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Getting Started in SEO: The 3 Basics of Search Engine Optimization

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Many would think that search engine optimization (SEO) is very difficult to learn and it’s a job that should be left to the professionals. On the contrary, SEO is easy to learn but it’s an extremely tedious task, that’s why a lot of online businesses today hire SEO specialists or link builders to do the tiring SEO tasks while business owners focuses more on converting sales.

In other cases, some online business owners who are just starting out, does not have the budget to hire their own SEO specialist or link builder so they end up doing it themselves.

If you want to start out in SEOing your website, you must first learn the three basics of search engine optimization.

1. Keywords Research – Because you just can’t use any words written in the dictionary, keyword research is the SEO way of picking out the right keywords according to your niche. There are lots of free online keywords suggestion tools online that you can use, like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Word Tracker to help you search for words and phrases related to your niche.

For example. You own a jewelry shop in Manhattan, New York and want to set up a website for it. You can target for specific keywords like new york jewelers, jewelry store new york, jewelers in manhattan ny, luxury watches manhattan, or diamond engagement rings nyc. Instead of targeting these keywords; online jewelry, diamond necklaces, white gold rings, free delivery, selling, or gold.

The main reason why Search Engine Optimizers go for specific keywords is to have quality traffic for their website. The higher the quality of visits, the higher the chance of sales conversion!

2. Meta Tags – Notice how websites in search results have titles and descriptions? Well, that’s the use of Meta Tags. Not only does it provide a custom webpage title and description for your website in search results, it also helps you target different types of keywords per page of your blog or website.

For example. Your online shoe shop has two categories; flats and heels. On your “Flats” page, you can target keywords like flat shoes, flat sandals, or flat leather boots; and on the “Heels” page you can target keywords like high heels, kitten heels or cone heels. That way, you can target more audience using related keywords applied on specific pages of your website without keyword stuffing.

3. Content Optimization – The best way to optimize your website’s content is to write unique and accurate information with just the right number of keywords mixed in it. Too many keywords and your website might get flagged as spammy, or worse, get deindexed by search engines.

Getting started in SEO is easy, just remember to follow search engine guidelines and use ethical search engine optimization techniques to boost your web traffic and keywords ranking.

The Never Ending FAQs about Keywords!

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What are keywords?
Keywords or key phrases are either a word or group of words used to search for stuff over the internet. Basically anything you type in a search box is considered as keywords or key phrases. To SEOs, or Search Engine Optimizers, keywords are used to target specific website visitors to increase web traffic and sales.

Why do I need keywords for my website or blog?
Keywords are not just for corporate websites looking to expand their brand in the World Wide Web. Keywords can also be applied to blogs and even on a wiki pages. Keywords are used to help internet users find the exact information they are looking for based on their search query, and help website owners to easily target their audience.

Are keywords still important today?
Yes. Goolge may have become very strict and serious when they launched their Google Panda and Penguin updates, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of keywords optimization. The algorithm updates of by Google, and any other search engines, are designed mainly to eliminate spam and useless content over the internet. So don’t panic.

Why should I limit the use of keywords on my website or blog?
Too much of a good thing can either be just a bad day in the office or the worst thing that can happen in your life, depends on how you over-do it. As I’ve already said earlier, keywords are meant to help internet users find the information they’re looking for, not to be used as a tool to manipulate search engine rankings.

What should I avoid when using/applying keywords to my website or blog?
Keywords can either be the key to your success or to the demise of your online presence, so you better make sure you use them properly. The best way to use keywords is by following search engines guide lines and avoid making these old and nasty black hat SEO techniques.

Should I hire a SEO specialist to do all the complicated SEO keywords stuff for my website or blog?
Well, that depends on your needs and your budget. If you really want professional help for your website or blog, you can first try on a project-based SEO package before hiring a full-time staff. But, if you already know the scope and have a well thought out plan for your website’s SEO needs, get a full-time staff leasing service from SEO experts, because SEO is a long process and a very tedious task.

Basic SEO Mistakes You Should Be Avoiding

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Age old Black Hat SEO techniques you shouldn’t be practicing

As Search Engines develop their bots to be more intelligent in detecting these Black Hat SEO techniques, the easier it is for webmasters to get their websites penalized. These unethical SEO techniques may have greatly worked for Black Hat webmasters long ago but today they are easy detected by Search Engine bots and the faster they can detect it on your website, the faster they can penalize you for it. So it’s best that you avoid these basic SEO mistakes instead on experimenting on them.

Keyword Stuffing in Content and Meta Tag

This classic black hat SEO technique can easily drain your search rankings faster than you can say, “Search Engine Optimization!” Keyword stuffing is the practice of repeating a keyword or keywords to a webpage’s content to the extent that its content reads like gibberish, and because some webmasters aren’t satisfied with bombarding loads of keywords onto their website’s content, they do it also on their Mata Keywords tag. Whether readable or not, it’s still a violation of Search Engines’ Guidelines.

Hidden Text in Website Content and Comment Tag

The most basic SEO mistake you should not experiment on ever! The Hidden Texts technique is the practice of putting words, sentences and paragraphs in a website written in such a way to be invisible or unreadable to human visitors by blending its text color onto the background or making the text font super small. Hidden texts are stuffed with keywords and mixed with a bunch of words that doesn’t make sense. The trick here is to fool search engine bots into thinking that the website has valuable content by putting several related keywords or by repeating the same keywords over and over in a webpage.

Example (Hidden Content):
This is keyword1 an example only Keyword2 of Hidden Content Keyword3 inside a website/page Keyword4.
If you Keyword2 like my website Keyword4, please Keyword3 share the link Keyword1.

A Comment Tag is commonly used by web developers to print their signature or provide instructions and useful reminders about the codes they’ve written. Even though keywords inside your comment tag are invisible to visitors, it is not the same case with Search Engine bots, you’ll be in for a big ugly surprise!

Example (Hidden Text in Comment Tag):
<!—Start of comment tag
Coded by Keyword1, Keyword2, Keword3, webProXXX Keyword4…
–> End of comment tag

Unrelated Keywords

When searching for keywords for your website, it always pays to pick the ones that are closely related to your niche. Gathering too much unrelated keywords is just a waste of time, they won’t rank well as you expect them to and they will just add more senseless tasks on your shoulder.

Doorway or Gateway Pages

In order to gain loads of web traffic, black hat SEOs use doorway pages. Doorway or Gateway Pages are either optimized for a few keywords, or heavily optimized with tons of keywords, with the attempt of fooling Search Engine bots into thinking that these pages are relevant to a search query so they can be ranked higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Visitors do not see these Doorway or Gateway Pages because once they click the link; they are automatically redirected to another webpage or websites which are generally misleading. This black hat technique can easily get your website deindexed by Search Engines.

Link Farms

This is an age old Black Hat SEO technique and a basic SEO mistake you’ll regret for a very long period of time. It can result to a penalty so severe you’ll probably fire your SEO guy for it! Link Farms are websites or webpages that are usually Free For All (FFA) with no real purpose, just to collect hundreds and thousands of links that are unrelated to each other, usually filed under “uncategorized,” and even mixed with the links of Adult websites. They do not pass as quality a backlink, no real traffic, and can get your website banned.

What’s worse? Several FFA websites do not have a “remove my link” request button or form, even if you email the website owner directly, your website’s link will remain in their listings for as long as the FFA website is up and running! So beware on where you submit your link to.

Cloaking

One of the most dangerous unethical SEO techniques that is used to trick visitors into clicking a link they think is useful to them. Optimizing a website solely for Search Engine bot by way of Cloaking results to a webpage that visitors may think “user-friendly” but doesn’t really provide the information they’re looking for, just a bunch of keywords scattered all over the page, or worse, mixed with Adult content.

IP Delivery

The use of IP Delivery today is for determining the location of the visitor via his IP and deliver content specifically written for that country (i.e. German written content for visitors with IPs from Germany). Some webmasters today still use this technique to fool Search Engine bots by presenting them with properly optimized content while they redirect human visitors to another page filled with unrelated content.

What do Black Hat Webmasters gain by doing this?

While some webmasters stumble upon these unethical techniques by experimenting, others do them purposely to gain money paid to them by their clients or just to ruin a competitor’s reputation. You can never be too sure where your link is placed across the World Wide Web, so it’s best if you check your backlinks every now and then. These basic SEO mistakes can easily land your website’s rank down to several pages in SERPs and can even have your website deindexed.