SEO Basics

 Basics of Search Engine Optimization

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the collection of techniques used to make a Website or Web page more visible in search engines like Google and thus increase the number of visitors to the site. Most of Search Engine Optimization is properly an engineering discipline and not "marketing." However, aspects of search engine optimization  like getting people to link to your pages, using e-mail newsletters to popularize your site and writing attractive content require marketing skills. The real goal of Search Engine Optimization is not to get high positions in search engines for your pages. The real goal is to get more visitors to your website.  

Why do you need Search Engine Optimization ( (SEO)?

Traffic from search engines should constitute the major source of visitors to your Website. Whether you are selling a product or just putting your thoughts on the Web, you probably want people to see them.

Basic Principles of Search Engine Optimizationon

The idea of SEO is to tell the search engines that a page or site exists, that it contains certain content that visitors want to read, and that other Web sites or Web pages trust the information in that page. The two basic elements of SEO are the keywords (a "keyword" is a word or phrase that people search for in search engines) that tell search engines and their visitors what is in the page, and the links that tell search engines the page exists and is trusted (has  Web Site Authority) and also help tell them what keywords are in it.

Goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The goal of SEO is to get high positions in search engine results for popular keywords, especially in Google, the most popular search engine. Studies show that visitors will click on the first 10 links retrieved by search engines, especially the first two or three, and ignore all the rest. If you are selling widgets, people find your site by searching for the word widgets in the search engine. If your site is at the top of the listings, you will get a lot of visitors - if a lot of people are looking for widgets.

What do you need to do for SEO?

All of Search Engine Optimization can be divided into three parts:

On Page Optimization -  Keywords and coding and content on a page.

Off Page Optimization - This usually refers to Links from other Websites.

Website SEO design - Link structure in your site, Type of software used to create your Web pages, size of your site.

The main things that need to be done for Search Engine Optimization:

Selecting the right software platform for new site.

Designing the structure of the site properly.

Selecting the right keywords - Keywords that visitors are searching for, for which there are not too many existing pages, and that represent your site or article theme. Those keywords are your Nichehe.  

On Page Optimization - Putting those keywords in the text and in "strategic" places in the page such as: The page <TITLE> tag in the code (See SEO in HTML Code, the headings of topics, and bottom of the page, and especially, of course in the text.

Using the keywords in links to the page or site, both inside your own website and in links from directories and other Web sites.

Exchanging links with other Web sites.

Search Engine Optimization can be done by everyone. Even if you do not know anything about HTML code, you can do a great deal to improve the visibility of your Web site in search engines. See SEO for Everyone. You can also hire an SEO consultant, but you should know enough about the subject so you can judge if you are getting fair service. 

The details are a bit more complicated. See The SEO Book.

All of SEO in one sentence

The essence of Search Engine Optimization is "Tell the search engines what your Web page is about, and convince them that you know what you are talking about."

The Cardinal Rule of SEO

The cardinal rule of any any service profession is "First, do no harm." (That's not in the Hippocratic oath of physicians though I bet you thought it is). In engineering disciplines, that translates as "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." If a page is among the first 5 or 10 listed for a keyword by a search engine, chances are anything you do to that page other than getting more links to it is going to push its listing down, rather than up. Make changes slowly and observe the effect. Be careful about changing existing and successful websites or pages even if they look terrible to you and seem to have all the wrong keywords. If a site is getting 10 or more visitors a week per page it is doing something right. Never remove existing page files (you can change the contents) and never change an established domain name unless there is a legal issue or some other overriding concern. . 

Does this guy know anything about SEO?

My main and oldest Web site is MidEastWeb: Middle East http://mideastweb.org. This table shows the position rank of various pages from that Web site for different keywords. You be the judge:

Notice: Copyright

More Links