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The Real Search Engine Optimization Guide
Nowadays, there is so much talk about SEO (search engine optimization) that it has become an industry of its own. Still, 90% of webmasters don`t know how to achieve high search engine positions. In this article, you`ll learn what the 90% doesn`t...
First of all, I would like to give a huge credit to Brad Callen, a man that taught me more than any other "guru" on the planet. He is so simple, and always gets to the point. you can visit his site at seoelite.com (note: In show of respect, I`m not even his affiliate, so if you buy SEO Elite, the software you must have for SEO to decimate your time spent, I won`t get a penny from it).
Back to the start. What is actually SEO- search engine optimization?
Well, in the previous articles you`ve learned how to choose a domain name for your website, how to choose a web host , how to actually make your own website and what (profitable) topic should your website be about. Now it`s time for SEO.
SEO is simply adjusting your website to get high position in the search engine results.
When you were an ordinary surfer, let`s say you searched for "jokes". What you probably didn`t know is that the first 10 websites in the results busted their asses for such positions. Admit it, you didn`t even care. You just wanted to get relevant results for keyword "jokes". Newsflash, you got them.
That`s what search engines are for: providing relevant content for their users.
Now that you are in the website development business, your goal is to get one of those top 10 positions.
Some people say it`s hard, I say it requires time. If you don`t know how to achieve high rankings then it`s hard.
You`ll learn how to do it right here, in this article, only on Construct-a-site.com :))).
Let`s start with the proven facts why should you even optimize your website for search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN (top 3)
- Search engines are the best source for free and targeted (you`ll learn what "targeted traffic" is in the upcoming articles) traffic.
- Search engines bring you more than 80% of your total traffic.
- Without Search Engines no one would be able to find your website that quick (or maybe not at all).
- CONCLUSION: it is essential to get your site indexed by search engines
Yep, totally essential. Finally, let`s start kicking SE-s asses.
Factors that affect your rankings
As my mentor Brad would say, there are 2 factors that have effect on your search engine positioning: The on-page optimization factors
The on-page optimitation factors
Generally, for Google- less important, for Yahoo and MSN- quite important.
There is a phrase: "Content is the king", which is totally true.
The on-page factors include how is a website built, and by that I don`t mean the design. Here is what really counts to search engines:
- Using h1 header tags. Make all of your article and web page titles under the h1 header tags and put some of your main keywords under them. Search engines love that !
- Using alt image tags. If you have images on your website, make sure you describe them with alt tags. Also, put some of your keywords into them. Search engines love that !
- Use ordered and unordered lists. They have bigger importance than the normal text, and will also help your visitors that "scan" for information. Search engines love that !
- Give your text more order and "readability". Don`t put everything in one place. Break the text with paragraphs. Bold and italicize important keywords. "All-in-all", make your visitors enjoy reading your content. Search engines love that !
- Regulary update your website with fresh content. Your visitors will be very pleased to find out that a new article about their favourite topic ( that`s why they`re visiting your website..) came out. It also pleases search engine spiders (crawlers) to see that your website is updated often. They will update your site more often in the index. Search engines love that !
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Never, ever use "black hat" SEO. "Black hat" SEO is optimizing your website with things to trick the Search Engines. Some examples of the "black hat " SEO:
1. Title spamming. Place noumerous same keywords in your tags. E.g pets, pets, pets, pets, pets .
2. URL cloaking. When someone redirects SE crawlers to a site totally optimized for them, but a regular sufer is redirected to a completely different website.
3. Using hidden text. This one is one of the most common. You simply change the color of your text to the color of your background.
4. tag spamming. Same as .
Keep in mind that search engines evolve daily, so if you saw someone succeed with this kind of tricks, his site will eventually get banned from search engines --> "Good bye business". Search engines hate that!
Be honest, and work hard, results will come, I guarantee .
So much for the on-page optimization factors. Generally, you want to make a website that is easy to read, update it often with fresh content and don`t use tricks.
As much as these factors are important, they won`t boost your website rank from 150000000000 to 1,2,3,4,5... and that`s the thing that I`ve learned from Brad Callen. Thanks ...:)
It`s the off-page optimizaion factors that will generate tremendous results... read on.
2. The off-page optimization factors
Very important on Yahoo and MSN, even more important on Google.
The off-page optimization factors are factors that your website is not directly involved in.
The golden rule here is: "Make other websites link to yours !"
You see, Search Engines, especially Google, developed an an algorithm that gives your website more importance if other websites link to it. very simple, it`s like elections. Whoever gets more votes wins. so, start working on your links from other sites.
It can be a very long work, but you can really speed it up with software such as Arelis or SEO Elite
Here`s one trick that I`ve learned from Brad to exchange links with hundreds of relevant websites without having to search for their contact information and sending the E-mails with link exchange proposals:
Google (exactly): YOUR KEYWORD "please also suggest my link to the linkpartners.com directory" Just replace YOUR KEYWORD with ...well.. your website`s main keyword, or even its category.
you can also visit a new website called linkmetro.com. They have an interesting concept for exchanging links. Personally, I use it.
The other thing that I`ve learned, and probably managed to succeed because of it, is THE ANCHOR TEXT
The anchor text that points to your website from the other one should always be your keywords that you want to rank high. So when you fill out link exchange forms, your link should look something like this:
YOUR MAIN KEYWORD, YOUR SECONDARY KEYWORD ...your website features, benefits, special discounts...etc....
This is probably the most important factor that Google counts when it ranks your website. Note: if you have a quality site with unique content, other websites will start to link to you without a link-back requests. This is also great, so make your content a quality one.
The third thing that is also very important is the Google pagerank of the site (page) that is linking to you. We will learn about Google pagerank in the upcoming article (..in about 2 days..).
If you liked the article, feel free to distribute it on your website, as long as all of the links remain intact. You should also place a small link to Construct-a-site.com :)
You can visit my site at http://www.construct-a-site.com to learn how to make your own fully functional, money making website. You can also read interesting articles that contain website design and marketing tips and find out about hundreds of webmaster resources..Site is updated daily..Oh, I almost forgot: I`m only 16 y.o and still, I managed to succeed on internet...I metioned that just to inform you that this is not some scammy guru site, because I don`t sell anything that`s not worth of your money..
SEM - Research Measures Success
SEM - Research Measures Success
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