Those that are new to internet marketing have surely come across the letters “SEO”. Specifically, this stands for “search engine optimization” and refers to the placement of a website in the various search engines on the web such as Google or Yahoo. SEO is important as the higher a website’s placement is with the search engines, the more likely prospects will click on your link, driving business to your website.

In terms of search engine placement, websites are ranked under specific keywords in a numerical order. For example, if you were to type in the words “movie review” in a search engine, the results would be several pages of ranked websites. The most effectively optimized and popular sites would be in the top 10. Less optimized sites end up farther down the list and receive less traffic from search engines as most people will only scroll down a page or 2 before finding the information they are looking for. And, yes, the list can go a long way down. It is not uncommon for a search engine’s list of websites to include thousands or millions of entries. Of course, very few people will be interested in sites beyond the first 50 rankings. In fact, most people don’t look past the second page of search results. The key to SEO is getting your website to place on the first page near or preferable in the number 1 spot.

Now, some may assume that optimizing a website involves some long, drawn out, complicated process. In actuality, search engine optimization is not as complicated as some assume. The process does involve a bit of work, but it is not complicated. In other words, you need to follow a number of steps adequately and you will notice enhanced search engine placement.

Acquiring relevant back links is a very important component. Back links are, essentially, links on one website pointing to another website. Each and every link pointing to your site counts as a “vote” for your site. (Note: the more popular the site is that points towards yours, the higher the vote of popularity will be.) That means if you had several hundreds of relevant links pointing towards your site, the search engines would discover these links through a random “crawl” of the internet.

It is important to clarify the term relevant. Back links should not be haphazardly placed. They should be linking from sites similar to yours. For example, if your site deals with golf, back links should come from sites dealing with golf, sports, and athletics. Randomly placing links on sites that lack a relevant cohesion usually will not give a website much of a search engine boost. Think of Google as the “truth in advertising”. Google’s responsibility is to provide it’s search clients relavant information so they keep using Google’s service.

Regarding the design of your page, adding a site map to the mix is also helpful. A site map links to all the pages on your website. Through a site map, the search engine crawlers can find and index every page your site. If your site does not have a site map, be sure to contact your web designer today and have it installed as it won’t cost much to implement.

Within the tags of the HTML codes of your site, it is possible to add commonly used search terms and word. These are known commonly as meta tags and can help improve the indexing of a site in the search engines. It is important, however, that you select relevant words or else the search engines may frown on your site.

The website should also include a number of relevant keywords within its text. Keywords are essentially those terms that match what people type when they use a search engine. For example, someone looking to lose weight might type in “weight loss supplements” in the search engines. If your website sells weight loss supplements, you would want those keywords to appear within at least 1.5% of your text. Actually, you can have more two or three keyword phrases within the text of the site.

This is just a brief overview of what SEO is and what it entails. As previously mentioned, the process is involved, but it can be achieved with the right effort. As the Google and the other search engines continue to provide relevant information, SEO will become increasingly important to your websites visibility.

About the Author: Ryan Perry instructs small business owners how to dominate their local market using free and low cost internet tools that won’t break the bank. Sign up for the free newsletter on the right to learn more how your business can dominate your competitors using a number of free and low cost tools available now on the internet.

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