Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Secrets to Success

The best and most useful web site in the world is practically useless to it's owner if it can't be found and indexed by search engines such as Google. Designing a site in such a way that it ranks highly in search results is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

How Does it Work?
The secret to search engine optimization, or SEO, is not so much a secret as it is common sense. If you put yourself into the "mindset" of the search engine, you'll know that the search site is trying to produce the most relevant results for any particular search word or phrase. It essentially scans (through a pre-built index) the contents of all web sites that it knows about attempting to find the best matches for a search request. It will then display the links to the sites that it has determined to be the most relevant, ranked from most relevant to less relevant.

SEO, then, is the collection of web page design and construction techniques that optimize a web site so that search engines can accurately match the site to appropriate search keywords and keyphrases. SEO techniques also help get the web site ranked as high as possible in the search results, with a #1 position as the ultimate objective. Any site with top positioning in search results will be assured of good traffic.

SEO Techniques
Entire books, ebooks, web sites, and training courses have been created on the topic of Search Engine Optimization. It's not our objective to re-create those here. Rather we simply want to point out the fundamentals of good SEO and let the reader choose how he or she goes from there.

Again, the objective of optimization is making sure that search engines accurately rank your site for keywords and keyphrases that relate to each page on your site. Here are some of the most fundamental techniques or "secrets of SEO":

Each page file name in your site should contain the main keyword or phrase that relates to the topic of the page. For example, 'fishing.htm' if the page is about the sport of fishing.
The HTML title tag should contain the keyword.
The page (text) title should contain the keyword in the first half of the title. Enclosing the title in an H1 tag is also helpful.
The keyword (or keyphrase) should be used early in the first paragraph of the page, and frequently (but not too frequently) in the remaining content of the page.
Use the keyword in the last paragraph on your page.
Keep the content of each page focused on a single topic related to your keyword. If you have multiple topics and multiple keywords, create a different page for each topic.
Do not use other potentially confusing keywords on your page that might distract the search engines.
Use the HTML META Description tag to summarize the topic of your page. Use at least three complete sentences with a cap letter at the beginning and punctuated by a period or question mark at the end of each sentence.
Use the HTML META Keyword tag to include your keyword. Although this tag is purportedly not used by search engines any more, it doesn't hurt to use it and it only takes a minute to include it.
If you have images, use the ALT tag in the first image tag to include your keyword.
Any text links to your page from other pages on your site, or from other web sites, should contain your keyword.

These are the most basic SEO techniques you'll need. However, there's much more to know. We recommend that you find a good book, training course, ebook, or online SEO discussion forum if you want additional information. Just be careful that any course or product you buy doesn't over-promise and under-deliver. Look for a money-back guarantee just in case you find it not useful to you.

Return to Extra Money article