Search engine optimization is available as a
stand-alone service or as a part of a larger marketing
campaign. Because SEO often requires making changes to
the source code of a site, it is often most effective
when incorporated into the initial development and
design of a site. So rather than trying to fix what you
have already built, save time and energy building your site correctly
optimized for search engines. .Search
engine friendly sites can be described as sites with designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that can be
optimized easily and effectively. A few good
sources for information about SEO are Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site , Search Engine Optimization and Marketing for Beginners , and Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer's Guide to SEO . The next two paragraphs contain one line summaries or points about what is involved in optimizing your site for search engines. Immediately following these summaries we will break each one down and give more detail to help you get your site aligned with good SEO techniques.So what is involved in SEO? SEO is an ever changing theory of what works best to get a good ranking in search engines. To us, it means creating a site that is optimized for visitors to a:) contains quality content that is relevant to their search; b:) provides easy navigation about the site that follows a logical path: c:) contains only keywords in meta tags, titles and description that accurately describe the content on the pages containing the content.
Further SEO techniques that have been published by different search engines include d:) links to your site from other sites of quality e:) Good coding on pages without errors; f:) For now, however, let's focus on the matter at hand and get some fundamental practices out in the open regarding general site basics for successful websites.
The top search engine Google recommends that you create a
site with high quality content, especially on your homepage.
The importance of this is two-fold - primarily it will
attract visitors to your content, and secondly, it will
entice other webmasters to link to your site. |
Quality links from other sites to your site will help your site rank higher and is a key SEO technique. Google expands on this linking point by pointing out that "natural" links are effective in increasing your site ranking in search engines and not unnatural links. Examples of natural links are links that other webmasters link to your site as the content of your site enhances what they offer or provide another part of the web that visitors to their own sites would find appealing. 'Unnatural' links would be links you placed to specifically make your site look more popular to search engines. The algorithms Google for one employs can distinguish between natural and unnatural linking.
Here are some simple good search engine optimization
techniques: - Your site should have a clear navigation structure with text links.
- Every page in your site should be reachable from a static link.
- If you site is large, offer a sitemap to your visitors and emphasize your important pages by making the font larger or text bold. Now Google offers webmasters the opportunity to submit their sitemaps at Google Sitemaps Home
- Keep the number of links on pages a reasonable number, less than 100 is acceptable. If you have more links, break the content up over multiple pages.
- Keep a reasonable effort to the length of pages your content is on. Like this page, we have broken it down into multiple pages so visitors like you do not have to scroll down, down, down.
- Create a useful site and write pages that clearly and precisely describe your content and reference the keywords you are optimizing your site for.
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