What Is Search Engine Optimization And How Does It Work?
To be honest, search engine optimization scared me and my fear kept me from learning what it is, how simple it is to do and why I needed to know it. I had websites but I was afraid of search engine optimization (actually, I didn’t know what is was and imagined the worst). Eventually, I found it what it is. And I gladly share it with you.
Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keywords and keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops (“tops” of the search engine results is considered in the top 20 to 30 results of an online search). It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and meta tags and also involves appropriate link building strategies.
The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results.
A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually. Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine.
New websites need not be "submitted" to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established website will get the search engines to visit the new website and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.
Once you understand what engine optimization is, the next step is keyword research (it isn’t as complicated as it might sound). Resources are available to learn keyword research in another section.
What Are Search Engine Optimization And Must Have Features Your Web Site?
Just don’t focus on the home page, keywords and titles. Of course, just knowing what is search engine optimization and better how to get rankings can’t keep your customer on your site or make them buy. The customer having visited your site, now ensure that he gets interested in your products or services and stays around. Motivate him to try/buy the product by providing clear and unambiguous information. So, if you happen to sell more than one product or service, provide all of the necessary information about them by keeping the information on a different page. By providing suitable and easily visible links, the customer can navigate to these pages and get the details.
What Is Search Engine Optimization Tip #1- Understanding Your Target Customer If you design a website you think will attract clients, but you don’t really know who your customers are and what they want to buy, it is unlikely you make much money. Website business is an extension or replacement for a standard storefront. You can send email to your existing clients and ask them to complete a survey or even while they are browsing on your website. Ask them about their choices. Why do they like your products? Do you discount prices or offer coupons? Are your prices consistently lower than others? Is your shipping price cheaper? Do you respond faster to client questions? Are your product descriptions better? Your return policies and guarantees better than your competitor’s? To know your customer you can check credit card records or ask your customer to complete a simple contact form with name, address, age, gender, etc. when they purchase a product.
What Is Search Engine Optimization Tip #2 - Does your website give enough contact information? When you sell from a website, your customer can buy your products 24 hrs a day and also your customers may be from other states that are thousands of miles away. Always provide contact information, preferably on every page of your website, complete with mailing address, telephone number and an email address that reaches you. People may need to contact you about sales, general information or technical problems on your site. Also have your email forwarded to another email address if you do not check your website mailbox often. When customer wants to buy online provide enough options like credit card, PayPal or other online payment service.
Tips to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic
It is worth cataloguing the basic principles to be enforced to increase website traffic and search engine rankings.
Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.
Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.
When not sure what is search engine optimization, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
Don’t look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
Knowing what is search engine optimization is key for a successful business website. Also, knowing what is search engine optimization is critical to helping the customer prospect looking for you and your business find you.
Learning "what is search engine optimization" tips and other website traffic generation tips can be found on our home page. What is search engine optimization is not difficult to learn. It's important to ignore all of the "SEO" tricks and hype. Effective search engine optimization doesn't need tricks, just know how. And, now you know!
