Basic SEO Strategies for Beginners

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process getting your website ready to be found in organic web searches. By organic searches, I’m referring to web searches that appear naturally as the result of a search for a particular keyword or phrase, rather than appearing in the sponsored links (pay-per-click advertising) section of a search page.Frankly, for the first few years I was online, the thought of doing my own SEO made my eyes cross, and I was overwhelmed at where to start. I even toyed with the idea of hiring a specialist to do this for me, but never got around to it. However, over time, I slowly began to see a pattern emerging, and started to optimize some of my sites accordingly. One of the best days of my business was when I recently ranked #1 for a particularly competitive search term.

I’m not a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist, nor do I play one on TV. However, even a new business owner who creates and updates her own websites can implement some very basic SEO strategies to make her website appear higher in the organic rankings on certain keyword searches.
Here are the 11 strategies that I regularly implement on my sites for better SEO positioning:

1. Page title tags: This is the page information that you see in the blue bar of your browser in the upper left-hand corner when you visit a website. For best SEO, use your top 2 keywords in your title tag. The best way to do that is separated with a bar, as illustrated in this example: Internet Marketing Web Marketing.
2. Domain name: If at all possible, use one primary keyword in your domain name. You will have a slight edge over your competition by doing so. If you already have a domain that you have used for some time, include a keyword in the name of files for your website pages. Example: http://www.yoursite.com/internet-marketing.htm if your keyword is Internet marketing.
3. Meta tags: These are descriptions on a web page that are not seen by most visitors except when looking at the page source code in their browser. While the keyword and description metatags used to be the primary way that search engines indexed sites, that is no longer the case. However, you shouldn’t ignore them entirely, as it is still worthwhile to include them as a part of your page description. For optimal SEO, your meta description and keyword tags should be no more than 150 characters each.
4. Header tags: Header tags are the HTML code that indicate a headline, like H1, H2 and H3 and show up as bolded headlines in your page content. The first 3 header tags are the only ones you need to be concerned about, and the primary header tag, H1, is the most important. Use your primary keyword once in the H1 tag, 2-3 times in your H2 tags, and multiple times in your H3 tags.
5. Alt image tag: The alt tag typically describes an image in a floating text window when you put your mouse over the image if the image isn’t able to be displayed. The best use of any tag is to use your keywords in your image descriptions.
6. Content formatting: Search engines pay attention to formatted content, as in when text is bolded, italicized, and underlined. Make sure that you are bolding your keywords in the content of your website.
7. Keyword density: Keyword density refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears on a web page. Rather than trying to focus on the number of times a keyword appears in the content of your page, aim for a more natural density by keeping your keyword phrases in mind as you write the copy for your page. Optimally, keyword density should be between 2% – 7%. There are a number of keyword density checkers available online to assist you with determining the keyword density of a page.
8. Anchor text: Anchor text refer to links on a page that connect your visitor to other pages. So, rather than telling someone to “click here” in the content of your page, include a keyword in your anchor text, as in “click here for dog training tips.”
9. Inbound links: Reciprocal link exchange (you link to my site and I’ll link to yours) used to be a great way to attract the attention of search engines to your site. Now, search engines pay attention only to the quality and popularity of the site providing you with an inbound link that is not a reciprocal link. One of the best ways to get quality inbound links back to your site is to submit articles to high traffic article directories and submit press releases to paid press release services.
   A second way to gain high quality inbound links is by listing your site in search engine-friendly directories in which humans review the listings. Google and other search engines place more credibility in the directories in which the listings are reviewed by real people than they do other kinds of directories. Consequently, these links are weighted more heavily and favorably in the inbound link evaluation process.
10. New content: Content is still king, so one way to improve your page rank for a search term is to write high quality articles containing one or two of your keywords in the title and posting those regularly (weekly is best) to your site. Search engines are always seeking good, fresh, content, so your goal should be to make your site into an information-rich resource for your industry.
11. Site maps: There are sitemaps that help a visitor navigate a site, and sitemaps that are expressly designed for the search engines. The two are not the same. To enhance your site, submit an xml sitemap to Google Webmaster Central and Yahoo Site Explorer. I use XML Sitemaps to build search engine-friendly sitemaps on my sites.
    Search engine optimization strategy is not as difficult as it appears. Take some time to do some keyword research for your site, and then spend another 15 minutes a day employing a few of these strategies until you have a well-optimized site. Why pay for visitors through pay-per-click advertising if you don’t have to?

Learning SEO

SEO is one of those industries that is getting more and more popular at the moment. A few years ago, most people didn’t even know what SEO was and now, it seems that almost everyone with an interest in the internet at all has been learning SEO to some extent. However, if you actually want to learn SEO enough to be good at it, you might have wondered exactly where are you going to start. The truth is that learning SEO is certainly no easy task for a number of reasons but you can do it, and you can do it well if you just do the right things from the word go.

Why is SEO so difficult to learn?

There is one main reason that SEO is so difficult to learn and this is because it is probably one of the fastest moving industries in the world. There are a few reasons for this but the main one is down to Google and other search engines. As people learn exactly what techniques to use to ensure that a site ranks well, Google and a number of other search engines will go and change their algorithm which essentially changes the whole subject of SEO.
Now, you might think that this is a bit unfair and like they don’t actually want you to ever learn SEO. Well, the reason for this is because that is exactly the reason. Google and the other major search engines do not want you to learn SEO at all because they are constantly striving to deliver the best content for a users search. Think about it, if you learn SEO then you are basically manipulating the search engine rankings and you could be supplying information that is not necessarily the best to the visitor of Google.
So, basically, as soon as you think you’ve got the hang of SEO, Google will go and change their algorithm and then you will have to change the way you do things. The big problem is that Google actually do this every few weeks and on a major basis every few months. We know, this is definitely not what you want to hear but there are still ways to learn it.

How to Learn SEO – Technique #1

TotalJobs.com – A great place to find an SEO job.

Now, one of the ways that you can learn SEO is the way that you would learn practically any other skill; get a job. There are hundreds and thousands of SEO companies out there that are nearly always recruiting for new SEO professionals and if you do your homework, you can almost certainly find companies in your area that are looking to hire junior SEO link builders. Of course, these won’t be the most well paid positions but the great thing about these companies is that they are willing to teach you the basics from the ground up.
Another good thing about this technique is that you will actually be employed and earning money whilst you are learning. To be honest, the rates of pay for these positions are not usually that bad either. Here in the UK, you are probably looking at between £15,000 and £20,000 per year for a start SEO position and if you’re a quick learner, chances are that you will be promoted relatively quickly.
The downside to this technique is that often, these SEO companies will place you into a boring position of link building which will basically consist of you sending out 100′s of emails a day and waiting for responses. Of course, this is part of SEO but there is a lot more to learn than just that. So, if you are thinking of opting for one of these positions, it might be a good idea to actually find a company that has a good reputation and is going to be teaching you a lot.

How to Learn SEO – Technique #2

SeoMoz – A Great website for learning SEO yourself.

This is probably the most popular way that the best SEO professionals learnt SEO, but that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. Most SEO professionals will have actually learnt on their own, at home or in their office. The good thing about SEO is that there is so much information on the subject online on sites like YouTube and SEOMoz that you don’t need to learn from anyone else.
Of course, if you are going to learn this way, you are going to need to be able to self-motivated and you are also going to need to make sure that you have a way of proving whether or not what you learnt is the truth. There is a lot of poor information out there as well as great information so you need to be able to sift through and find all the good stuff.
Doing this is pretty simple as SEO is based a lot on common sense. The best thing you can do if you are starting out learning on your own is to actually set up your own website and try to get it ranking for your desired keywords. Of course, you need to make sure that you choose these keywords wisely and that they aren’t too competitive but this is the best way to learn as you will be able to see the results for yourself.
You’ll make mistakes along the way, but in most cases, they won’t be too serious and by the end of the process, you might find that your site is actually worth something.

Keep up with the trends

Searching for SEO on Google News to keep up with the current trends.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, SEO is an ever changing subject so it is extremely important that you make sure to keep up with the trends. Things are changing all the time so make sure you read a lot of SEO news to see what is going on in the world of SEO at the moment.