Staff Writer-Smed Barlow

Many people consider SEO confusing. Lots of things go into succeeding with SEO, and lots of people say they are experts. Keep reading for some great advice on how to get started.




To learn SEO, the best place you can go is to blogs and forums and read advice from real people just like you, who have built their businesses from the ground up. Those so-called gurus of the game are all trying to sell you something, so you should avoid those guys. Stick with people who started out just like you. That's where you'll find the best advice.

If you are looking to get a better handle on what keywords and phrases to use in SEO, first you have to know which phrases people actually use. Google maintains an AdWords program that will allow you to do this. You enter specific words and phrases, and AdWords will return how many times people have conducted searches for those specific words and phrases.

Where To Use Search Engine Optimization

You may be looking to optimize your site to cover every contingency, but you would do better to focus on a smaller, manageable number of keywords, and claim the top search spots, then to overextend yourself and try to conquer too much search territory. Pick five to ten keywords, do your homework, and then optimize your pages with that focused set of words in mind.

Create internal links over which you have control by making several small URLs with relevant content to improve SEO. Offsite links are always better for improving your search rankings. When you create small URLs where you control the content, you can ensure that the content has the right keywords to drive additional traffic to your site.

Why Search Engine Optimization Is Critical To The Success Of A Website

Remember that keywords or phrases on each of your pages should total to around 3 to 5 percent of the total text of the pages. Your keywords should be spread out across multiple pages, not just focusing only on the homepage, as all of your pages carry an importance. Your page can have more entry points if it has more ranks.

Always make sure that the individual pages that make up your site link to themselves as well as your main webpage. By having more pages that link between themselves, more traffic will be received by each individual page. This is one of the most basic ways to optimize and grow the traffic you already receive to your site.

Why Search Engine Optimization

You should try to have as many other web pages link to yours as possible. Having more web sites linking to yours helps in two ways, the first being that crawlers and spiders can find your content more easily. Secondly, you will increase your traffic, especially if you are linked with a large and reputable site. Having links to good sites increases your own reputation and will result in a much more favorable search engine ranking.

A super easy tip for search engine optimization is to write a site that is accessible. This feature should rank high on your list of priorities when developing your web pages. By writing accessible HTML, your site will be open to both screen readers and search engine spiders. By making your pages easier to access, you will enable search engines to more readily read and rank your pages.

Making use of HTML header tags can help optimize a page's search engine ranking. While the lower levels of header tags are unrestricted, a page can only have one header assigned to the top (H1) level. This is typically reserved for the page's title. Including multiple H1 tags will break a page's HTML and render other SEO efforts pointless.

To optimize search engine performance a website should not be designed to rely on JavaScript. While Java is very common and can add lots of functionality to a site, it simply cannot be indexed as effectively as raw HTML. There are also some visitors that will not turn on Java when they visit a site for the first time. A good website remains functional even if JavaScript is disabled.

Make URL's with easy, simple and user-friendly keywords. Visitors will have a general idea of what your page is about without even clicking. Search engines will take these pages and rank them under those keywords, thus improving your ranking and getting you closer to a top page listing.

If you must use Flash on your website, boost your search engine rankings by providing an alternative HTML-only option. Not only will the search engine spiders have an easier time crawling and ranking your page, but your human site visitors will appreciate it, as well. The easier your site is to use, the more links people will make to it, which also boosts your search engine ranking.

You should make sure that the content on your site is readable rather than stuffed full of keywords. Many people do not understand how search engines work and just want to be able to get the information they need in a quick manner. If you keyword stuff your site, it could make it difficult to read and thus put a damper on the amount of traffic you get.

One of the best search engine optimization techniques is to select specific and relevant keywords or keyword phrases. You will want to select a keyword, and then optimize your page to that specific word or phrase. Moreover, choosing specific keywords or keyword phrases are going to get you much better search results than using broad terms.

Make the most of your affiliate marketing business by familiarizing yourself with SEO techniques. In order to achieve success, you have to make it easy for potential customers to find your website. Take the time to learn about anchor text, external linking, social bookmarking, article exchanges and other effective SEO methods.

At times there are instances in which the best option is to start designing a site from the viewpoint of the user. Create a simple site that focuses entirely on a single, relevant topic, and closely monitor the quantity and type of referrals that lead site visitors to your page. Once you have determined this information, you can then use the full force of your SEO skills to optimize for those specific referrals.

Keep your social media links to a minimum. It's fine to have a Digg, Facebook and Twitter button or whatever selection works for your site but including everything under the sun will turn off your readers and clutter up your site. Keeping things simple and clean is always the best policy on your site.

Some search engine optimization companies promote the use of meta tags and others do not suggest you utilize them. Whatever search engine optimization what do they do choose to think about meta tags, if you do decide to use them then you need to make sure to add them to your website correctly. If you do this, then it will highly increase the amount of traffic to your site.

SEO can be very rewarding, but it can also be a lot of work. Regardless, if you know what to do and how to help your website get found in search engine results, you can be very successful. So, do yourself a favor by doing your research and applying the above tips to the SEO of your website.