Search Engine Optimization - A Primer For Beginners

Every subject, or so it seems, has a dummies guide created for it so why should search engine optimization for dummies be an exception to this rule? There are innumerable resources available on this subject and there is no shortage of "gurus" who will claim they can get you unlimited traffic by performing SEO. While many of them have something to offer, others could be pulling a fast one on you so it's important for any business owner or newbie SEO to learn the basics and understand what is really being performed when someone claims to be a search engine optimization internet specialist.

The mighty Google themselves offers some of the most valuable information about search engine rankings for free so make sure to look up that information by searching for it. There is also the famous Mr. Cutts, originally a software engineer for Google, now the chief spokesman for all things regarding Google. We totally recommend listening to everything he says as almost all SEO's hang on his every word. Google still holds the biggest market share in search engine traffic so it just makes sense that you focus a lot of your effort in learning more what they do and what they would like website developers to create.

One thing to note is that all the search engines would prefer no website optimization is happening at all, and you build your website naturally with the end user in mind. Knowing this, one must decide if optimization is even necessary. Build it and they will come..a quote from a famous movie is something that, in this current internet climate, does not happen too often as we all would like. For now, we still have to do some optimization to at least get the attention of the search engines.

An SEO newbie needs to use his brains to figure out what advice he should and should not follow. Luckily there are some basic points on which there seems to be general agreement and these are what are given here, the beginning point of search engine optimization for newbies. There are two simple steps that need to be followed to get a beginner on the road to search engine optimization.

Everyone wants to use as many keywords as possible to attract search engines ? something that can blow up in your face if you are not careful because these engines have become smart and can detect when a web page has be stuffed with keywords only for the sake of attracting their attention. Before worrying about keywords, make sure that the content of your website is clear, concise and relevant because the final aim is not just to get people to your site but to get them to buy what you are selling and garbled content is not the way to do that.

Once you have what you want to say in place, use the free tools available in Google AdWords to research what are the best keywords for you to use in your page and slightly revise your material to integrate them in a natural and seamless way, having readability always being the end goal . A good rule of thumb is to keep in mind is make sure that all the keywords you use are relevant and should be related. It's not necessary anymore to keep using the same words over and over again, since the search engines keep evolving, learning to use things such as LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) to understand better the content you have published.

If you use tools to measure density, one needs to balance the use of keywords because if you are caught stuffing, which is highly possible if you don't heed our advice, you will be in trouble and possibly have your site banned. Keep your keyword density below 3%. If the keywords are such that they fit naturally into the text, you can go in for a higher density, but never exceed 7%. Make sure that you use the keywords in your page title and in the headers and sub headers as most search engines place greater importance on keywords used in these places. Also use keywords as links to other pages of the site as these are also noticed by the search engines.

If you follow these two simple steps, you are on your way to optimizing your website but remember that this is only search engine optimization for beginners and there is a lot more you need to learn. I may seem tedious but be assured it is well worthwhile the time to do. This is just one of the many things you can do to develop your online business. An internet specialist can better guide you through what you need. Why not contact us today for a free consultation?