top of the page. You may find other high-ranking sites with content related to yours that could provide a link to your site, but don’t expect it at first. They usually want to link to sites as powerful as they are.
The main key to search engine optimization still seems to be quality content delivered in a consistent and streamlined package. Even some fairly simple sites rank well because they can provide the products. However, a ton of broken links and lots of coding errors, along with horrible site navigation, can make it hard for the search engine to find its way, let alone recommend the site to its users.
Above all, do not stay with this small article. There are many sites that offer information and even courses on search engine optimization. There are companies that specialize in search engine optimization for a fee. To get started, read some of the articles posted on sites like EzineArticles.com on the subject. I just checked and they have over 8000 articles mentioning the topic. Of course, some of them might not have anything to do with search engine optimization, but we knew that. That’s what search engines are like!