The Basic SEO Rules for All Websites
Search engine optimization isn’t rocket science, but it can feel complicated at times. There’s no need to worry about the jargon when you’re just starting out, though, and part of the point of SEO is to make everything simpler and cleaner, the way search engines like it.
Everything a search engine does has a pattern and a reason. Even if the algorithms are too complex for you to understand, there are patterns that can be found if you look hard enough. All you have to do in order to find the patterns is be willing to look for them which basically just consists of keeping your eyes and your mind open.
Being good at SEO requires some effort, but is – for the most part – very basic. To have a successful campaign, just follow these simple rules – they apply to all websites.
Search engines always try to give users whatever they can find that is relevant to their search. You have to realize that most search engines don’t work by moving the good stuff towards the top: instead, they try to push the bad stuff towards the bottom, and hope that what’s good will ‘float up’. Content is King and it can get you good search engine rankings easily if it’s written properly and sprinkled with the appropriate keywords. This not only brings visitors to your site but also feeds search engine spiders and crawlers. I can’t stress enough that good content is the key to good SEO.
A fast way to develop good content is to generate a series of articles or an ebook regarding your topic. These items are very powerful in the world of SEO because they provide your visitors with something to read and they allow you to conquer some key words that you normally wouldn’t be able to touch. If you are managing a website for pets, an article about dog food is more likely to generate a high position in the search results for “dog food” than your home page. Therefore, if you write articles pertaining to your subject but slightly more in depth than you can put on your home page, you will benefit drastically.
To try to get to number one in an index, you must first find out where your site is now. That means checking each search engine to see your position, and coming up with a strategy for each one – who knows, maybe you’re already number one on one of the smaller search engines! You can’t just assume, however, that because your site is listed in one search engine that it will be listed in all of them. That’s not how search engines work.
Look at the sites that currently rank high on the search engines and you will see that have simple designs with graphics that use minimal bandwidth, and they’re easy to navigate. Simple, clean designs are what both search engine crawlers and search engine users like, as it lets them get the content they want without any fuss. This is what you should be aiming for.
Some sites are considered good enough to be ranked highly in search engines, even though their designs make them difficult to look at. This goes to show that the looks of a site have nothing to do with where a search engines places it in the rankings – all search engines care about is text. If the content of a site is relevant to what people are searching for then that’s all that matters to a search engine.
Let’s take a look at meta tags, keywords, descriptions, and titles. They’re all important elements, even if they’re not what will make or break your site – they’re just one part of your strategy. These elements need to be compelling and sprinkled with your keywords, as this will entice users to click through from the search results page to your website. It’s best to start off slowly, gradually adding things in as you learn.
If you have any questions and you don’t know where to go, then check out some of the forums on the subject – just do a search for ‘seo forum’. These people are usually more than willing to post answers to your questions, or direct you to someone who can answer your question if they can’t. Remember to be patient with yourself: learning something new takes time and effort, and SEO is no different.
You need to periodically update the content of your website, even if it’s only a slight change, as websites like sites that are kept updated.