SEO Basics - A Guide
Getting to grips with search engine optimisation (SEO) basics is a great way for a business to enhance its search rankings, drive more traffic to its website and solidify its presence on the web. While there are a number of organisations and services that can help a company to improve the way search engines rank its website, a few SEO basics can be implemented quickly and easily with effective results.
Search giant Google offers a number of free tools to help webmasters analyse their SEO strategies, but the company also has some tips for people starting out. SEO basics begins with choosing the right keywords, avoiding general words such as "software", for instance, in lieu of more targeted search terms such as "web development software UK". Being specific means competing with fewer websites for the same keywords, while targeting a more suitable market that its looking for a specific product.
Other SEO basics include optimising the site's domain name and title tag - for instance, a website called gardeningsupplies.com will get a higher ranking for the "gardening supplies" search term. However, if this is not possible, keywords can be added into the names of pages and should be used as much as possible in the site's title tags.
Headings and links will also benefit from keyword incorporation, as will including keywords in bold text and within the first 25 words of text in a HTML document. Another part of SEO basics is trying to generate a high number of quality inbound links to the site, which starts by registering a listing in the major web directories such as Yahoo! and the Open Directory, which is used by Google.
The world of SEO is changing all the time, with Google recently introducing its Caffeine update which will take a site's load speed into account, as well as incorporating content from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter into its search results. However, by paying attention to a few SEO basics any company with an online presence can improve its chance of standing out from the crowd.
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