Search Engine Optimization for Dummies

Adwords
Advertising system provided by Google(Pay Per Click).

Backlinks
Links that came from other websites,otherwise known as Inbound Links. Coming in links.

Blog
An outcome of views, insights and opinions of a person. Oftentimes called as Web Log.

Black hat SEO
The unethical use of SEO. Wrong tactics.

Bookmark
A website/link has been bookmarked, tagged or added to favorites.

BAP
Blog and Ping. A procedure used by some bloggers to get ranked in Search Engines.

CMS
Content Management System. A tool to make a website. Premade themes and plugins.

Copyright
Legal publication. A certain person own that particular content or website.

Directory
A list of all webpages in the internet.

Feed
Tool to allow readers to subscribe to contents of a website. Such as allowing the users to be updated with the latest posts on your site.

Fuzzy Search
Mispelled search.

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In Search Engine Optimization, being active on social networks can be very helpful in gaining bunch of backlinks. Aside from that, participating in Forums could also help you gain links. Make sure that you're in the right Forum. Analyze the website you're optimizing. In what category does it belong to? Be careful not to spam in those applications. Look for ACTIVE and relevant forums. For instance, your website is all about Finance and Accounting, it is proper to participate in Forum sites which pertains only to finance and accounting. DON'T get involved in forums which is NOT relevant to your site. It may confuse others. They might think that you're a spammer. AVOID posting several posts with THE SAME thought. Look for informative posts, and leave a comment. Interact with the users, this might help you build your network. Always make sure that in the "Signature" section of your profile, you have provided a link to your website. Don't just type in there the link, but instead use your keywords. If your keyword is "online gaming" you might place there, "Explore the art of online gaming". Then make sure that you highlight the keyword and place a link to your website or blog. Isn't that easy? Go ahead and build your network.

Web Analytics Tool

It helps you find out the overall statistics of your site. How many backlinks you have, from where are the links came from. With this tool you can keep track of the progress of your site. e.g Google Analytics(from Google), Piwik , Sitemeter, Statcounter and Awstats.

Keyword Research Tool

It provides you with the competitive keywords that well in demand for your customers/readers. This is where you know if your keywords are competent and how many people are using these keywords. e.g Wordtracker, Google Adwords, and Wordze.

Search Engine Rank Tool

You may figure out the your site's ranking in Search engines through the use of this tool. e.g SEO Centro

Other Tools

Competitor Analysis Tool

It's important to know who are your competitors, and what keywords they're using. e.g Yahoo Site Explorer

Page Rank Checker Tool

This may help you know the Page Rank(PR) of your website. e.g PR Checker

Internet Marketers or SEO Specialists had been using this powerful tool to rank their websites in search engines. What is Squidoo? It is a website where you can create lenses(page contains a person's thoughts,ideas and topics). Others used this for monetizing purposes, and some are for marketing strategy. People who create lenses are often times called "lensmasters".

How can Squidoo be a part of SEO strategy? Well, in squidoo you can place the link of your website on your lenses. And you can write a snippet of your article and link it in your site. The advantage of using Squidoo is that, it is approved and recognized by search engines, specifically Google. The only way to be known in Squidoo, your lens must be really unique, provides helpful information to people, and it has fresh contents.Find lenses that is relevant to yours, and give out a useful comment, you may insert a link of your lens/website on the comment field. Just make sure that it is not sound like spammy. If your lens got the highest rank for a certain topic, I bet your website is also rank in Google. Gain more visits, and let other lens masters rate your lens. The good news about Squidoo is that, it pays you off. But they will only pay you if you've got a higher rank, bunch of visits from other lens masters, and most importantly your lens is informative and useful.

Do you know that having multiple accounts in Social Networks such as, Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, and Multiply can also be a good way in SEO? As I said in my early posts, being active in Social Network sites can also be a good strategy to gain back links(incoming links to a website). Here are the easiest ways to build bunch of back links:

1. Customize your profile. Make sure that your profile is user friendly and everybody can read and understand your page. Make it simple but interesting.


2. Provide essential photos. Don't just copy and place it in your profile. Provide an original and relevant photos.


3. Build Friendship. Look for friends, or people who have the same concept as yours. Add them up on your list and interact.


4. Provide comments in Guestbooks. Find for some profiles that is similar to yours and make sure you left a quality comment. It's one way of interacting. There are other website owners/entrepreneurs/bloggers who has multiple accounts on these social sites so you might caught their attention and will visit your site. Make sure you're not going to give out spam comments.


5. Provide Updates on your profile. Write something new on your profile so that your friends will visit your profile often. If there's a "shout out"(like in Friendster), you may place there the link of your website.

Continue Reading Social Networks: One Way to SEO success!

Some people might wondering, what is SEO? What does it do for many websites? Why is it an advantage for bloggers, entrepreneurs, advertisers, marketers and website owners? SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process of giving out quality "traffic"(more visitors) to websites that came from several search engines(e.g Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves). SEO Specialists/Internet Marketers use a group of competitive keywords(e.g health,relationships,politics) to optimize their websites. Some people use this as a marketing strategy that's why business owners prefer to sell their products online.

Now, how does it really be beneficial to business owners? If you have your own business, and you want the world to know how good your products/services are, you probably think of designing a website and publish it in the world wide web. The question is, how are you going to get a lot of visitors on your site? SEO can help you gain visitors! You just have to know how are you gonna optimize your site through keywords, and make your website rank on search engines.

For the first week of learning SEO, I am very much troubled on what kind of optimization strategy am I going to use since lots of stuffs to learn about it. I never thought that there are guidelines and procedures in optimizing a website. Until I found out that, there is an OFF-Page optimization and ON-Page optimization. These two types of optimization are important in SEO. On the following weeks of learning, so much things I discovered. I remember what my supervisor told me, "Careful analyzation of keywords is one of the factors to top on search engines". This is the very first thing to do before anything else. After 3 months, I top the website on a certain keyword in Google. That was really an accomplishment! And I'm so proud that, as a beginner(at that time) in SEO I optimized the site well and make it rank #1 in google. Learning SEO is really fun, and the patient you are, the bigger the chance that you could also be on TOP of other competitive websites!

1. Participate in Forums. Use your keyword as signature links in all forums that you have. Don't over use your keyword, you may just insert it in a sentence or phrase. Be active.

2. Comment on Blogs. Try to find other blogs that relevant to yours and provide quality comments. Make sure that the blogs don't have "no follow" attribute. It may not give you traffic. Post comments that link back to your blog.

3. Do some Link Exchange. This is one of a linking building strategy that is really effective. Look for websites or blogs and try to link with them. This won't be a pain in the ass if you link to sites that are relevant to yours. It's always important to link with relevant sites to avoid "spammy" back links.

4. Post new and fresh contents Write an article for your blog site or website and update it twice a week.

5. Submit articles to Article Directories. This is the most time consuming strategy that you may overcome BUT it's one of the most effective way of gaining one way links.

Continue Reading Top 10 Link Building Strategies