Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basics
Search engine optimization (or just SEO) is the process of obtaining rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing on the basis of the quality of your website. SEO should be your long term objective because, after your initial investment, most search positions can be retained at relatively little cost. To succeed with SEO, the first step is always to establish what search terms, also known as keywords, your potential customers are using when searching for your products and services online. You want to find out which specific keywords will bring the most visitors to your website. For example, approximately 3 times as many people search for kitchen door handles each month as internal door handles, despite them being essentially the same item. On-site optimization is the next SEO consideration. This involves altering page names, meta tags, headings and the anchor text used for internal links to include your chosen keywords and phrases, thus ensuring that the search engine robots (known as spiders) can determine what your website is about. Content is also rewritten to include relevant keywords throughout the site. The best approach is to have each page of a website target one specific keyword or phrase. Still, the rewritten content must also make perfect sense to humans (writing it solely for the search engine spiders is a big mistake). You need great content; not only will it convince potential customers to buy your product or service, but informative, exciting content is often referred to on forums and blogs, and each time your content is referred to you will likely get a link pointing to your website. Each back link from an established, good quality website is seen by the search engines as being an indication that your website is a quality one, and so boosts your search positions accordingly.
