Search engine optimization basics

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, isn’t rocket science! Although it can feel complicated at times, the aim is simply to ensure that your website is presented in the way search engines and ultimately your visitors will like.

One of the fastest ways to get more visitors is to generate a series of articles regarding your topic.

These items are very powerful in the world of SEO because they provide your visitors with something to read and they allow you to feature in the Search Engine results for some key words that you normally wouldn’t.

Let’s say you are managing a website for Genealogists. A well written article about a particular genealogy tool is more likely to generate a high position in the search results for genealogy tools than your home page. Therefore, if you write articles relevant to your subject but in more depth than you can put on your home page, you will find that you will benefit enormously.

Think about not only how your readers will like it, but how search engines will make it easy for readers to find.

Your article is found when a reader searches on the topic geneaology tools. This is the key phrase your reader enters into a search on Google. So how can you be sure that your article will be near the top of the list Google presents to the reader?

Search engines rank pages according to elements known as meta tags.

Think of these as parts your page code that tell the search engine what the article is about. If these tags are set in a way that shows the page is relevant for the search phrase, the chance of your page appearing higher on the search results list are good. Here are a few:

• Page title – This is not the title that appears within the page content. It only appears at the top of the browser and tells the search engine the title of the page.
• Page description – Search engines often display this information in the search results page to entice a visitor to click on your link
• Keywords – Some search engines use the words placed here in order to break a tie for the ranking of pages that are similarly optimized. These are not as important as they used to be, but it is important to use them anyway.

Other elements to consider:

• Heading tags- elements visible in your page content similar to the headings in a newspaper article. They help the reader digest the article easily by displaying what’s of primary importance and what’s of lesser importance. On of the most important ways to rank your page well for search engines, is to be sure your primary heading contains the same key phrase as your page title.
• Alt tags – words used to describe images used on your page.
• Page content – the body of your article where the search term appears appropriately as you provide outstanding content on your chosen topic.

The idea is to use in all these elements the same key phrase that your visitor will be search. If your article topic is focused on the key phrase, and  your meta tags and content show it, your site is said to be optimized for search engines.

Now it’s your turn.

What’s your most interesting SEO challenge?