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If you have a website and you want people to view it. Perhaps you have some valuable information you wish to share or you have products you want to sell. Whatever the purpose, in order to be successful you will need to drive traffic to your site. Optimising your site for the search engines is one way you can do this for free. Or you may chose to simply pay for adverts.

Search engine optimisation often referred to as simple SEO is a way to get visitors to your site free of charge. It can be a very confusing subject for most people. In this article we aim to explain the key elements of it and most importantly how you can work it to your advantage.

The first thing to clarify is that SEO has two parts. The first is what you do with your website to maximise its ranking in the search engines results. This is called on site optimisation. The second part of SEO is links back to your site. Search engines love sites that are popular. This is called back links. We will explore both in this article and give you some tips as to how to go about maximising your SEO for any site you own.

On site Optimisation.

There are 5 areas in a website that search engines look that will affect your site’s ranking in search results. Before we look at these areas let us first understand what it is that the search engines are looking for. The answer is keywords. When someone enters a search they are entering keywords which may be a single word or a group of words. Search engines are looking for sites that contain the keywords someone is searching for. Sounds obvious huh? You would be amazed how many people do not connect the dots in this area.

So to maximise your site for SEO you simply need to make sure that in the critical areas that search engines look you have the top keywords for the subject of your site. This latter is key or course, it is no good having keywords on your site that are of no relevance to the content of your site.

The areas of your site where search engines look are predominantly as follows:

Domain name. How many people overlook this? Do you have a domain name that proudly displays your own name? If you do you are missing an SEO trick. Make your domain name a high performing keyword and you increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.

Site Title. Now this one is probably obvious. Make sure your title for your site contains a top keyword for your niche.

Site Description. This is what the search engines will display in the search results, and if it contains a few high performing keywords for your niche then you will increase your chances of appearing on page one of the results.

Page Title. Now this is an area often overlooked. Do you have a page title for your home page of “home”? If you do you are missing out on SEO. You do not have to repeat keywords on your site, in fact you will get better results if you use a variety. Be careful though, do not overdo it. Search engines do not like it if you over crowd your site with keywords. Make sure the sentences make sense and are not just one keyword after another.

First Paragraph. Search engines will scan the first paragraph for keyword relevance. Again be careful here to avoid simply making sentences from an amalgam of keywords. On average 2-3 keywords for a paragraph of 20-30 words should be fine.

The second area of SEO is back links. This is where you have other sites containing a link to the URL of your site. The more links you have the higher the ranking in the search engines. How you get these links will be the topic of another article.

by Ivana Katz

“How do I get my website to come up on top of the search engines?” – That is one of the most frequently asked questions I get asked by clients.

The truth is, it’s not easy. With millions of websites on the internet right now and thousands being added each month, everyone is striving to do the same – to come up in the first spot (or on the first page).

In reality there are only 2 ways you can come up on top:

1. Set up a pay per click advertising campaign, such as Google Adwords
2. Optimise your website for keywords (also know as Search Engine Optimisation)

Keywords

Before you embark on either of these marketing methods, you need to understand about keywords.

Keywords or key phrases are the words that visitors type into a search engine to find a service or product. The best keywords are those that are commonly typed in by your potential customers, but which aren’t used much on your competitor’s websites. In other words, if you optimize your pages for keywords your potential customers use a lot, but your competitors haven’t thought of, you win. But here’s the catch…you’ll never get to know which are the best keywords for your website simply by guessing.

There are many tools you can use to find what keywords people are using, including Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

If you are serious about finding the perfect keywords, I would recommend using a tool called Wordtracker – www.wordtracker.com. Through a series of simple steps, Wordtracker identifies the best keywords to use on each page of your website. Wordtracker’s suggestions are based on over 300 million keywords and phrases that people have used over the previous 90 days. (In other words, there is no “guessing” when you use Wordtracker. Everything is based on the keywords millions of people have actually typed into search engines.)

Best of all, their competitive analysis tool enables you to find those “best keywords” – the ones your potential customers use, but which your competitors don’t know about.

Once you have identified the best keywords, you can either run a pay per click marketing campaign or optimize your website for search engines.

Pay per click

Pay per click advertising is when an advertiser (you) pays for each qualified click that sends a search engine user to your web page. PPC requires you to bid on keywords or phrases that relate to your business. The best known pay per click services are Google AdWords and Overture. Generally you can bid from as little as a few cents per visitor. However, the more you bid the higher up in the search engine your advertisement will appear. Pay per click is a great way to deliver targeted and qualified visitors to your website at a very reasonable price.

It is a good idea to experiment with different PPC search engines to find the one that works best for you. In addition, you will need to spend time testing your keywords and ads.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engines prefer to list sites that contain good content. In order to rank high you need to create a website that has maximum content and which uses lots of relevant keywords to your service and products.

Once you decide on the keywords, use them in

• (a) Your website’s domain name
• (b) The title of your page – This is displayed in the top bar of your browser window
• (c) The heading of your home page
• (d) The first paragraph of your home page
• (e) Meta tags – Keywords, page title, description
• (f) Titles of your graphics
• (g) Alternative (Alt) tags – These appear in place of images when the browser preferences are set for text only.

Whilst it is important to use keywords as much as possible, it is also important you use them only if they are relevant and do not sound awkward. If you spam your keywords you may be penalised or even banned by some search engines.

Another important thing to consider when trying to optimize your website for search engines is to have as many relevant links pointing back to your website from other complementary sites. This can be done through link exchanges or by writing articles/posts and submitting them to article directories or forums. Ensure you include your domain name at the end of each article/post.

If this all seems too overwhelming, you can employ the services of a Search engine optimization company, who will make your website’s content more search engine friendly.

Please remember, having your website listed at the top of the search engines is not the only way to promote your website. There are lots of other ways you can get visitors to your site for little or no money.

Editors Note: Do you need to get a website up in a short time? Check out HostGator for hosting and Build Your Site Online With Site Studio Template System! Easy to Use!

About the Author:

Ivana Katz of Websites 4 Small Business makes it easy for you to get your business on the internet. If you’re looking for a professional and affordable website designer, visit www.web4business.com.au and download a free website plan.
Article Source: ABC Article Directory | Articles |Submit Articles | Article Search Engine | Article Directory

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