The Basics of SEO

Have you been trying to work online for a long time are still quite confused about SEO (search engine optimization) this this article is perfect for you.  We will cover in this article  how you can use it effectively, and what you need to do to ensure you don’t get penalized by the internet gods (the search engines).

(Before starting, Conquest Authority is a training program that trains you on SEO in complete detail, but first, you can start off right here.)

As I said in the above paragraph, SEO stands for search engine optimization. The number one question new internet marketers wonder is what is a search engine? I know this is extremely basic, but this is where you need to start.  Once you learn the extreme basics, when you start to discover more on the SEO topic, you will have a full grasp of exactly what SEO is.

Search engines are the places you go to when you are trying to find something on the interent. For example, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, etc. These are all search engines. When you are looking for an answer online, you go to a search engine, put in the information you are searching for, and bam! The search engine “searches” the web for you and brings up pages of all the websites online that pertain to your query.

You know what a search engine is and you know what SEO is.  Now let me tell to you how you can optimize your site for it.

The number one thing you need to do before any optimization, is you must figure out what keywords you will use for your site. What I mean by this is finding the terms you want your site to rank for with the search engines. An example of this would be:

You have a website loaded with fixing computers. People who are looking for information on fixing their computers might search for these phrases: how can I get my computer fixed, why does my computer have a blue screen, or my computer is broken. These keywords would all be considered long tail keywords, and those are what you would want to target, because they are the actual terms that people search the search engines for.

Take care when chosing your keywords or key phrases, they are real phrases that get looked for, if not, you won’t get any traffic to your site. (Another tip is to make sure you pick keywords that don’t have lots of other websites targeting them. You may still never get visitors if there is too much competition.) I recommend using a keyword research tool to find some great ones. You can use Google’s free keyword tool, or Wordtracker’s free tool if money is an issue. They are perfect starter tools, and they do the job fantastically. Once you start making some money, I do recommend you get a paid tool because they are so much more effective, and you can really find some good goldmine keywords.

Here you can read more about finding good keywords here.

Alright, now that you know what keywords you will use, the next step is to make sure your site is optimized for those keywords. How can you do this? It’s pretty simple really.

The number one rule is always title your page or post with your keywords. This will be known as your title tag. Title tags have a large influence on the search engines when they crawl your site, so whatever your title is, the search engines will assume it is a keyword and you want to rank for it. This holds true for your domain name as well. Your page/post title and your website title (domain name) are extremely large factors in the SEO world.

Once you have bought your domain (your URl), and you have picked your targeted key phrases or words, the next phase is to add content to your website or blog. Write an article that is at least 400-500 words, and don’t forget to include your targeted keywords or phrases at least 2-3 times in the content. Do NOT go overboard with this, or you will get penalized. Take care the keyword density is not over 7% (amount of keywords vs. actual words on page). Staying below 6-7% is much better. If you go over this recommended safety net, the search engines may see you as “keyword stuffing”. Keyword stuffing means using your keywords over and over again, and your site will pay for it if you do that, I promise.

The more content you have on your page, the better chance you will have of being able to get all your keywords in and not make it look like you are keyword stuffing. In other words, keep your posts and pages long, and you can put all your keywords in. Search engines like long text articles and unique content.

Do not fret about getting every keyword phrase in your article multiple times, because the search engines are smart, and if you have a quality site, Google will rank you for keywords you never even tried to rank for. The most important goal is getting your main phrase in 2-3 times, and the others at least one time.

That’s SEO in a nutshell. Get as much information as you can about the matter, because it really will benefit you in the end.  Learning SEO takes some time, but you will be a pro in no time.

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