Search Engine Optimization Tutorial

About Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a form of search engine marketing. It is the process of optimizing on-page, and off page elements and contents on a web page in a way that best helps search engines like Google and Yahoo decide what the page is about, and return that page when it's users search for keywords and phrases that are relevant to your site.

SEO Basics

Organic Search Engine Optimization is all about optimizing your site so it has the best chance of ranking high in the organic search results for your chosen keywords.

Below is a standard search engine results page (SERP) for the search "Algebra". The area marked as Organic SEO, is where the pages that Google thinks are most relevant for that search show up. The other areas marked PPC are paid listing.

Step 1: Choose your Keywords

This may sound like a simple step, but you should take a lot of time when choosing your keywords. Consider these questions:

How popular are the words?
In other words, how many times do people search for this keyword? Generally, if no one (or very few people) is searching for a keyword, it's not as valuable.

How competitive are the words?
Or how many other sites are trying to rank for the same keywords. Generally, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is going to be to rank for it.

It's best if you can find words that are popular with less competition. This is where it pays to spend a lot of time. Research your keywords. You'll be surprised at the untapped gems you can find.

The next section discusses some of the tools you can use to research and find good keywords. They use data from search engines to give an idea of how popular and competitive your keywords are.

Keyword Research Tools
WordTracker.com - WordTracker is a very good tool for researching keywords.

Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool -

Google AdWordsKeyword Tool

Step 2: On-Page Optimization

Now that you have your keywords, let's look at a list and descriptions of the most important places in your web pages to use them.

Page Title
The Page Title is the text between the <title></title> tags. If there is one necessary element, this is it. Not only for SEO reasons, but also because users rely on it to know what a page is about.

The title is also very important because most of the time, it is used in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). A well put together page title can have a much higher click-thru rate.

Here’s an example from Hotels.com.
“hotels.com - We know hotels inside and out.”
Their main keyword is [hotels]. Its a good title because they the main keyword, once as the first word, and once later in the sentence, and it is also very user friendly. It makes sense. If you try searching for [hotels] in Google, you will see that they have been very successfully. (I must add that that success has come from Off-Page Search Engine Optimization. We’ll talk about that soon).

Body Text
The body text is any text between the <body></body> tags. Body text, or page content is important for on-page optimization, because without it, there is very little for search engines to judge a site by. More body text is generally better, but you want to keep paragraphs short (short paragraphs help hold the attention of readers). Use your keyword as much as you can In A Reasonable Manner. Overuse of your keyword will result in an Over Optimization Penalty (OOP).

First Sentence of the Body Text
Try to use your keyword somewhere in the first sentence of the body text. It sets the tone, and reinforces to the search engine the fact that the keyword is important.

H1 Tag and H2 Tag Text
The H1 text is the text between the <H1></H1> tags, and H2 tags are used in the same manner. These tags are called Header tags. Meaning that they should describe everything that is under them. Header tags are helpful for on-page optimization, and letting search engines know what a page is about, but if you don’t use them, its not the end of the world.

Anchor Text (internal)
Anchor text is anything between <A></A> tags. In other words these are links. Anchor text helps search engines know what the link leads to. So a link with the anchor text “Click Here” is not very descriptive, while one that makes use of your keyword like “keyword” or “click here for keyword” is much better.

One element of the Anchor tag that is usually overlooked is the Anchor Tag Title. This is not visible unless the user hovers the mouse pointer over the link. Here is an example for the keyword [foo].
<a href=”foo.html” title=”Click here to learn all about Foo!”>Foo

IMG ALT Attributes
The IMG ALT is important for on-page SEO and probably more important because it is required by law. For disabled users who cant see your images, the alt text should describe what the image is. This is a good thing because its another place to use your keyword.

Example: <img src=”/images/foo.jpg” alt=”foo”>

URL/ File Name
It can be helpful for pages to be named using the keyword. For example if a page is about “Green widgets”, then you would name the page green-widgets.html. Always make sure to use a hyphen “-” and not an underscore”_” (don’t even think about using a space), since most search engines have a hard time with underscores.

Meta Tags (Meta Description and Meta Keywords)
Meta tags are located in the <head></head> tags. They are invisible to users, and are used strictly by some search engines. There is a good reason that I have put Meta Tags at the end of this article. They are becoming less important to on-page search engine optimization. With that said, it can’t hurt to use them. I will briefly describe and give examples of both.

- Meta Description:
Include a complete, descriptive sentence that describes the page. Make sure to use your keyword, but don’t go overboard.

Example:
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Wiget supplies for users of green widgets.”>

- Meta Keywords:
Include a list of keywords. The best way is to write your body text, and then select keywords from that text. Don’t use keywords that aren’t in the page.
<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”Wiget supplies, green widgets, blue widgets, widget cakes, …..”>

Off-Page Optimization (Link Building)

Now that you've finished your on-page optimization, it's time to move on to off site factors. These are external factors that affect your site's ranking in the search engines, and they pretty much just include external links to your site, or other web pages that link to your pages. These links are also known as Backlinks and inbound links (IBLs),

Whatever you call them, they are highly valuable, and highly sought after.

For some people, link building can definitely the most difficult part of Search Engine Optimization, but it doesn't have to be. Link building can be quite painless if you go about it in the right way.

Placed Links
We're going to start with what I'll call, Placed links. These are links that you have some control over. (how, where, and when they are created)

Web Directories
Directories are an easy way to get started with link building. They are basically large lists of links to other sites; sort of like the yellow pages of the internet. Some directories list websites for free, while others charge a fee.

The best way to find a good directory to list your site in is to search Google for "Your Keyword Directory" or "Directory Your Keyword".

Usually, top ranked directories will benefit your site the most.

Some tips for directories:
- Look for nich directories that rank well in Google
- Look for directories that your competitors may be listed in
- Look for directories that offer a permanent link

Link Requests
This involved finding sites that are related to yours and asking them to link to you. Honestly, this is one of the most tedious things you can do, but it does work sometimes, so if you're up to the task, go for it. If you're going to do this, remember to be sincere, and don't send out generic link requests (spam).

Paid Links
When it comes to paid links, you should be careful. Paid links from sites that make it obvious that the links are paid for, will most likely not help your ranking in the search engines.

Thinks like "Sponsored Links" written above your links, sitewide links (links that appear on every page of a site), or even links that appear on the right or left side of a site as opposed to in the center (editoial) part of a site, can all be big red flags telling search engines that "these are Paid Links."

Search engines are constantly striving to negate the power of paid links, so that they don't offer any benefit for ranking.

If you want to buy paid links for ranking purposes
- keep it under wraps.
- Ask for links in the content part of a page, not in the sidebar, and not sitewide
- Use anchor text (the words in the link) that contain your keywords
- Vary your anchor text
- Try to buy links permanantly, as opposed to monthly

Insider tip: Probably one of the most effective methods to find paid links to help your ranking is to search for sites that rank in the top 10 for your keywords. Find a page that ranks well, but that isn't going to be in competition with you, and send the webmaster an email, offering cash to add a link to your site from that page. You can offer $20, $50, $100, or whatever you think is fair.

Article Sites and Press Releases
There are lots of people who use article sites to get links, but I'm not going to talk about that because I really don't think it's worthwile. If you're good at writing articles, you should start a blog. (see the link bait section below)

Natural Links
If your Content is Great, you'll have Link Bait
I think the term "link bait" has a bit of a bad reputation because it sounds sort of shady, but in actuality, link bait is just great content.

Link bait can be anything that naturally attracts links. It can be a funny or bizarre picture, a useful tutorial, a video, or in my case, I make free tools (see some of my free SEO tools). They are fun for me to make, and people naturally link to them.

Link bait draws natural links, and these natural links are the best, and most effective kind of backlinks you can get.