Search Engine Optimization Help

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION HELP

Search Engine Optimization Help for Webmasters

Back in 1992 when I first went “online”, it was quite different than the massive amounts of content that are now available. AOL even looked paltry back then! Now there are more search engines, more websites, more content! More competition for sure!
Since then, it seems everyone has a website! From the 5 year old to the retiree, from the homeschooling mom to the real estate company owner – they all have a website.
Of course – having a website is fabulous! I highly recommend everyone get their feet wet. It’s creative, relatively easy and just plain ole fun.

BUT…. if you’re creating a website with the intention of selling something or drawing in traffic, then be ready. There is more than just building the website. Even if you plunk down $1000′s to have a slick, beautiful, well oiled website designed — if people can’t find it int he search engines…..forget it.
Marketing your business offline is always important, but to cash in on free, always flowing traffic from the search engines, you will need to put in more effort.

SEO has gotten harder. There are also those that choose to use….what is called “black hat” SEO techniques. I do not recommend that. Eventually it seems they all get caught – and then they are banned. Not a good thing.

Google alone has 100′s of variables that come into play when ranking a website. No one – I suppose other than Google knows what all of those variables are.

What is best when approaching search engine optimization? Content.

If you’ve heard this before… then take this as a reminder. You cannot offer something worthwhile if you don’t have anything worthwhile. When people come to your site, will they stay or will they click that back button and look for something else. Have you put thought into what you’re trying to convey or what you’re trying to promote? Is it helpful or useful?

Too many times people get hung up on the aesthetics on their website. They add music and images that aren’t optimized and lots of frou-frou junk that just mucks it up and makes it take for ever to load.

Think about who your audience is. What terms would they use to find your website. Make a list of those keywords and phrases and gear your site — page by page to each of those keywords.

Make your site easy to navigate and get around. Do not put tacky animated images all over the place that do nothing more than “fill space”. It may look cute to you – but the person seeking info or products on what you have to offer isn’t even going to notice them or worse yet, find them annoying!
There are many forums on the net that are geared totally toward search engine optimization help. Be warned – they can delve pretty deep and can be over the head of a beginner. Try to take it all with a grain of salt.

(We offer a board just for moms and small businesses wanting to discuss SEO and search engines.)

There are also several search engine optimization software products available if you want a more “automated” approach. The only one I’ve used before in the past is SEO Elite. Read more about the different types of search engine optimization software available.

I’ve known some that have loved SEO so much they decided to take classes and become certified. Because the search engine algorithms change constantly, I’m not sure how they go about taking that into consideration. BUT – there are basic steps to search engine optimization that I believe will always stick. Grasping these basics can go a long way to building your SEO foundation. Read more about Search Engine Optimization Certification.

To me…

The bare bones basics to SEO:

1. Find niche keywords. Use keyword tools and do searches to find out what people are actually using to find similar content to yours. Try to avoid the BIG, most used keywords. Go deep, find a niche.

2. Great Meta tags. Don’t keyword stuff.

3. Fabulous content! Add more content daily if you can!

SEO is an ongoing, slow going process. Don’t expect changes over night. Just stick with it and record where your pages rank and how their ranking is changing. Find similar sites to trade links with. (Make sure these are reputable, high quality sites).

SEO Software

SEO Certification