Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings. The term also refers to an industry of consultants that carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients' sites.
Using search engines, visitors can find sites in a variety of ways: via paid-for advertisements in the search engine results pages (SERPs), via third parties who are listed in the search engines, or via "organic" listings, i.e. the results the search engines present users. SEO is primarily concerned with improving the visibility of a site in the organic search results.
High rankings in the organic search results can provide targeted traffic for a site. Obtaining that traffic by other means can potentially be expensive. For particularly competitive terms, the cost per click can run several dollars, or more, when pay per click advertising or banner advertising are used. For even moderately competitive terms the cost can range from a few cents to several tens of dollars per visitor. Given those costs, it often makes sense for site owners to optimize their sites for organic search.
Not all sites have identical goals in mind when they optimize for search engines. Some sites are seeking any and all traffic, and may be optimized to rank highly for common search phrase. This can be a poor marketing strategy for a business because it can generate a large volume of low-quality inquiries that cost money to handle, yet result in little business. The "shotgun approach" to search optimization can possibly work well for a site that has broad interest, such as a periodical, a directory, or site that displays advertising with a CPM revenue model.
Other sites target a specific population, with particular needs or interests. Many businesses try to optimize their sites for large numbers of highly specific keywords that indicate a prospective customer who is ready to buy their product. Focusing on desired traffic can generate more high-quality sales leads, and fewer time-wasting inquiries. (Source: Wikipedia)
Optimize your site now for search engines... Let the world know about your site With Search Engine Optimization!
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Your queries on search engine optimization can be solved free at my forums SEO topic!
Creating sitemaps is easy, you can just goto ROR Web
Enter your website address in the textbox provided. Let format remain as the default ror/rss and click generate sitemap!, then follow the instructions there(if u have any problems please register at my forums and i will help you! James Pinto ForumsNote:You can submit sitemaps to google only after you have a Google a/c, you can receive a google account you need to be invited. For invites contact me at james pinto
Submitting your site to search engines is the final step.
You can submit you site to many famous search engines like Google, Yahoo, Msn, AltaVista, Scrubtheweb, AOL, Lycos, Hotbot, Yahoo Directory, Dmoz Directory, Alltheweb and many others. To submit to GOOGLE YAHOO and MSN u must preferably have a google(gmail), yahoo and msn account.Note:You can submit sitemaps to google only after you have a Google a/c, you can receive a google account you need to be invited. For invites contact me at james pinto
You can submit your site to loads of directories but remember to submit your site to the relevant part of a directory.For example if your site is about birds then submit it under the topic birds in a directory. Many good directories to submit your site to are: DMOZ(Note:For DMOZ all links must be complete no links or pages can be under construction, if Rules and Conditions arent followed your site could be rejected!) Yahoo Directorysearchsight.com Findsitesnow.com Anywho.com khoj.com
Forums are an excellent way to get high rankings in search engines!. Forums are the fastest to get indexed. Keywords can be used as forum topics. Has worked wonders for me! Try the keyword "cookiestealer" in Google and you can check how high im ranked for that keyword. A few days after I posted that article as soon as it got cached it was rank 3 out of more than 2,140 results! Cool huh! You too can get get that type of high ranking by using unique and interesting keywords in your forums... You can check out my forum at JConvergence Forum for an example of descriptive headings, topics and content
The title should contain important keywords and a maximum number of 60 characters.
Dont repeat any word more than 3 times in the title, It might be taken as spam by some search engines
Here's an example of the title tag:
<html>
<head>
<title> Your site's important keywords here as title</title>
</head>
</html>Use important keywords in the url, try to keep the page name and directory name as keywords, and if possible thw domain name or subdomain name as keywords(This is an excellent way to get top rankings and is most counted)
For example: I can keep http://jamespinto.awardspace.com/games/games.html as my url if I want my site to show up for the keywords jamespinto and games
META Description Tag: A maximum and minimum of 150 characters is suggested for this Tag. The meta description tag describes your site's content, giving search engines' spiders an accurate summary filled with multiple keywords. Note: Meta tags are hidden in a document's source, invisible to the reader. Some search engines, however, are able to incorporate the content of meta tags into their algorithms. No engines penalize sites that use meta tags properly, so it's recommended that you always include them.
The meta description tag is especially important because it's the only tag supported by some engines.
Here's an example of a meta description tag:
<html>
<head>
<meta name="description" content="Your site's summary here.">
</head>
</html>The meta description tag and search engines A meta description tag can boost your rankings on some engines. To see engines that use meta description tags,click here.
Keywords in the meta description tag The meta description tag should contain multiple keywords organized in a logical sentence. Place the keywords at the beginning of your description and close to each other to achieve the best possible rankings.
Avoid spam Avoid repeating keywords more than 3-7 times in your meta description. Some search engines consider it to be spam.
META Keywords Tag: Enter keywords and keyword phrases for your Web page here. Separate each keyword or keyword phrase by comma and then space (ie., keyword, keyword phrase, keyword, etc.). A maximum of 874 characters is recommended for this Tag, but we wouldn't recommend you use that many.
Here's an example of a meta keywords tag:
<html>
<head>
<meta name="keywords" content="Your site's keywords here">
</head>
</html>Keywords should be used as much as possible in the content. The content should be unique and of quality, it should be interesting and contain all keywords. Content should be original. Ponographic, gambling, and other illegal content should be completely avoided, search engines may even ban these sites from their index.