The ABCs of SEO

How do you set up your web site to start getting people to be able to see it on the Internet? SEO and web site promotion are two things you must do in order for people to be able to find your web site and not doing both correctly, could mean the difference between success and failure online.

If you've done any type of marketing on the internet, you're probably familiar with the phrase search engine optimization or SEO. If you aren't, SEO is a marketing strategy employed by online professionals to get their web sites optimized to be favorably evaluated and listed by the various search engine directories. Even if you've only had limited experience being online, you've probably already done a search or two for a particular topic or product. You probably went to your favorite search engine, i.e., Google, Yahoo or Ask.com, typed a word or phrase into the search engine window and hit the enter key. Almost instantly, a page came up with ten different sites that relate to the word or phrase you typed into the search engine window. The search engines use there own formula to determine which web pages relate best to the terms you are searching for based on the SEO techniques employed by your web page and the popularity of your web page. They show the web pages best related to the terms you are searching for on the first page of the search results.

SEO is pretty much just an online popularity contest. Even though the formula that tells the search engines how to evaluate their findings changes quite frequently, there are some basics that are pretty constant. It is the basics that we will cover here today. Web site SEO in no particular order of importance include relavent keywords, meta tags, unique content, links with keyword rich anchor text, alt tags, heading tags, using a site map, contact page and about us page in your web site.

Keyword research is a good place to start. A free resource to help you do this is the Google Keyword Tool from Google. You'll need to find the keywords relavent to what your web page is about that people are already searching for on the Internet. You may have a good idea what words relate to your web page but if people aren't searching for the words you have in mind, they will not be able to find your site. Try to limit each web page to 1 - 2 keywords.

Use keyword in the link descriptions on your pages. This is called anchor text and if it is keyword rich, it will carry more weight with the search engines. If the link text on your page matches what the prospect is searching for on the Internet, it will show up as your web site description on some search engines. You can find out how to set up an anchor text by typing in anchor text html codes into your search engine window and review a reliable source.

Search engines love content, but not just any content. They love unique content. If your web page says the same thing as many other web pages do, the search engines will label it duplicate content and give your page a much lower ranking and make it hard for anyone to find your page. If you don't have enough unique content on your page, the search engines will devalue that page and give you a lower ranking for your page. Ideally, 500 words of unique content is best - 200 words of unique content is minimal.

Use H tags on your pages. H tags are heading tags and are usually larger than your regular text and in bold and range from H1 - H6. H1 tags are the most important to search engines and are best found near the top of your page. Use keywords in your h tags to tell the search engines that those words are very importance to the meaning of your web page. You can learn how to set up h tags by typing in h tag html codes into your search engine window and review a reliable source.

Including a site map, contact page and about us page will give your web site more authority and validity with the search engines which helps your site look more important. More important higher authority sites get higher rankings from the search engines.

About Author:
D Marie Holtz has been successfully building Global Domains International for the past 5 years. We teach you SEO and all the systems the leaders use to be successful. Learn more at our main website, Global Domains International

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