SEO Networker - Understanding the Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Part One

No matter what business you are in, or for what purpose you have created a website, search engine optimization, or SEO as it is commonly known, is key to creating a successful website. In order for you to create a website that is picked up by search engines, you will need to understand the importance of "keywords" and how they influence search engines.

Before we get into keywords, let's first address five basics as to how search engines work.

SEO Networker Tip No. 1 - Search Engines Rank Web Pages not Websites

Each page on your website should have its own unique title, description and keyword meta tags. Ideally, you should target just one keyword/phrase on each page. This allows you to narrow your focus and get the best results out of each of your site's pages. You can use combinations of your keywords as well if you see a lot of people searching for these combined keyword phrases, but you'll want to create separate pages which are optimized for these combinations.

SEO Networker Tip No. 2 - Make Sure Your Site's Content is Designed for the Reader

Many website owners have made the mistake of focusing so much on keywords and search engine rankings, however, that they lose sight of their audience. Your visitors should always remain your central focus when developing content for your website. You want to keep them interested while they are there and willing to come back again and again. If you create content that brings you a number one position with search engines, but lose your customers, your efforts will have been wasted. So when you work on SEO content for your website, always keep your visitors in mind.

SEO Networker Tip No. 3 - Don't Overdo Keyword Optimization

You should optimize your site for somewhere between five and ten keywords in total. Make your content relevant to these terms so that you'll be able to move up in the search engine page rankings for these keywords. It's better to rank in the first page of results for one keyword than it is to rank on the second or third for any number of keywords. These keywords should appear in your meta tags.

SEO Networker Tip No. 4 - Update Your Content Frequent and Strive for High Quality Content

I've already mentioned this, but it bears repeating - your content is primarily for readers, not search engines. Good content means more visitors and regularly updated content means regular visitors. When you add new content to your site, the search engines will usually re-index your site, which helps out your page ranking. This is one of those things which makes you more appealing to readers and improves your site from a SEO standpoint at the same time, so update your site with high quality, relevant content as often as possible.

SEO Networker Tip No. 5 - Links to Your Site are Very Important

Links are an important part of search engine optimization. Incoming links improve your search engine ranking, but they need to be of high quality; one way links from sites whose content is similar to your own are the best - and the more popular these sites are, the better the link. Don't try to build a large number of links to your site all at once. Links which are built organically over time are considered to be the most valuable by search engines.