The Basics of Search Engine Optimization

SEO Basics: The Do's And Don'ts
By Travis Mullins

There are a lot of people who can grasp the general idea of search engine optimization (SEO), but still have no idea on how to go about the entire process. Unfortunately, not knowing the basic do's and don'ts in SEO will create some problems for you and your website later on, so you must learn them as soon as possible.

The basic concept of search engine optimization is that you can improve the page ranking of your site on search engines by using certain techniques and methods to help your site get indexed and ranked. By following this simple guide on what to do and what not to do, you should be able to get the desired results that you want to achieve in SEO.

Domain name importance

A good domain name, such as a dot com, can actually play a major role in your site's page ranking, so make sure that you invest in a good domain name. People tend to trust domain names such as a dot com more over other types of domain names, and thus, they tend to look for sites that have this type of domain name. This can already give you an edge over your competition, so make sure that you do invest in a good domain name.

Keyword is key

One of the more important things that you should remember when dealing with SEO is that you must learn what keywords or tags to use for association to your website. Knowing which keyword to associate to your site will help drive the right traffic to your site, as well as make it easier for your site to get discovered by people online.

Once you figured out what keywords you want to use, try to place them in key locations, such as in the content or body of the title tag, since these are the places wherein search engines will give the greatest weight in the entire optimization process. Also try to use the keywords that you have chosen in your URL's, as well as in your HTML title tags, for these will also provide you with a boost in your page ranking.

Try to avoid using keywords that are too general, for chances are, a lot of sites would be using the same keyword, and this will definitely make it even more difficult for you to get high up in the rankings when you target general keywords, such as "lawyer", or "music".

Also make sure that you don't overuse your chosen keyword, like using the same keyword three or four times within one sentence, for search engines are now monitoring this, and doing this can take your site out of the page rankings.

Relevant content is a must

The content of your site should be given a lot of importance, so do take the time to provide your site with relevant content in order to give your site the competitive edge to beat other sites that are also associated with your choice of keyword. Always bear in mind that there are other sites out there offering the same web content, so whoever offers the more relevant and superior content will win over the site visitor.

You will also need to take note of keywords that you use on your content's titles and body. Since search engines tend to look into these aspects of your site, you need to focus the use of your keywords to certain parts of your content in order for you to be able to optimize your website so it would be discernable from other sites offering the same content.

Build links

Make sure that your site is not a "dead end" by building links with other sites that have relevant content to yours. By doing this, you can actually keep the traffic going from your site, to another's, and then back to your site. You might think that building links with other sites will redirect traffic away from your site, but It actually does the exact opposite.

Instead, it creates a lot of ways for traffic to get redirected to your site through the use of other people's sites, thereby also helping in your site's page ranking later on, as well as help in getting traffic to go to your site without them having to access your site directly.

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