Search Engine Optimization Tips And Techniques

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a combination of several methods used to increase exposure to your website. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing are designed with the intention to provide the user with the most relevant information available. When you type in a phrase on the search engines, the pages listed in the top results are considered the best and most relevant websites for that term in the eyes of the search engine.

Although the exact details on how search engines determine which page is the most relevant is not openly available, several methods have been shown to be highly effective over the years. There are two main areas of focus when it comes to doing proper SEO.

The first area is on-page optimization. These are multiple on-page factors that can have a major impact on how well a website is ranked in the search engines.

1. HTML Title – The title needs to be relevant and contain the keyword that the website wishes to rank for.

2. Keyword-Oriented Content -- The keyword should appear a few times in the content to show relevancy. Using related words that are similar to the keyword is also a useful practice. However, it is important not to not use the keyword too often or the search engines may penalize the website. This is known as keyword stuffing, and search engines can easily detect it.

3. Proper Heading Tags – Heading tags that contain relevant keywords are also useful in the optimization process, varying them to be slightly different from the main keyword can prove useful in ranking.

4. Image Tags – Proper tagging of images also factors into optimization, using relevant ‘alt’ tags can increase the relevancy of the page.

5. Meta Description – This is a controversial factor, many experts think it is an unnecessary step to perform, but it can’t hurt rankings by any means.

The second area is off-site optimization. Off-site factors are arguably the most important when it comes to how well a website will rank in the search engines. Generally, backlinks are considered the most important of all of the off-site optimizations. A backlink is simply any website that points to another website. A good way to think of backlinks is to look at it as a voting system. The more backlinks, or votes that a website has, the more important it appears to be in the eyes of the search engines. However, there are several different qualities of backlinks that matter:

1. Page Rank of Backlink – Google has a system in place to rate how important it thinks a website is based upon the number of quality backlinks it has pointing to it. Google assigns a page rank to each page on a website between 0 and 10, the higher the rank, the more important Google thinks that page is. The page rank of the websites that link to other sites play a role in how well that website will rank. The more quality links that a website receives, the higher it will rank in the search engines. Other search engines may use similar methods, but SEO efforts should be geared towards Google as this is where the majority of search traffic comes from.


2. Relevancy Of Backlink – If you own a website about Dogs, then the best type of backlinks would be to get links from other sites about Dogs. Backlinks from sources that are unrelated don’t hold as much benefit. That is not to say that they are useless, but it is more beneficial to receive links from other relevant websites.

3. Links Extensions – The extension of the website that links to another website is of importance. For example, backlinks from websites that have a .edu or .gov extension would be highly beneficial to any website. Search engines put more trust into websites with those extensions, and therefore put more trust into the sites that they link to.

4. Number of Backlinks – If a website has a large amount of backlinks, the search engines will think that a lot of people think that website is important. This gives a website authority in the eyes of the search engines and will allow it to rank better overall.



Why Do It?

Traffic that comes naturally from the search engines is the most highly regarded traffic that a website can receive. Visitors who find your website naturally are highly targeted, and therefore profitable. Visitors from the search engines are searching for something, and if your website provides what they are searching for, then there is a profit to be made, whether it is financial, or otherwise.

This traffic is also consistent and doesn’t cost anything. A website just needs to be optimized correctly in order to receive it. This is why search engine optimization is such an important factor for a website. Performing proper SEO can be a time consuming process, but it pays off in the long run. Alternatively, using a SEO company that offers various SEO services can often expedite the process and save a significant amount of time. Without proper SEO, there is a good possibility that not many people will find your website unless you pay for traffic, which can end up costing a good deal of money in the long run.