SEO For Beginners

By Amy Winters


More and more businesses are realizing the importance of an on-line campaign. The age of the phone book is over and customers are using Google and various social media channels to find products and services. Looking at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) reveals a seemingly endless array of topics ranging from on-page changes to links and Pay Per Click (PPC) options. On top of that misinformation is rampant making it even more difficult to decide on a course of action. Which are really necessary? Here are some great ideas for making the most of your SEO activities.

For one, SEO is a process and committing to it is necessary. You won't see dramatic change overnight or even in several weeks. Optimizing for a competitive term can take months to years. Identify a strategy that works and then set out a plan to implement it. If you're trying to optimize for a small market you may have good success more quickly and easily.

Do research for keywords and key-phrases. Building a site around poorly constructed or poorly researched phrases is a recipe for failure. The first component to a successful SEO campaign is proper research. There are free tools available like Google Keyword Tool or WordTracker that provide some analysis of keywords. The key is look at the volume of each word or phrase comparative to others. The more volume usually means the more difficult the phrase would be to obtain due to competition.

You may need to change actual copy on your webpage so it contains your keywords. This is considered organic or on-page SEO. A page's title is the most important on-page factor as it gives readers and the search engines a focused idea on what each page is about. Make them unique and have them include the keywords you researched. A page's meta description is also important and, with the title, gives a more detailed description of what each page is about. You should also include these keywords and phrases on the actual page(s) themselves.

Another big on-page factor is using the proper anchor text. Linking to a different page or back to your home page with the words "Home" or "Click Here" is worthless from an SEO angle. Instead use anchor text that includes your targeted keywords or phrases. You can also ensure that your internal pages include properly anchored links to other pages on your site in addition to the home page as this will also improve your search engine visibility.

Finally, content is going to be a very important factor. If you create a poorly organized site or one that doesn't contain anything useful, you can expect poor results. Even if you can attract a large volume of traffic to your site, those users will go elsewhere if they're not satisfied with yours. Quality content extends to off-site tactics also. Submitting to article marketing sites with poorly created content may provide some benefit but if you're content is well written, it will be far more effective.




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