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What is Search Engine Optimization

For many business owners and webmasters, Search Engine Optimization SEO tends to be a grey area. We all know that we need it, but there are many conflicting viewpoints and techniques that are used to implement it. We’re going to break down SEO SEM into each of its many facets and explore what is SEO. Whether you have a simple personal blog you would like to promote or you need to interest new customers in your products, SEO marketing is an incredibly valuable tool, if it is used properly.

    First, let’s examine the actual term so that we can get a good grasp on the whole point of what SEO is and what it can do. Optimizing your site for search engines means that you are making it easy for them to discover you. By following their algorithms and implementing these techniques on your site, you are making it easy for their “spiders” to find you, index your site and list it in their directory.

    This does not necessarily mean that you are going to be ranked number one on a search engine if you optimize your site a little bit. It’s going to take a lot of effort to get to the top slot and in some cases, it may never be possible. However, you do have a very good chance of being listed in the top ten results, the ones that really matter, if you do implement an intensive, site-wide SEO program.

    Ok, so you want the search engines to find you and you want to be added to their directory. However, you also want your results to be well-ranked and visible for searchers. This is where SEO rankings can be a little difficult for some site owners. You’re going to need to predict what they will be searching for in order to ensure that your site will be one of the first things they will find.

    Research has shown that the top ten results displayed by a search engine are the ones that really matter. The top thirty is the goal for most sites, especially in industries that are already packed with well-known performers. Plain and simple, if you want to be noticed, you’re going to need to have your site appear in the first three pages of results. Anything beyond that reduces your chances of discoverability.

    How do search engines decide which sites should be ranked in those first three pages? While each one is different, the general rule of thumb when it comes to SEO optimization is that you have to focus on keywords, keyword density, keyword specific URLs and optimized titles. This can seem like a lot, especially if you have never tried website SEO. However, the techniques are actually quite easy to implement, once you get started. We’ll cover this later in this article.

    The sites that have the optimum combination of all of these factors will be the ones that ranked the highest in results. Now, there are those who believe that the amount of links into a site can also factor in how high they are placed in search results. While this is certainly true, numerous abuses have led search engines to stop relying on this as heavily as they did in the past. While links are certainly important, you have to know how to get smart links that will improve and not hinder your actual search engine ranking.

    So, now we have an idea of how search engine rankings work. Granted, the top three engines all have slightly different methods of calculating how they display their results, but overall, this is a general guide on how they operate. Now it’s time to get into actual search engine optimization marketing.

    Before you get started, you will need to focus on keywords. Remember earlier we mentioned that you will need to do some predicting here in order to be successful. Since you are sitting with your site visitors as they type in a keyword to find your products or site, you’ll need to have another way of determining which keywords are already working for you and which ones you should be using.

    Google offers a free analytic package that tracks the different keywords that visitors are using to discover your site. This is probably the best way to start implementing SEO on your own site. We recommend installing Google Analytics and letting it run for about two weeks before you start seriously planning your search engine marketing. You can look at these keywords as organic SEO, since they are already being used, even if you don’t know about it.

    Once you have that market research complete, take a look at the list of keywords you have. The most popular ones are sometimes called the “short tail.” The ones that are not as commonly used are called the “long tail.” While many companies prefer to focus only on the short tail, since results are most instant, a well crafted search engine promotion will balance this by adding long tail keywords as well.

    Go over the list and look for other keywords that are related to what people are already using. Once again, these organic search engine optimization techniques will help you improve what is already working for you. Now that you have these words, you’ll need to create your own list of keywords that you believe are well suited to your site and your products. Don’t worry if the list is overly long at this point. You main goal here is to get as many words as you can.

    The next phase of SEO optimization will be to figure out how popular these keywords are. There are many tools that you can use, both offline and on, that will give you an idea of how many people typically use those keywords. Google offers some fantastic free tools for this purpose as part of their AdWords program. Pull out the highest ranked keywords but don’t forget your long tail! You are now prepared to start your own SEO marketing campaign.