Search Engine Optimization Basics

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a very broad and multifaceted term and endeavor that seeks to elevate a web pages in the organic rankings so that a business will receive more targeted traffic. Since, many websites, books, blogs and other published content exists on all of the nuts and bolts of search engine optimization, what is presented here is just an overview of the basics so that one may become familiar with what SEO is and how it works.

Search engine optimization is basically performed in four parts at the core (though many SEOs will add to or take away from this core. Search engine optimization contains keyword research, on-page optimization, link-building and results tracking.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation of search engine optimization. If you don't know the precise keyword phrase that you want to optimize a web page for, then how do you expect to rank well in the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Keyword research will tell you the popular and perhaps even competition for a particular phrase.

On-Page Optimization

On-Page optimization includes picking a keyword phrase to center a web page around. Search engine are text animals. They eat and breath text. If there is no text on a page such as pages with only images, video or Flash graphics, a search engine may not be able to read, index and display the results because it doesn't know what this page is about.

So, in order to let the search engine know the theme of a page, there needs to be text on it. The page also needs to have keyword phrases on that page that explain to the search engine the theme. These keyword phrases need to be in the body text, headlines, title and meta tags at least for a page to perform well in the search engines.

Link-Building

Why go to the trouble of putting up a website if no one can find it. Now it is true that you can do email marketing or other forms of offline marketing that will direct people to your website. But, the most effective way to get customers to come to your site is to put links on other relevant sites pointing towards your website.

Link-building has the dual advantage of offering direct traffic through the links and higher search engine rankings due to the fact that the SE's count links as a vote for your site and the more votes, the higher the rankings (in general).

Results Tracking

Now, how about if you do the keyword research, on-page optimization and link-building for a website, but you don't have a grasp of how well it is doing? You may see more traffic or sales or notice some of your keyword phrases in different places in the rankings, but you still don't have a handle on what's gone right, wrong and what is lagging and will get better over time?

Results tracking through search engine ranking reports offers a method to show customers how well their pages are performing before optimization, in the near-term after optimization and in the long-term after optimization.

These are the basics of search engine optimization. Much more detail may be found upon this website and our blog, so please look around and let us know if you have any questions.

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