Simple SEO

What is SEO and How Will it Help You?

SEO (search engine optimization) is the basic principle of optimizing your site for search engines. If you make your site/blog search engine friendly, you will receive more visitors through internet searches. There are many tactics and tips that are used for SEO but I will only review some very basic principles.

1. Content – Good content is the key. If people find your content interesting, amusing or educational they will return and possibly recommend your site and/or blog.
2. Keywords – The proper use of keywords is another important segment of SEO. For example: If you run a “Daddy Blog” like I do, the keywords to focus on are daddy, father, fatherhood, dad and so on. These words should be sprinkled throughout the post(s) and/or entire site. This will increase page rank (PR) for any searches on these particular words.
3. Links – Enticing people to link their sites and/or blogs to yours is another vital element of SEO. If other sites
   

   Building Links is Essential for SEO

   and/or blogs link to yours, search engines will see that your site has something good that others want to be attached to.

Content is the most important part of any SEO effort. If your content is not worth reading, nobody will read it. It is a simple as that. You may have some great content but it can be littered with typos and/or grammatical errors and deter readers. Take your time to develop a good post. Most experts agree that one good post a week is better then three mediocre posts every week.

Keywords are the focal point of your site and/or blog. You can use variations of the keyword(s) and even include them in simple phrases (long tail keywords). For example: Dad is a keyword I focus on in my blog but I might focus some posts on “Dads that like Heavy Metal Music”. This is not as popular as “Dad” but may have a small niche audience. I use Google’s Keyword Tool to help me find words and terms that are being searched on the internet. I then use them throughout my post and site, without overdoing it.

Linking is one of the most difficult things to do for SEO. Ideally you want other sites and/or blogs to link their readers to your site and/or blog. How do you go about this? Well there are many ways and it takes time to build these links. Some links are not recognized by Google (nofollow tags) therefore they do not count towards SEO but they still drive traffic to your site. Commenting on other blogs is a great way to place links but most of these links are “nofollow” however it can drive traffic. This traffic may result in someone linking to your blog in one of their posts or in their blog roll (which Google and other search engines love). You can also ask for links by emailing the webmasters or even pay for links. The most common method is link exchanging. This is when you make an agreement to link to someone’s blog in return for a link to yours. Please keep in mind that a very popular blog will probably not link to a blog of lesser standing. Start by asking for reciporcating links from blogs of similar rank and topic.

There are many facets to SEO but hopefully this gives you enough to understand the basics. Please share your tips and questions through the comments section. This blog is Commentluv enabled which will display the latest post from your blog for others to click on (a link!). Also, if you think that others can benefit from this post, please use the “Retweet Button” in the upper right of this post! Thanks….