What is SEO?
Internet usage is increasing dramatically, as is the number of websites created each and every day. This is making it harder and harder for any new website (or existing one for that matter) to feature prominently on the search engine results pages. What of there were a way of enabling your web site to be understood by the search engines and thus featured highly on the results page? There is, it is called SEO. What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is the process by which a web site is able to inform the search engines what the site is about and how people can find it. This article will deal with some of the most popular principles on how to make your website SEO ready.
The title tag
This is what your page is about, it should be the primary keyword if possible and include your business name. If you are a business, it's also a good idea to put your phone number here so it too is prominent. It also tells the search engines that you are a legitimate business. It also provides a call to action by your visitors.
Meta description
Here you can be a little more descriptive as to the purpose of your site. Again, include your primary keyword here.
HTML tags
These are tags that can be used to further emphasize your chosen keywords. The h1 tag for example, is the primary tag you can use to make a prominent header and again, the search engines utilize this signpost in determining what your page is about. You can also use the more minor header tags as well as bold, italics and underline techniques.
Keyword research
You should already have done this and found several keywords that you can use throughout your site. Your primary one is normally used on your home page and now is the time to create the content. They keyword should appear on average two to three times for every hundred words you write.
This page will now be optimized for your main keyword, and now with your other keywords, you can do the same for other pages on your site.
It is also a good idea to include links both internally and a few externally on your site
For every link you create, try to use the keyword as the link itself, rather than "click here" or just the address. Also link back to your home page using the same method from other pages on your site.
Have any images on your pages?
Then always use your keyword as part of its filename and also add your keyword to the alt tag it possesses.
These are the most common and simplest techniques you can use to optimize your web page in order to tell the search engines what your site is about. It is still only a small part of the overall picture, and many off page optimization techniques need to be used in conjunction with these. So what is SEO? SEO is the process by which a web site needs to be optimized for in order for the search engines to find it and to rank it well for the chosen keyword.