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By Amy R. Derr
What is SEO or search engine optimization?
SEO is the science of getting your website listed at the very top of the search engine rankings. Search engine rankings are the results, the long list of websites, which come up when you use a search engine like Google, Yahoo, MSN or any number of the hundreds of search engines available.
So for example you want to know more information about diabetes. You go to your favorite search engine, which in most households is Google, and you type in diabetes. The list that comes back are the search engine results and where each particular website lands in these results, whether they’re on page 1 or 101, is their ranking.
What do you do when you use a search engine? Chances are you only look at the first couple of pages to find the website or websites you choose to visit. The higher a website lands in the rankings, the more likely a person will visit their website. So you can see why so many companies spend so much time, money, and energy trying to improve or optimize their site for the search engines.
So how do search engines find your website and how do they decide what page it lands on?
Each search engine has ‘spiders’ or ‘bots’ that crawl the web. The spiders look at each webpage they visit to identify content, keywords etc. Once the spiders have visited a webpage, it is stored in the search engine’s database and is indexed according to the content the spiders found.
While SEO optimization is best left to experts who understand Search engine algorithms and have a proven track record of improving a website’s rankings, there are a few key ingredients or factors search engines look for and make note of.
Search engines make note of keywords. Keywords are words that people might use to find your website and it is important that a few important keywords are included on your web page. For example, if you have a business devoted to fitness coaching, you might want to include ‘personal coach’ in the content on your webpage. You can also include your most important keyword in your title tag in your html code and/or your description information.
Search engines also look to see if you have links coming into your site from other websites, blogs, forums etc…It is important that these links come from relevant and reputable websites. There’s a risk of associating your site with what’s politely called “link farms” and many search engines penalize you for associating with these sites. There are many strategies to increase quality linking to your site. Among them are article marketing, blogging and networking, and joint venture partnerships.
One of the most effective means of improving your search engine ranking is to publish relevant content on your website. The more relevant content you have, the better the search engines will rank you. Relevant content, articles, blogs, forums, etc…are all a great way to create content for the search engines to recognize.
Search engine ranking has a direct effect on the number of visitors your website receives. It is an important part of building a successful online business and it pays to understand how search engines operate and why they are important to your business and your bottom line. There are many SEO strategies that you can do yourself, like writing content, however it pays to have an SEO expert on your side. They can help you register your site with the search engines, map your site to make it search engine friendly, and even help you find the best keywords for your site and your target audience.
About the Author:
Amy Derr seeks to help business owners and organizations market themselves effectively online. She is a Professional Web Designer who owns and operates Insiteful Web Design (http://www.insitefulwebdesign.com), a full-service web design firm.
This article may be reprinted as long as the "About the Author" blurb stays in place.
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