WHAT IS SEO? (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)

Search engine optimization is the process of modifying the online visibility and placement of a webpage or website in the unpaid or organic results of the search engines.

Businesses that implement a solid SEO stategy grow at twice the rate as a business that does not use SEO. When your website appears higher on Google, consumers trust your brand more. SEO optimized websites are more user friendly, load faster and provide a easy to use experience for consumers.

THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO SEO?

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION:

How to Establish a Strong Reputable Presence Online?

What is onsite SEO?

This is the process of making a website have all the required technical elements to efficiently communicate with the search engines. During this process you will have to make sure that the crawler can read all content on all pages and filter through the architecture of the website with ease. The more content and data a search engine can acquire from a website the higher the website will rank on the search engines.

How to do onsite SEO?

Produce Good Title Tags

Make sure all of the titles are done correctly per the search engine requirements. The title tags of your website are very important. This is the first the viewers see when they are searching. This is the primary line of information that the search engines use to determine what the page or website is about. Be sure to take time and give a lot of consideration to what you want the public and search engine to see first. Each page of the website should have a unique title tag so that the search engine can tell the difference between the content on the page. It is recommended that you conduct search query research or have a professional SEO consultant complete this step to find the best search phrases to put in your tags. This will greatly increase your SEO results. Also remember that the title tag should accurately describe the information on the webpage and should be no more than 60 characters in length. This will eliminate pogo sticking.

Pogo Sticking

Pogo sticking is term used when a search engine user clicks on a webpage and immediately clicks away because the content was not what they were looking for. This is also referred to as bounce rate and is monitored by the search engines. Google's algorithms will push this website down to the lack of relative or inaccurate content. This can kill your SEO results.

Produce Good Descriptions

Website descriptions should be no more than 150 characters in length and avoid keyword stuffing, which is the process of adding words to the description that do not make sense to the public or the search engines. It is also a good idea to use catchy or original descriptions to attract the user to view your website. Make sure the description has references to the primary and secondary keywords (preferably long tail keywords) chosen for the webpage. If this process is done correctly, it will increase your website traffic.

What are H1 Tags?

Well optimized webpages have only one H1 tag. The tag is usually the same as the title tag but, it does not have to be the same. It should be a similar version of the title tag. The easiest way to check and see if a webpage is following this rule is to click CTRL-F. This will open the find box. This will open the two instances. You can then check to see if the html code is correct.

How to Make Good H1 Tags?

• Use heading tags only when they are the best choice.
• Do not over use them. Remember the goal is to provide the best user experience for the user.
• You do not have to use all types of header tags in a page. Depending on the amount of content, you may only need a couple of tags.
• Keep a balance between the on-page content and the headers.

Alt Text for Images

If you use images in a webpage, always use alt text. Good use of alt text will help the search engines understand what your content is about. Alt text can also assist different programs that are designed to help people with disabilities, to use the internet.

How to produce effective Internal Links?

There are three types of hyperlinks used on webpages or websites.

1. Relative Links

Relative links point to another webpage or website that are in some way relative to the linking page. These links can be done several ways. If you make a link to "index.html" and the link goes to "index.html in the parent directory, you have created a relative link. You can also use this type of link to link images. Example: "../img/picture.jpg". This type of link can be used to locate an image in the current directory.

The main disadvantage of using relative links is that if you move the linking item to another directory, the link will break and not function properly.

2. Site-Root Relative Links

This type of link points to webpages, images and etc., in the root directory. The most commonly used to links to images in an image folder in the root directory. The linking code is placed in the CSS of the root directory.

3. Absolute Links

Absolute links are hyperlinks that contain the complete URL and also includes the page, image and or related content. This type of link is not commonly used by page designers because, once a computer finds a way to a particular file or webpage it does not have to locate it again.

All hyperlinks are absolute or relative. They may only have the file's name when located in the same directory as the linking page or they may be located on a different server all together and have an absolute link to guide the user or browser to their location.

This information may include:

• The directory and or subdirectory where the file or webpage resides.
• The name of the file and its extension if applicable.
• The HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) or its FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
• The domain name of the linkable file or webpage.

Internal links can be used several ways, for optimal use:

• They help to reduce the website's bounce rate.
• They assist the search engine to locate other webpages.
• There is no risk of penalty for using internal links.
• You can connect different types of content that may have some relativity to each other.
• You can guide website users to the pages that you most want viewed.
• They help you control the flow of search engines as well as the users.

What is SEO Optimized Content?

Content that is considered to optimized for SEO follows methodology and tactics that are required by Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engine to increase the number of visitors that a website or webpage receives due to higher rankings in the search results.

How to write a SEO Optimized Article?

The first step in this very extensive process is to come up with a good topic. This is a step you should give a lot of though into. Unless your objective is not to increase your traffic to your website, you should select a topic that it will attract a large number of readers. Once that step is complete and like always you need to conduct very good keyword research to ensure the best results from all your efforts. A good place to start is with a keyword that has 300 to 500 impressions and also the lowest competition rankings. If you focus on these features, you will have a better chance of successfully reaching your desired viewers.

Next you should complete research and fine related keywords for your primary topic or keyword. This will give you a help in boosting your search results in Google and other search engines. This process will also give you a chance to pick up some other traffic from different searches.

Article Writing Points:

• Make sure there are no spelling error and its grammatically correct.
• Break up the content with sub headers and short paragraphs.
• Use the primary key phrases and keywords in the first sentence and first paragraph.
• Do not keyword stuff. (Google search engine will detect this and ding your website.) Use the keywords so that the article will have a natural rhythm, when read.
• Just like the first sentence, the keyword should be in the last sentence and last paragraph.
• Make sure to include hyperlinks in your article.
• Let the world know about your article. Share your article on social media platforms like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
• Make clickable keyword links to allow Google search to emphasize the keyword.
• Respect other website owners. If you want to link an article to another website, get permission.

Why Do I Want to Place SEO Optimized Content on My Website?

I will give you two examples of website content management options. You decide which website you would prefer to use and would you recommend it.

Let use two websites that feature used cars. The first website has the standard pages such as home, about us, our inventory, services and contact. This type of website is designed to cater to their potential customers and or their current customers.

The second website has information about how to buy use cars, which used cars are the most reliable, the average price of certain used cars, which markets use Kelly Blue Book, Black Book, NADA, a few recommended used car dealers, a questions & answers section and then the same pages as the first site as well. Which website would you recommend or use yourself when buying a used vehicle?

Good Content Attracts MORE Viewers

In the examples above you have two types of content formats. The first type of content is your typical website content that sells a product or service to their potential customers. The second website is very informative and will become a used car buying hub or directory where viewers will refer other people via blog, social media and word of mouth. This is what you want a website to do. In the long run website number two will be more successful and generate more business.

Website number two is also more engaging and has the potential to become a brand in its industry. When your website become a brand, it will build a lot of notoriety in the subject or subjects that are featured on it, and over time viewers will start to trust the content and refer other used car buyers to it.

How to use SEO Optimized Content to brand your Business

Today, when someone visits your website it gives them an overall impression of what you are about and what kind of services they can expect to get; if they do business with you. You want the consumer to contact you even if he or she is not looking for your services at this time. This is what you want to accomplish. If viewers are contacting you before they need your services; you have established a trust or relationship with your viewers and this could lead to the viewers doing business with you or recommending your services to someone else who does have a need; generating new business.

What is off-site SEO?

Off-site SEO ("also known as off-page SEO") is the process or techniques used to increase the visibility and placement of a webpage, website, blog, etc., in the organic or natural listings of the search engines. Off-site SEO is used to increase the trust or authority of a website's relevance to a particular subject or subjects.

Links for Off-Site SEO

The three types of links used for Off-Site SEO and how to acquire them?

• Self-Created Links are the process of adding links; such as a directory listing, blog post, forum or press release. Be careful with these types of links. Within the last two years Google has cracked down on the types of links that are acceptable. Some websites have been penalized for excessive or non-relevant backlinks.
• Natural Links are the best backlinks a website can have. This type of link is acquired when a viewer post on a link on a blog, social media, etc. to a particular article, page or website that they have an interest in. The website owner has nothing to do with this post.
• Manual Links are acquired through the process of asking a website owner for a link from their website to yours or requesting popular person in a subject to post a link to a portion of your website.
• Note: If a website has to many backlinks linking to a different keyword, the Google search engines will display a different header tag than what is actually on the website. Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines do not have to display your header tags or descriptions the way you want. Ultimately, the search engine's only concern is to provide the best possible experience for the user.

Reasons Why Google Displays Your Titles or Descriptions Different

• The title or description does not give an accurate description.
• The title or description is too short or too long.
• There is not a title or description present.
• The search engine is pulling information from a different location.
• The title does not relate to the applicable search.
• There is more than one title or description in the webpage.

Non-Linked Off-Site SEO

This type of SEO also helps to increase your search engine ranking. When the search engine's bot is scanning the vast world of the internet, they are acquiring information about everything online. Just like with people, the bot works by frequency (the number of times a person sees a business's advertising). The more you are found, the more established you become.

What are the Three TYPES of employable SEO Techniques?

White Hat SEO

As you may think, White Hat SEO techniques are used to increase a website's visibility or placement while following all the Google's, Yahoo's, Bing's and other search engine's webmaster guidelines to the letter. They do not use any loopholes or linking techniques that do not follow the strict guidelines listed. This type of SEO is the most time consuming and will take the longest to get results. However, the gained results will be more permanent.

Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO are techniques that are designed to find loopholes in Google's search engine algorithms. These techniques if successful, may place the website or webpage higher on the Google's search engine at a more accelerated pace. This type of SEO techniques may also get the website or webpage penalized or removed completely from the Google search results.

Gray Hat SEO

Grey Hat SEO techniques came into use by mostly third-party marketing companies to get results for their clients. These types of SEO techniques are composed mainly of link building services that offer unrealistic results for their services and can result in the website or webpage being penalized or completely removed from the Google search results.