SEO 101

Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of Optimizing a Website or Webpage for Search Engines and in turn, a higher ranking within the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Search Engine Optimization is a must for any website. Website visibility is a very competitive place- without the appropriate SEO Strategies, a website is almost invisible to the public. For a website to be successful, the market and competition need to be analyzed and a strategy must be pieced together and then implemented.

Meta Tags

Meta Tags are essentially meta data or additional data about a website that can be utilized be Search Engines. Meta Tags generally don’t impact on the direct interaction between the end user and the website. The main meta tags are the keywords and description meta tags.

Tip: Try to use Keyword Phrases, rather than single words for your keywords meta tag.

It is recommended that any Website conforms to modern forms of SEO- including Industry Standards. When used correctly, the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool provides optimal keywords for use with Meta Tags. The use of Meta Tags is crucial to any implementation of SEO. The website name and or brand should be used as the Website’s Title Meta Tag- to provide a breif overview of what the website is, when it is rendered in SERPs.

Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is similar to SEO, as the main goal of SMO is to optimize a Website or Webpage for the universal sharing of content amongst Social Media Networks- including FaceBook, Twitter and Google Plus. SMO can be very rewarding and at times free of cost. Google Plus has additional advantages, including Authorship. Authorship (in terms of Google) will enable a Google Plus Profile to be linked to a Blog (for example)- through the verification of a personal email address of the Author of the content on the Blog’s domain. Examle: [email protected], where example.com would be the domain of the blog.

You would then make use of a ‘byline’. A byline would look something like this on each post for the Author’s respective content By Ashley Menhennett, where Ashley Menhennett would be my name as per my Google Plus profile and should appear on each of my blog posts.

Note: the Author’s name in the byline must match the Author’s real name as per their Google Plus Profile.

If successfuly implemented and regular content is added to the blog, the Author’s Google Plus Profile image should be displayed next to each blog post in the relevant SERPs.
See Google’s Authorship page for further details and steps to setup Authorship for you and your Author’s!

Which Search Engine

Google’s Search Engine with more than 4 Billion Searches per Day is definitely the choice Search Engine to Optimize content for.

Keyword Optimisation on-page

Keyword optimization on-page is the process of using the website’s keywords naturally within its content. The use of text modifiers can be successful in assisting Search Engines to find relevant or optimal keywords on-page.

Image SEO

The standard W3C Alternate Text for Images is an absolute must and happens to come in very handy when working on SEO. This is a very simple process of adding an alternate text attribute for all images that are on the Website. Search Engines cannot determine the role that images play in the website or their content, so the alternate text attribute gives the Search Engine some text to work with- the Search Engine can then process the text. When Optimizing Images for Search Engines, it is recommended to use a string of text that would not seem out of place when indexed by a Search Engine and to be as descriptive as possible; without using more than a few words.

Backlinks

Backlinks are an essential part of SEO. Backlinks play a very important role, in the way that the Google Search Engine ranks and indexes sites. The more links that are on your website to other trusted Websites; the more Google will respect the site and in-turn rank it higher than a Website that does not use this technique of SEO. It is recommended that all Websites take part in Back linking to well established websites.

Site-maps

A basic Site-map can be created online for free. Site-maps are in the form of an XML (eXtensible Mark Up) document and are used primarily for Search Engines. With little readability of un-styled XML documents, it is recommended that the web developers invest some time into creating human-readable site-maps in HTML as well as the standard XML site-map. This will also provide users with a navigable interface. Site maps should be submitted to online directories, including submitting sitemaps within Google Web Master’s tools.
Tip: Your site map should generally reside at example.com/sitemap.xml.

Content

Content placement and creation can be a very tedious task when developing a Website. The content must always be relative to the keywords, description, title and domain name (among many other factors) for a Search Engine to ‘respect’ the Website and rank it accordingly. Keyword density is another important factor to content development. Developing unique and relative content can be tricky. There are numerous Web services that will assist with creating or rendering relevant data or information such as ‘RichContent’. The structure of relevant content can also play apart in SEO, with the appropriate Text Modifiers and alignment (left/right i.e. sidebars) of content can produce desired SEO results.

Glossary of Terms

I hope you found this resource helpful!