What exactly is search engine optimization? What are website backlinks? Anyone who has created a website for his or her business needs to be concerned with both of these. Once a website is launched for a business, the owner must find a way to drive traffic to the new site. Simply put, SEO is a process by which a webmaster (basically the person maintaining the website) tries to improve the volume and quality of traffic to the site through the search engines, by way of “organic” search results or unpaid methods.
On-Page vs. Off-Page Search Engine Optimization
Back in the day, “on-page SEO” was good enough for drawing traffic to a new website. Creating a website and submitting it to the major search engines was all it took. With today’s rapid advances in Internet marketing technology this is no longer sufficient. Webmasters must also be concerned with “off-page SEO” in order to drive targeted customers to their websites. Without getting too technical, on-page SEO mainly consists of the following necessary steps which will allow search engine spiders to find and index a website’s pages:
- Keyword Phrases in Description of Website
- Strongly Related to Keywords/Keyword Phrases (especially the landing page of the website)
- "Sprinkled” Throughout the Site’s Pages
In comparison, off-page SEO is now just as important, if not more important, than on-page search engine optimization. Off-page SEO is what all the major search engines, especially Google, will be looking at when rating a website. At the heart of a webmaster’s off-page SEO strategy, should be the acquisition of “backlinks.”
In simplest terms, backlinks are links from one or more websites that link back to another site. In the eyes of the search engines, these links count like “votes” for the other website which in turn will help increase the rankings for that site causing it to show up higher in search results. So it goes without saying, the more websites backlinks get placed on, the higher the ranking achieved.
Researching the top sites for a particular business niche and finding ways to get links placed on those sites will also greatly benefit a website’s ranking with the search engines. It’s like getting an employment reference from the president of a company versus one from a peer/co-worker. Placing links on relevant websites with higher page rankings is key to effective off-page search engine optimization.
The Value of Keywords in Search Engine Optimization
Taking the time to perform keyword research is vital to effective SEO. A webmaster should try to think like an Internet user and come up with a list of possible keywords or better yet, keyword phrases, which relate well to the content of his or her website and that a user may type into the search box. Keyword phrases, or “long-tail” keywords, are better to use because they do not get searched as often and have less competition, making it easier to get a top ranking on those keywords.
There are several free keyword research tools available online: Wordtracker (for free version enter the search term “word tracker free”), Google’s keyword tool, and NicheBot Classic just to name a few. These tools will also make suggestions for alternative or variations of, the selected keywords.
The key to using these tools is to find the relevant keywords or keyword phrases and look for the ones that still get a decent amount of monthly searches (particularly on Google), but for which there is a lower amount of competition.
As an example: the keyword phrase “internet marketing” is searched. The exact choice “internet marketing” gets approximately 134,260 monthly searches but there are also over 26 million competing websites for that keyword phrase. An alternative phrase is “internet marketer” which gets only about 835 monthly searches in comparison but still has over 1.5 million competing websites.
Yet another alternative phrase offered – “internet business marketing” - receives approximately 7,695 searches each month (still a decent amount compared to the exact keyword phrase), but competition for this phrase is only 68,700. Obviously the third choice would be the best for achieving a higher ranking in the search results.
Successful Search Engine Optimization
Successful SEO requires a combination of all of the above strategies in addition to continually providing updated, relevant content on all pages of a website. With the ever-changing formulas used by the search engines to rank a site, it is best to stay abreast of the latest requirements in order to achieve the best possible SEO.
Debbie Donner - Debbie Donner is currently a freelance writer, part-time teacher, and network marketer. Debbie graduated with her B.A. in Liberal Arts in ...
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