Basics of On-Site SEO
On any given topic and for any given search term, there are often millions of relevant pages. The goal of a good search engine is to rank these pages in order of relevancy within the search results pages.
When we talk about “SEO”, or “search engine optimization”, what we are really talking about is helping the search engines to understand what your web page is about. Within search engine optimization, there is “on page” SEO and “off-site” SEO.
On Page SEO deals with the way you present the text on the page and the meta data associated with that page.
Keyword Research
The first thing to do when optimizing web pages is to research your keywords. We recommend Wordtracker.com for the most accurate keyword search data.
Meta Tags
After you've done the done your keyword research, place your keywords in the meta keywords tag:
<META NAME="Keywords" content="search engine optimization, seo, sem, search engine marketing, search engine placement">
The meta keywords tag does not carry a lot of weight, but it is taken into consideration by some search engines.
Meta Description
The meta description tag is a must-do. The meta description carries at least a little weight in several search engines. An abstract of the meta description is often used by search engines in the search results pages.
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Professional search engine optimization by respected industry leader, Patrick Gavin.">
The Title Element
Of all the on page factors, the title element, casually referred to as the page title, carries the most weight.
<TITLE>Widgets - Wide Selection of Widgets at Wholesale Prices</TITLE>
Try to include your keywords along with a promotional blurb which gives the consumer to choose your site instead of the competition.
Headings
Using heading within the body copy of the page is not just good SEO; it also helps the reader anticipate the subject of the page (H1 tags) or the subject of the paragraph (h2 tags). The key here is to include your keywords within the headings:
<H1>History</H1>
Although it's short and sweet, this heading won't help you rank for the keyword “widgets”. A simple edit here and there can work wonders:
<H1>The History of Widgets</H1>
Bold & Italics
Although there is no definitive proof, it is widely believed that using your targeted keywords in bold text and in italics helps search engines to identify your page as most relevant to those search terms.
Basics of Off-Site SEO
Reciprocal Linking
One popular way of acquiring links is to set up a “resources” area on your own websites, and then email webmasters of other websites and request a link exchange.
The drawback to this method is that it can look tacky to have hundreds of reciprocal links on your professional site. It is also extremely time consuming.
Writing Articles
One of the few ways to get low cost links is to write content that either generates links on its own, or that you allow reprinting of in exchange for a link-back. BBC and other news sites are linked to a hundred times or more each day because of the uniqueness of the content. If you are in a position to publish news and other informative articles on your website, by all means do so.
A variation of this is in allowing others to reprint your articles on their websites in exchange for a link-back to your website. For any given topic, there are hundreds of resource sites hungry for content. Just be sure to request a clickable, search-engine index able link. If the link isn't search engine index able, you're simply helping a website that may be competing for the same keywords that you are trying for.
Sponsoring Websites
One of the most efficient ways of generating thousands upon thousands of links to your website is by sponsoring other websites. The beautiful thing about sponsoring other sites is that it exposes your product or service to the user base of a website that has already been established, and allows you to focus on promoting your products.
