What is Search Engine Optimization (seo)

Search engine optimization is the process of making ones website content more search engine friendly to attract traffic by ranking higher. The process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.

There are several methods and opinions about how a web page should be optimized, and much will depend on the type of site, its content, purpose and competition, if relevant. But in general search engine optimization relies heavily on the proper use of keywords and keyphrases that describe the site's content.

• In order for any search engine to index all the pages of your site, it should be able to find them. An efficient navigation system is very important in this regard as explained in this article. Avoid using images, JavaScript or flash navigation links, because search engines look for HTML link tags for indexing.

• Add relevant content to your website. If your website sells digital cameras, you can add reviews on the digital cameras that you carry. This will also attract potential buyer to your website. Usually buyers do research first before they buy online.

• In order to target keywords in searches, use the same keywords in the text. Keywords should first appear is in the TITLE section of the page's source code. They should also appear in the META description section where the page is accurately described by repeating the keywords. The META keywords section will also contain keywords or keyphrases describing the site's product, services or content.

• When linking to web pages within your website, use descriptive words in that link to describe that page. Advanced search engines use these words as the keywords defining the content of the page.

• Since SEO relies so heavily on keywords, the most important keywords and keyphrases should be used liberally in the first two paragraphs of the content of each page, and then sprinkled throughout the body. The last paragraph of every page should also be keyword rich.

• A suggested rule of thumb is to reach for keyword density between 5-15%. Judgment must be used to invoke keywords liberally without getting too repetitive. It may also help to use bold or italics on a keyword or two, but avoid doing this to excess.

• Submitting to search engines is not new to webmasters. However, follow all the rules and regulations of such submissions to each search engine. Your site may be rejected if it detects spam submissions of your website. Submit to relevant categories in popular manually edited internet directories.

Plan ahead for optimizing your website pages and choose the keywords correctly. Add value to your website so that visitors find it helpful and link to it from their WebPages. Allow some time before expecting results in the searches. If it is not satisfactory, update your web pages again. If you have to hire an external SEO company, search on the top search engines for keywords such as "search engine optimizers". Select one from the top 20 in the search results. If they cannot optimize their site within the top 20, probably they would fail in optimizing yours too. Read this Google article to know more about SEO consulting firms.