The Basics of Search Engine Optimization

by Rick Carbone

There are many claims about SEO Search Engine Optimization on the Internet today but only a handful are worth investing in. If you don’t understand what SEO actually is, I will briefly describe it below.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of modifying your website to rank well, for specific keywords, in search engine results pages or SERPs. An example would be someone searching for home business information and using the search phrase "home business." In either Google, Yahoo, Bing or any other search engine. The results pages list all of the websites that each search engine has indexed and ranked for that specific search phrase. How the results are organized and their ranking is the result of the importance each search engine has placed on each of these sites. Search Engine Optimization is the technique that is used to help websites rank better for a given search word or search phrase.

Each Search Engine has their own method of ranking. They use sophisticated statistically based scoring algorithms to make this determination. The general public, much like the credit industries’ FICO score, does not know what exactly comprises the components of these scoring algorithms as they are kept proprietary. However, just like credit scores, there are some individuals that have made some educated assumptions on what actually goes into these scores.

There are some very smart statisticians out there that have tested a lot of different characteristics and made some educated guesses about what characteristics are important in these ranking algorithms. There are only a few that come to mind and I pay close attention to what they have to say.

What is known are some characteristics that will improve your overall ranking and help to position you on the first or second page of the search engine results pages. The following are some basic but highly effective tactics that should help you.

Site Content: This is very important. Almost all websites that rank high in the SERPs have strong content with their primary keyword or keyword phrase prominent throughout the article or content piece. What’s important here is not to overuse these keywords in your content. Be sure though that they are used, but used sparingly throughout you articles. There are some good tools out there that can help you with proper keyword density.

Backlinks: Backlinks are the result of having your content or articles on other websites with a link back to your site. The easiest way to do this is to write and distribute articles that relate to your website niche and distribute them to article directories, blogs and other websites. This can be automated but be very careful how and what you choose. The search engines will pickup on this.

Link Exchanges: Having two way links is important but DO NOT over do it. And do not trade links with other websites that do not have any relevance to your website or blog. If you join a link exchange service be sure that you only exchange links with sites that have a similar niche or have some connection to what you are doing. Also limit these two links to well below one hundred. Too many and you’ll be penalized.

One Way Links: This is what is referred to as "off-page SEO" and they are tough to come by. However you can place anchor text on various sites for a fee. This isn’t a bad idea but a very expensive one. By the way anchor text is creating a link on another site by using a keyword or keyword phrase attached to your link. This is done by using a simple html tag commonly referred to as an href tag.

If your website content is strong you will be linked to by other sites as a matter of course.

That’s about it under the heading of basic SEO concepts. If you want to employ a firm to manage the SEO for you, you will pay for it because it doesn’t come cheap. Be sure though to thoroughly research the company you use and ask for references. I am sure that you can get them as long as they aren’t in the same field as yours.