Start reading up on SEO and you can soon lose the forest for the trees. In this article, we take a step back and look at the basic foundation necessary to obtain rankings.
Search engine optimization, better known as SEO, is the process and art of obtaining rankings for a site under relevant keyword phrases. For instance, assume you offer golf course tee time appointments for the Las Vegas area on your site. Your goal with SEO is to get ranked under all relevant terms for your service.
Most articles on SEO are devoted to some technical aspect of the process. While such article are important if they are accurate, the necessarily fail to cover the basic foundation of any SEO effort. Let’s fix that here.
The first step to any effort to obtain rankings is to do keyword research. This step cannot be emphasized enough. Keyword research is the process of mining data to determine the exact phrases your potential customers are using to find things. These phrases should then be prioritized and imbedded into the key pages of your site. The best place to start your research is Word Tracker, but there are other services you can use.
The second foundational step is to build pages the search engines robots can actually read. Surprisingly, millions of sites fail to do this. Follow the rule of KISS – keep it simple, stupid. Avoid flash and unnecessary code as a general rule. Make sure to include your meta tags and at least 250 to 300 words of text. If you have a site selling multiple products, use the text to highlight the functions and benefits of the products.
The third step is tied into the second. Take the time to focus on how to place relevant keyword phrases in the text. There are different strategies to this approach, but I suggest you place the keyword phrase in the first two lines of text at least once and then use the opening two sentences as your meta description. After that, create text that flows normally and is “readable.” Try to place the keyword phrase in it a couple of times, but don’t go overboard.
The fourth foundational step is getting indexed by the search engines. You can submit the site to the engines, but it isn’t really necessary. A better approach is to trade a few links or write an article like this and submit it to article directories. The search engine robots will find your site naturally and index it within a reasonable amount of time.
That is it. The basic foundational steps to SEO. Obviously, there are more sophisticated strategies to follow to get top rankings, but this represents an overview of the forest before you go running amongst the trees!
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