What is SEO?

Writen by Patricia Fason

SEO or search engine optimization is another facet of your website presence that you have to consider. Search engine optimization refers to techniques that are used to help you rank well in the search engines. There is a lot of debate over what search engines look for and how they rank you. There are a few rules that everyone pretty much agrees with.

• Look for keywords that you have a chance of doing well with. Targeting popular keywords makes it very difficult to reach the top 3 pages of a search and you can forget about making it to the top ten listings. Look for phrases that other people may not have considered optimizing for.
• Once you've found a keyword or phrase that you want to use, sprinkle it throughout the text of the page. Don't over do it or it will be considered spam. Just work them into the content of your page being sure you use your keyword phrase towards the beginning and at the end.
• Use your title tag and meta tags to reinforce your keyword phrase. Place the important words near the beginning of your page description.
• Links to your website are another part of SEO that you need to consider. You want links that come from places relevant to your content. If you can find ways to get links pointing to your site that do not require a link back, all the better. These links are more valuable to your rankings. You could write articles, post on bulletin boards, or have content or services that inspire people to link to you.

In my opinion, links pages may become a thing of the past as search engines seem to be ignoring them more and more. Links with content are the way to go. It can be very difficult to get a link on someone's site on a page that actually has some content and isn't just a lot of links. If you go this route, find a page on their site that your link would fit into. Find a page on your site that their link would fit into and then propose the link exchange with specifics on where and why you want to exchange links in this way, pointing out that it will also help their search engine rankings.

You may want to consider pay-per-click campaigns or paying for one way links. One of the techniques I've used on websites is to go with pay-per-click but bid on the lower end for keywords. Your money lasts longer as fewer people click but the websites displaying the link are giving you a one way link to your website.

In conclusion, no one has all the answers on SEO except, perhaps, the people who run the search engines themselves. Search engines are constantly changing to stay ahead of spamming techniques. The best way to obtain a popular website is through content. Make your content useful and keep it current. Optimize your site but don't obsess about it. Be patient and don't give up too easily as getting found generally takes several months. Lastly, don't buy into every SEO techinique that you read.

Patricia Fason is a writer and operates several websites. For more webmaster resources visit Webmaster Nook. You will also find tools that will help you with your SEO.