Actually, Search Engine Optimization and Web site promotion are not for everyone. There are
organizations that maintain Web sites as a service to their customers and members, that are not particularly interested
in using the Web to promote their business or as a means of communication. There are also bloggers who for one or
another reason don't care if people do or do not read what they write. SEO is not for them.
Before we go on with yet more technical aspects of Search Engine Optimization, you should be aware that even if you
know nothing at all about html coding and complex algorithms, there are simple things you can do as a Web author that
are very important in optimizing a Web page or Web log page for Search Engine visibility. You know by now that keywords
and links are the major factors in optimization, and you can use that knowledge without any extra effort and without
coding anything, to make your site or page more popular.
Title - The key word of a page or site or article should ALWAYS be in the title. Authors often like to make
clever titles like "To Be or Not to Be" or "A Modest Proposal." However, search engine users looking for those phrases
probably want to know about Jonathan Swift or Mr Shakespeare, and not about your widget company or political views. If
your article is about Widgets, the title should include the word Widgets, and if it is about George Bush, then
Bush should be in the title. One consequence of using the keyword in the title, is that in Web logs for example,
every automatic link to the page from the main page or archives or categories pages will contain the key word, since
those links use the title.
Content - Of course, you need to repeat the key word at least a few times in the text.
Internal Links - Usually Web authors and bloggers create links to different articles (their own and others)
within the article they are writing and from other pages. Those links should always use the keywords or title of the
article if it includes the keywords, and not "here" or "more." Search engines do not know what content hides behind
"more" or "here." If the title of the article is "Widgets for everyone" then link to the article with the hypertext
"Widgets for Everyone."
External Links - Be sure to create a place for link exchanges in the side bar of your Web log or in a side bar,
separate page or pages in your Web site. Then invite other bloggers and Web site owners to exchange links with you.
Directory Submissions - Everyone can and should submit their site or blog to the
appropriate category in the Dmoz directory and in major search engines - particularly Yahoo.
Submissions to Google are unnecessary - their spider will find
you if you are listed elsewhere.
Publication Platforms - Different types of publication platforms have sprung up that allow
you to post an article that can link to your Web site as well as expressing your views or a link to an article. Examples
include:
Real Clear Politics
Gather
OpEd News
These platforms are generally for political or other noncommercial fare. There are also
exploitation sites that allow you to post articles that are essentially there as advertisement for your site or
product. Once they are there, the articles are "free content" that anyone can copy. Don't put anything precious to you
in those sites.
Social Networking - Stumble Upon, Digg, Yahoo!, Google and others all offer facilities for
users to publicize articles and Web sites they happen to like. If you are writing about a "hot topic" you may get a lot
of visitors by including code for referrals to these sites in your Web log or pages.
Banner Exchanges and Rings - Banner exchanges and Web site rings generally contribute few
if any visitors. Banners are generally to be avoided because they annoy viewers. They are often suppressed by browser
software add-ons.
