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It is a great question. In short, SEO is the process of making your web site more visible to people searching for information through the use of search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN in order to bring you more visitors or customers who will then hopefully buy from you.
It is an important part of Internet Marketing because it can be used to drive targeted traffic to your website. If done correctly, this traffic could lead to sales. However, if you don't do it right, you could end up with no one visiting your page at all. To make matters worse, you might even get penalized by the search engine if they find out that you are trying to manipulate their results.
How Does SEO Work?
When someone types a keyword into a search box on a search engine, the search engine tries to match what the user has typed against any content related to that topic already stored on the Internet. The search engine does not just look at your web page, but also looks at other websites that have similar content to yours. It uses algorithms to pick which results to show to the user based on how relevant each result is to the user's query.
The higher quality and relevance you give your content, the better chance you'll have of appearing high in search results. So, there are many things that go into search engine optimization including the title tag (which appears in the search engine's listing), meta tags, keywords, internal links, external links, and social media sharing buttons.
SEO is a complex topic, so we won't get very far without some definitions. We will start off with what most people think are the two main elements: backlinks and content. Let's take a look at both.
Backlinks
A backlink is simply when another website links to your website. When you have a lot of incoming links pointing to your website, it increases the "pagerank" of your website. Pagerank measures the importance of your website to Google. More pagerank means the search engine considers your website more significant than others, and therefore displays your website first in its search results pages.
There are three types of backlinks:
1) Nofollow Backlinks - These do not help with search engine optimization, but they still count toward your backlinks total.
2) DoFollow Backlinks - These are considered to be stronger because they help improve your ranking in the search engines.
3) Incoming Links - This refers to links from within your own website. For example, if you link to a video on YouTube, or to a blog post on WordPress, these are known as incoming links. They do not contribute much to your search engine rankings.
Content
Content is everything except for the backlinks. Content is basically text, images, audio, and videos that appear on your website, either uploaded by you or linked by you. You want to create original content that includes useful information about your products or services. You should provide good descriptions that describe your products, include keywords, and provide clear calls-to-action that entice the visitor to click on your links.
You also need to keep your content fresh and updated regularly to maintain relevancy. If something changes on your website, update your content accordingly. Also, you may want to consider writing articles for article directories such as EzineArticles.com.
Social Media Sharing
Another way to generate backlinks is by using social media sharing tools. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, YouTube, and Instagram can all be used to generate backlinks to your website. The more times your posts are shared, the more backlinks you receive.
However, you must remember that social media sharing is only effective if you share good content. Just posting random stuff isn't going to cut it. Make sure to include relevant information to the people who will see your post. For instance, if you're running a business selling dog food, you wouldn't post a picture of a cat eating grass. Posting random pictures of cats doesn't make sense.
If you post a lot of interesting and informative content, chances are you'll gain lots of shares and backlinks. But again, remember that you must be providing quality content to get those backlinks.
Other Important Elements
It is impossible to cover every single element of SEO in one article, so let's move onto other areas of interest. There are many other factors that play a role in optimizing your website for search engines, and we will cover them later on.
Keyword Research
Before you begin optimizing your website for search engines, you need to come up with a list of keywords that your target audience would type into a search engine. You want to make sure that these keywords are related to your website's subject matter and are highly searched terms that you know people actually use.
To determine the best keywords, you can use free keyword research tools such as Wordtracker or Keyword Tool. You can also use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool to figure out which keywords to focus on.
Optimizing Your Website
Once you've identified potential keywords, you can optimize your website to increase your rank for those keywords. One of the ways to do this is by writing unique and relevant content that focuses on those keywords.
For example, if you run a blog about technology, you might write an article about "top 5 reasons why you should upgrade your computer." By writing an article focused around a specific topic, you are increasing the possibility that your article will be selected as a top answer when users type that specific keyword into the search bar.
Another thing you can do is to add relevant keywords throughout your website. Use headings, subheadings, bold font, italics formatting, and bullet points to make your content easy to read and understand.
Add Meta Data
Meta data is essentially the information that you put in your HTML code. It helps the search engines understand what your website is about. It makes your website easier to index and can help boost your ranking. Meta data includes things like the title tag, description tag, alt tags, URL, keywords, etc.
Title Tags
The title tag is the most important piece of meta data because it is what shows up in the search engine's title bar. It should contain your keywords and be descriptive enough for the user to understand what the webpage contains.
Description Tags
The description tag should include your keywords and tell the reader what your page is about. If you write a long description, you can use the space to include images, videos, testimonials, and other useful information.
Alt Tags
The alt tag tells the search engines what the image is called instead of using its default name. Alt tags are very important because they can tell the search engines whether or not the image is appropriate for display. So, if you upload a picture of a person holding a gun, it probably shouldn't be included in the search results unless the search engines know that the image is supposed to be a gun.
Internal and External Linking
Internal linking is when you link to other parts of your website from within your site. Internal linking increases the likelihood that your website will remain relevant over time.
External linking is when you link to other websites from outside of your website. External linking is usually accomplished by posting links to various blogs and websites from your website. Again, this increases the probability that your website will stay relevant over time.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a form of external linking where you link to other websites from your own website. Sites like Delicious, Furl, and StumbleUpon allow you to share your favorite websites with friends and followers. As a result, you can build a following on these sites which can greatly benefit your SEO efforts.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows you to track the number of visits, bounce rate, average visit duration, and other metrics associated with your website's traffic. It also allows you to track the traffic source, referrer, referring domain, and device. Google Analytics is available for free through the Google Webmaster Tools.
Conclusion
Search Engine Optimization is an important aspect of Internet Marketing and can drive targeted traffic to your website. With a good understanding of how search engines work, you can learn how to properly optimize your website for search engines so that you can achieve maximum exposure.
It is important to note that there is no silver bullet formula that will guarantee success. It takes hard work, creativity, perseverance, passion, and knowledge. Good luck!
