Monday, June 8, 2009

Steps To Successful SEO

By Julie Johnson

Internet professionals are attentively curious in regards to search engine optimization (SEO). But how can one optimize a page for SEO? There a certain criteria that a business can follow to gain high search engine results page rankings (SERPs) and obtain the targeted traffic they desire.

The first move towards SEO victory is to invent a robust webpage. Robust does not mean full of extraneous features, widgets, feeds, etc. Rather, a page is considered robust by search engines when it is packed with inventive, quality information. Originality meaning that the content is not plagiarized, and quality means that it brings something new to the topic. To simplify, when search engines see numerous articles about walking a dog, it gives preference to articles which instruct in dog walking for certain breeds, or dog walking on very hot days. Essentially, if it is already plastered on the Internet the information is not important enough to be considered as unique.

Second, SEO pages are enhanced for keywords in the right placement. First, the targeted keywords must be accurately positioned. Targeting keywords and phrases should not be in the site title, instead they are to be placed in the page title, which is generally in HTML with the tag. Also, they should be in the actual URL of the page, such as www.objects.com/Targeted_Keywords.html. Finally, it is generally recommended they are located in the first paragraph and last sentence of content. Long-tail keywords, aka related keywords, should be in the article body and separated by paragraphs. What this says to a search engine bot is, This article is about X because the URL, page name, introductory paragraph and conclusion say it is. Nevertheless X and A, B, C, D are linked because they seem to be sub topics of X. Index this article for X and A, B, C, D under X.

Finally, SEO relies on backlinks. A backlink is a link placed on another page which directs the clicker to your page. Backlinks are not created equal. An excellent backlink is one that is anchored (the link text includes targeted keywords), on a page with minimal other links (called link popularity), and on a page that is highly regarded by search engines (e.g. Google PageRank). Businesses do everything short of killing to get good backlinks because they are the most powerful determinant of good SEO.

SEO is a simple concept, yet it's practices use thousands of dollars a year as companies teach marketer to use SEO and but backlinks. One thing is certain, however, the SEO industry will be around for a very long time.

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