What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often considered the more technical part of Web marketing. A process of increasing number of visitors to a website by ranking high in search engine results.

Choosing the right keywords

The center of optimization are the keyword phrase(s) for which you want a high ranking in search engines result pages (SERP’s). When you choose you keyword phrase you must take in consideration primarily your market (they must reflect what you sell) , the number of searches for it and the competition for that particularly keyword phrase.

On-page SEO

On page SEO means the code page optimization so, in this phase, you should pay special attention to the following:

1. Title Tag

The title tag is one of the most important factors in achieving high rankings. A title tag is essentially an HTML code that creates the words that appear in the top bar of your Web browser.

These are the general rules you should follow when optimizing your title tag:

• Use in your title maximum 3 keyword phrases and 100 characters
• If possible , don’t use stop words like “a, and, or”
• Avoid spam: don't repeat the same keyword in your title more than twice; it's considered spam. Also, some engines penalize for using all CAPS.
  

2. Meta Description tag

The META description tag describes your site's content, giving search engines' spiders an accurate summary filled with multiple keywords. The META description tag should contain multiple keywords organized in a logical sentence.

• Place the keywords phrase at the beginning of your description to achieve the best possible ranking
• Many SE's use this to describe your site so make sure you not only repeat each of your keyword phrases (max 3) at least once but make this a true representation of the page that the visitor will be viewing, and try to keep it under 255 chars

3. The Meta Keywords Tag

The meta keywords tag allows you to provide additional text for crawler-based search engines to index along with your body copy. How does this help you? Well, for most major crawlers, it doesn't. That's because most crawlers now ignore the tag. The meta keywords tag is sometimes useful as a way to reinforce the terms you think a page is important for on the few crawlers that support it. For instance, if you had a page about penis pills -- AND you say the words penis pills at various places in your body copy -- then mentioning the words "penis pills" in the meta keywords tag MIGHT help boost your page a bit higher for those words.

4. Body text

This is what your surfers will actually see when coming to your site. There are many issues to consider when placing keywords in the text of your pages. Most search engines index the full text of each page, so it's vital to place keywords throughout your text.

Off-page SEO (Link popularity)

Link popularity is the number of relevant quality inbound links pointing to your website. Most major search engines use link popularity as part of their algorithm which helps to determine the relevance of your website. If you don't have inbound links, you won't rank well for competitive keywords.

Ways to build link popularity

Link exchange

There are some very important aspects you should consider when exchanging links. The right way to exchange links is by finding quality, relevant sites with which to exchange links. These are the links that search engines care about. Convincing webmasters to exchange links with you isn’t easy, this is a time consuming process.

This is how it works: You search for sites that are in the same general topic area as yours (but not sites that compete directly). After you find a list of suitable link exchange partners, you place a link to their site on your site. Then you email the webmasters of the other sites and ask for a link exchange. Do not send generic copies of the same email to each webmaster however. Write a personalized email to the webmaster explaining what you liked about the site (be specific) and why you think a link exchange would benefit both parties.

Be sure to address the webmaster by name if at all possible. Also, be sure to give him your link exchange information. This should include the title of your site, a short description, and the URL that you want his site to link to (this doesn't have to be the home page). And be sure to include the URL of the page that already has his reciprocal link on it.

Be prepared for rejection for various reasons, this is normal so don't be discouraged you will also receive email accepting your proposal. Verify that your reciprocal link is in fact on their sites and then send a "thank you" email. Here are some keyword phrases (KW) you can type in Google for finding related sites:

"Add a link" + "your keyword"

"Add a site" + "your keyword"

"Add URL" + "your keyword"

"Add an URL" + "your keyword"

"Submit a link" + "your keyword"

"Submit a site" + "your keyword(s)"

"Submit URL" + "your keyword(s)"

"Submit an URL" + "your keyword(s)"

"Suggest a link" + "your keyword"

"Suggest a site" + "your keywords"

"Suggest URL" + "your keyword(s)"

"Suggest an URL" + "your keyword"

"your keywords" + "directory"

"your keywords" + "directories

"keyword reciprocal + directory

“keyword exchange + directory

“keyword add site + directory

“keyword resources + directory

“keyword links + directory

Building inbound links through reciprocal link exchanges is very powerful website promotional tool. If done correctly, increasing your linkage will:

· increase your traffic significantly

· improve your visibility in the search engines by raising

your link popularity

· provide an added resource to your website

· save you a lot of advertising money

You can use Arelis or Optilink software to manage your link exchange campaign.

Allow other people to publish your e-zine on their web site.

Include your web site's ad and link in each issue you publish. This may also help you increase the number of people that subscribe to your e-zine.

Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic.

Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business ad at the top of the directory's home page

Offer a free e-book to your web site visitors.

The ebook should be related to your target audience. Allow them to give the e-book to their own web site visitors by linking directly to your web site.

Exchange content with other web sites.

You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.

Join or create a web ring.

A web ring is a group of web sites on a similar subject agreeing to link together. To find a web ring to join type keywords "web rings" into your search engine of choice.

Directory Submission

Directories are different from standard search engines in that a search engine will query a database of indexed websites before it produces results and a directory is a database of websites that have been arranged by subject.

Search engines put weight on the links coming from directories which is why is so important that you know how to submit you site. Remember, that your site must be optimized before submitting and not in different construction phases; otherwise it will be rejected from submission. For a correct submission select the most appropriate category related to the subject matter of the site and then submit, suggesting a title, description and any other information the directory may require. Also make sure you read their submission guidelines.

Here is a list of quality directories: Yahoo (299$ yearly fee), DMOZ (free), Jayde B2B Directory (free), GoGuides Directory (free), JoeAnt Directory (free), Business.com (99$), BlueFind Directory (40$), Zeal (free).

FFA pages and link exchange programs

DON’T USE THEM - Most search engines, such as Google says that FFA sites are an artificial and illegitimate way to increase link popularity. Google considers "link farms" spam, and will ban your site for participating in an FFA or link exchange program.