By Vanessa Rothwell
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the optimisation of your website
so that it gets listed by Google and other search engines (eg yahoo, msn etc) – so people can find you. It is not something you can do once and then say it is done, it is an ongoing process that needs to be worked at continually over time to get results. When I get asked about SEO it usually goes something like this:
“How do I get my webpage to the top of Google?”
It’s important to note here that to get your webpage to the top of google (and this is for a specific keyword only), Google needs to see your website or page as Most Relevant to that keyword or keyword phrase.
Search Engine optimisation is a 3-step process:
- Keyword Research
Keyword research involves looking for specific 2, 3 or 4 words phrases that relate to your website and your topic or niche. Usually a 1 one word keyword is not specific enough, so stay away from that. Easiest way to start is to think “What would I want someone to type in, in order to find me?” (assuming they don’t know you, your company or your product names, so don’t choose your business name).
Once you have a couple of phrases, you can use this to find more specific phrases and research them further.
Some tools you can use for keywords research include google keyword tool and Market Samurai.
- On-Page SEO
This is involves what is on your actual website. It includes the tags (or coding) behind every page. Some of these tags include the title of the page, the description of the page, and tags on your images that are on the page. If you don’t know how to do this, its best to get help from a professional.
It is important to consider your on-page SEO when actually preparing the content on your site as we discussed in the last article. Once your content is written, it’s a lot harder to optimise it after. It needs to be considered when writing the content.
Your content should be written for 1 or 2 keywords/keywords phrases only. If you want to target more keywords, you should have separate articles or pages of content for each one. Each keyword or keyword phrase should be included  at least 3-5 times on the page and used in both heading and text. Bolding, italicing or underlining the keyword also helps Google to know it is important on that page. You must also ensure your content also reads well to the visitor.
- Off-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO not only helps Google to realise how important and relevant your website is, it is also a source of traffic to your website! It includes everything not on your actual website, such as having links from other sites to your website (called backlinks). Some of the ways you can achieve this include:
- Social media and social bookmarking
- Article writing and submitting to article sites like ezinearticles.com.
- Writing comments on other websites like blogs or forums in your niche leaving a link back to your site in your signature (ensure you are contributing to that blog or forum as otherwise it is considered spam and the website owner will likely delete it)
- JV’s with other web site owners.
Search Engine Optimisation is an ongoing process that you will need to work regularly or get someone to help you with it. To find out more, contact the team at Your Online Success.
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I hope you have enjoyed this article on “What is Search engine Optimisation?”. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to being successful online, so if you would like more information please see my free 10-part video series at www.YouronlineSuccess.com.au which comes with a free, no-obligation, 20 minute consultation about your needs.
