Who needs SEO
Everybody needs traffic. Traffic is the surfing population who search the Internet for things they want. Getting more people interested in seeing your site, reading what you have written and getting them involved in the future actions is the aim of SEO. Search Engine Optimization is the rule that helps govern the traffic. Let us see this beginner's guide to SEO to know what it is.
Mostly marketers and social networking sites need SEO. Nevertheless, they find use in those government sites too, because proper management of the traffic flow increases the speed of the site. When the site is fast, it improves the efficiency and holds the interest of the surfer.
Learn the SEO basics; private bloggers who have a good SEO for their pages will find more readers. They Return on Investment ROI, figures prominently in those places where there is a big financial outlay. Interestingly, SEO is not a rule but only a guideline.
What is SEO? A beginner's guide to SEO
Everybody is writing and creating blogs about everything. Why should it matter if we write as they do? Is there any guideline to writing and if there, why and where does it matter?
This is the core of SEO, the big sun in the Internet universe. It is the energy supplier, the driver for the entire mechanism and sometimes the provider for those the lost and stranded surfers.
Each of the search engines has a different approach to classifying sites and web pages. The Meta description helps the engine to categorize using the words that convey the content or matter within the site. You could say that it is like the introduction to the essay you are about to write.
What happens is this. The engines do the search for you when you click on something. Yahoo, Bing and Google are the most popular engines around. Without these, you will not be seeing anything at all. Optimization for the search engines or SEO helps the web designer in many ways. Let us see more in this beginner's guide to SEO
Reading the descriptions of the site is much easier and faster than reading the entire site content. Therefore, when you type in the word "Lumber", the search engines will list all the sites having "lumber" in their content. Obviously, those sites that do not contain the keyword will not considered in the initial run up.
Impact of SEO
SEO thus cuts down the time required to search and reach your target page. It helps readers by putting those pages with clear and useful content on top of the rest. This is one of the SEO basics that creates the competition, the need to survive drives the web site creators and owners to find better things to put on their site and present them in a better fashion.
Content and Keywords are integral unitsContent is the essay you are writing on the Internet page. This could be your own page or it could be a blogging site. If your content is meaningful, there will be more readers. Keyword is the tool the search engine uses to pinpoint the sites. If your site contains the keywords "lumber", "transporting" and "varieties", anyone who is searching for types of timber or wants wood transported will land on your site. Alternately, if the surfer is searching for timber furniture he will not see your site in the first instance.
Relation between the two
Search engines have a criterion to determine how useful the site is and how relevant it is to the topic. One site that has "hair" and "fashion" as the keywords will be about barbers and hair stylists. It will deal with the costs and location of the hair styling store. Another site with the keyword "hair" and "treatment" will have hair creams, hair lotions, hair curling and straightening equipment as the content.
How it affects the search engines and crawlers
Crawlers are robots used by the search engines. These will scan the site and find out, what the keyword is, and how well organized the site is. If the topic and keyword have no synchronization, the crawler will give a bad result. If the topic has relation to the keyword and the content has good structural unity, it will give a good result.
A good result will result in a better page ranking. This means your website will be looked up more often than the others. Traffic to your website increases. If you have a marketing website, you will get more sales because more visitors means more conversions.
Targets that you hope to achieve
SEO helps increase the traffic. How does this matter to you? It depends on what you are looking for.
Sites Linking to other sites is useful. The search engines will read this link as a categorization and this will push you up the rankings. When you have connections to sites having the same interests, say all sites that offer music download; the search engines will put your site in that class.
Audience
When people search for music downloads, your site will come out on top. It is simple operation of the SEO basics. If you are selling music, you will get more customers. If you are only interested in creating a worldwide network of music lovers, this will help you a lot.
Performance of site
This is well brought out in the beginner's guide to SEO. Sites that rank on top will load faster. This is because they get more importance by the search engines. You want to get information about rattraps. A site tells you:
a) What is a rattrap?
b) How to build one?
c) Material that one should use to build
d) Time and effort required
e) Types of rats one may catch
f) How to deploy it?
Another site tells you:
i. Stores that sell rat traps
ii. Costs involved
iii. Location of the store
iv. Online ordering capacities
v. Types of rat traps available
It is like this. When a person wants to buy a rattrap, he puts in the words, rattrap and cost. If the person wants to take up the hobby, he or she will type in the words, rattrap and methods of building. Obviously the two look in different directions.
When the person has commercial interests, his keywords will be different. Using the best keyword will help increase the sale if you are commercially minded.
Structuring your page for improved performanceEvery webpage is the same. Is there any difference between the one you just saw and the next one? The content needs arrangement according to the following guidelines. Let us examine the SEO basics.
Pleasing content
The surfer must like what he reads. Reader interest determines whether your site is successful or not. If the readers gives the "thumbs down", invariably the content, however useful it is, will go down the drain. To reach for the skies, you need to maintain the interest, right from start to finish.
On page Optimization
This is the use of keyword, use of logic flow and using beautiful pictures to illustrate some point. Attractive pictures capture the attention and if there are ideas portrayed, they will be easier to understand. The ideas must flow from the start to the finish. If there is a break, the reader will need to go back, and he or she will lose interest. The keyword brings the search engines, helps the surfer find the page and the flow of ideas makes him or her stay there. This is 'on page optimization'.
Off page optimization
Links to important sites helps bring people to your site. They click on the link present on that site and arrive at your site. Put some links from important and leading sites pointed to your site. Social networking sites will have forums where important things are under discussion. Putting a link there will drive some traffic towards your website. Search engines will see the link and give your site a good result.
Balance the content
Visual
If the page is not uniformly presented, if there are pieces of information in corners and there is no continuity, the reader will quickly turn to the next website and ignore your webpage. Secondly, for good SEO, the pictures or graphics need to be attractive and pleasant. If the colors are too bright, the reader will avert his eyes. The ideas must flow smoothly.
Written material
The presentation should be neat and concise. The reader must be able to refer to the points discussed easily. The topic must have a clear direction. Reader participation should be encouraged. Do this through opinion forms and comment boxes placed on the pages.
If there is a change in the subject, offset this through paragraphs. If the topic is entirely different, open a new title for that subject. Do not confuse the reader.
Keep all material related to the topic within the same page. The reader will not have to click a hundred times to cover the material on the subject. If the material is too vast, there should be links in the sidebar or the navigation bar to help the person negotiate easily to the place he or she wants.
Links to peer sites
The beginner's guide to SEO will tell you about peer sites. Peer sites are those sites that have been around for a long time. Search engines give importance to these sites. More than precedence, the staying power tells whether the site is interesting or whether it is just presenting a passing storm. Having a link to a peer site will ensure search engines that your site is presentable and that it is easily classifiable. Moreover, the search engines call the peer sites first. This way your site will get a rank much ahead of the other sites that do not have a peer link.
Knowing what to avoid
There are things in SEO that will kill your website. One is unethical practice. If any search engine catches a site indulging in illegal practices, they will ban the site forever.
Site stagnation
Another thing that kills the site is stale content. If the engines detect something stale, it will bypass the site for one having fresh content. Putting fresh content on the site will ensure that the search engines call the site up before the others.
Links to unpopular sites
Some sites are notorious. They are the ones that habitually promote illegal stuff and indulge in malpractices to fool the search engines. Links to such sites will lower the ranking of the site. If your site has links to too many such sites, there is a chance that your site categorization is under the 'notorious' class.
Bright visuals that hurt the eyes
Using too many bright pictures will make the person irritated. The pictures will confuse the person instead of giving him or her a clear picture. For good SEO, if you use colors, choose the ones that are not too bright. They will distract the mind and the reader will lose concentrations.
Use analysis for getting an idea of the performance of your site
Most search engines will give you site statistics. This is the ranking of the page, the number of visitors and the popularity of the page. Some of them will charge a nominal amount for the services.
Keep track of the site
It is imperative to know how you site is faring. It tells you whether you are doing the right things and using the correct approach. There may be changes that you must make to keep within the working conditions. These will announced from time to time and you need to make changes, as they are required.
Use the analysis for checking on the competition
The analysis also works to help you determine the status of the competition. Search the site of the competition and analyze the keyword used. Find how the site is different and what the visitors want from that site. You could incorporate the important elements that are working for them in your site. Comparing contents and keywords helps determine the missing elements in your site.
Use better applications
When a site has faster applications that deliver effortlessly, the readership increases. The popularity of the site spreads and the ranking goes up overnight. It is good SEO technique to use the best applications when you are designing your site. Avoid overcrowding the site with applications and gizmos. The surfer will spend more time trying out the gizmos than reading what you have written.
Lastly, SEO is not about mechanism. It is about regulation. The site that is well organized will respond readily and deliver results faster. A site that reads well is a pleasure to behold for the surfer. It takes time to know how to reach there but try it. This beginner's guide to SEO will help you to get there.
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