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Short Guide on Search Engine Optimization
Posted by Thomas Gillen | Posted in Internet | Posted on 03-07-2009
Search engine optimization is by far the best investment you can make in your website. It delivers long-lasting results and highly valuable traffic, which is the goal of any webmaster.
There are two components to search engine optimization. On-site SEO comprises of what you control on your site, such as the domain, title, and content. Off-site SEO is as important, since inbound links is a critical factor of all search engine algorithms.
It is imperative to start out focusing on your website and not on off-page factors. Step one is to determine what keywords you want to target, as if you do not choose the right keyphrases, all your effort will be for nothing. Make sure to have a good keyword density on your site, which is usually between three and six percent.
Before you start any website, you must do enough keyword research to know that the site you are starting will actually be viable. Research can be done through the use of tools such as Google AdWords Keywords, as well as simply looking up the competition by using the Google search engine.
A fair amount of content should be put up on to a website before launch, and throughout its lifetime more content will be added. However, this is only part of the task of promoting a website. The more time consuming part is building links to your website, which directly increases rankings.
There are many ways to build links. This includes writing and distributing articles, purchasing static text links, participating in link exchanges, and commenting on other peoples blogs. If the content on your site is good, you can also gain links naturally, as webmasters are naturally prone to link to quality content they find online.
SEO can be a tough job, especially if you are targeting a powerful keyword. For this reason, there are dozens of high quality SEO firms out there who can assist you in reaching your goals. They can be quite expensive, but they know what they are doing and can get the job done.
Since the benefits of SEO pay off for essentially the entire lifetime of a website, it is the most valuable promotion technique. Once you have ranked well for a keyphrase, it is hard to lose that ranking, even if you completely stop posting new content.
