Search Engine Optimization – Basic Knowledge

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process of choosing the most appropriately targeted keyword words or phrases relating to your site’s niche. You’re trying to ensure that these rank your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for those specific keywords or phrases, the search engine returns your site as high up the results as possible.

It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate back-link building process. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves which used to be great though seems to have died off some what. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually.

Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine. New sites used to require manual submission to search engines to be listed but that’s not really needed these days. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its content. So, you could simply syndicate your rss feed to aggregators.

It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site. But there are tricks to speed up the indexing and even ranking to get you many positions on the first page of say Google.

If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues. It takes time but its not difficult as the principles are just about the same and the main ranking factors remain to be backlinks. The more back-links you get for your site the better but try and avoid links from questionable sites.

Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan of your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. They may pick other keywords to optimize your site around to the ones you have. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website. They’ll make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and rankings high. Normally your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time. You may not need that much attention but pointers in the right direction and regular reviews.

We have covered the very basic of search engine optimization here but we’ll be digging deeper in this free traffic driving field in the coming posts.

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