What you need to know about "SEO," which stands for "search engine optimization," comes down to several basic concepts, for the most part. Basically, SEO revolves around a system for finding and then using the most appropriate phrases or words (in the SEO business they're called "keyword phrases") that directly relate to your blog or website in order to eventually gain high rankings in all the big (and small) search engines.
Strip everything else away from SEO, and the above is the barest - and most important - essence of optimizing your blog or website. The aim - first, last and always - should be to get your site into the first three pages of a search engine. This is important because more than a few studies show that most people who make queries in these engines rarely go past the third page in search of information or data.
In this regard then, it's important that your site be "fine tuned" as much as possible in order to make that grade. It means coming up with well-written (and well-tuned) content that's meaningful to your readers, once they arrive there from a search engine, and also easy for a search engine's spiders, crawlers or 'bots to assess and index. That last part is vital, by the way, for if your site is confusing to a search engine, you might as well count on only you and your immediate family being the only folks who'll be visiting.
So then, how do you get others to click over to the site? Why, with the intelligent selection and use of keyword phrases, of course. There are a vast number of keyword research tools, many of which the engines themselves offer for free, and I recommend you learn how to use them. It's also no secret that engines like Google and Yahoo keep their website ranking methodologies secret (these methods are called "algorithms"), and there's generally a good reason for doing so.
What we do know, however, is that most engines use hundreds of factors and that the weight each of these factors may (or may not) carry changes on a continual basis. In fact, a site that might rank in the first page, first position in one search engine may not even make the top-200 in another.
I know the above sounds like an injustice, but engines worry constantly about spam websites creating huge traffic jams for their clients (us) who are just out there trying to find something of value from a site and not a bunch of junk, which is what those spammers deliver, along with viruses, Trojan spybots, adware and the like.
What can you do, then, to at least get started on the road to high engine ranking and fabulous wealth from all those website hits you'll get when your site's content matches up with what the most common phrases are, in terms of being pertinent when engine user queries are generated?
First off, make sure the stuff you're putting on the site is relevant, timely and actually helps your visitors. Nobody likes wasting time on a search, going to a site they're hopeful of getting help from and then staring at a lot of nonsense. Trust me when I tell you they'll quickly leave and won't come back.
Also, find an easy-to-use website promoter software program or the like and work on getting your site submitted for indexing at all those engines. I use a program I found in a bargain bin at an office supply store for 5 bucks and it's been the best investment I ever made.
However, if you don't want to spend even that, there are a ton of affiliate marketers out there who'll let you download what they use or recommend for the price of an email address and your first name. That's quite a good deal if you ask me.
Perhaps the trickiest aspect of all of this is coming up with good keywords and then testing them. Again, though, just about any reputable affiliate marketer will either give you or sell you very cheaply the keyword research techniques they use. I could tell you what I use, but I'm not into plugging something you may not like or even need, so do a little search engine research on your own and then give it a whirl!
Remember; working to get ranked highly in the search engines should be your reason for living when you start a blog or website in hopes of generating some income from it. Eat, sleep, breathe and live getting ranked. Do this by supplying quality content that's well-written and relevant to your site's purpose, and do it as often as possible. If you can pull that off, you just might find yourself pleasantly surprised at the eventual outcome!
Strip everything else away from SEO, and the above is the barest - and most important - essence of optimizing your blog or website. The aim - first, last and always - should be to get your site into the first three pages of a search engine. This is important because more than a few studies show that most people who make queries in these engines rarely go past the third page in search of information or data.
In this regard then, it's important that your site be "fine tuned" as much as possible in order to make that grade. It means coming up with well-written (and well-tuned) content that's meaningful to your readers, once they arrive there from a search engine, and also easy for a search engine's spiders, crawlers or 'bots to assess and index. That last part is vital, by the way, for if your site is confusing to a search engine, you might as well count on only you and your immediate family being the only folks who'll be visiting.
So then, how do you get others to click over to the site? Why, with the intelligent selection and use of keyword phrases, of course. There are a vast number of keyword research tools, many of which the engines themselves offer for free, and I recommend you learn how to use them. It's also no secret that engines like Google and Yahoo keep their website ranking methodologies secret (these methods are called "algorithms"), and there's generally a good reason for doing so.
What we do know, however, is that most engines use hundreds of factors and that the weight each of these factors may (or may not) carry changes on a continual basis. In fact, a site that might rank in the first page, first position in one search engine may not even make the top-200 in another.
I know the above sounds like an injustice, but engines worry constantly about spam websites creating huge traffic jams for their clients (us) who are just out there trying to find something of value from a site and not a bunch of junk, which is what those spammers deliver, along with viruses, Trojan spybots, adware and the like.
What can you do, then, to at least get started on the road to high engine ranking and fabulous wealth from all those website hits you'll get when your site's content matches up with what the most common phrases are, in terms of being pertinent when engine user queries are generated?
First off, make sure the stuff you're putting on the site is relevant, timely and actually helps your visitors. Nobody likes wasting time on a search, going to a site they're hopeful of getting help from and then staring at a lot of nonsense. Trust me when I tell you they'll quickly leave and won't come back.
Also, find an easy-to-use website promoter software program or the like and work on getting your site submitted for indexing at all those engines. I use a program I found in a bargain bin at an office supply store for 5 bucks and it's been the best investment I ever made.
However, if you don't want to spend even that, there are a ton of affiliate marketers out there who'll let you download what they use or recommend for the price of an email address and your first name. That's quite a good deal if you ask me.
Perhaps the trickiest aspect of all of this is coming up with good keywords and then testing them. Again, though, just about any reputable affiliate marketer will either give you or sell you very cheaply the keyword research techniques they use. I could tell you what I use, but I'm not into plugging something you may not like or even need, so do a little search engine research on your own and then give it a whirl!
Remember; working to get ranked highly in the search engines should be your reason for living when you start a blog or website in hopes of generating some income from it. Eat, sleep, breathe and live getting ranked. Do this by supplying quality content that's well-written and relevant to your site's purpose, and do it as often as possible. If you can pull that off, you just might find yourself pleasantly surprised at the eventual outcome!
