Search Engine Optimization in a Nutshell

ON-PAGE SEO

On-page SEO refers to everything that you can do on your website to help it rank well in search engines. You start the on-page SEO process by doing keyword research. Keywords, or keyword phrases, are the words that people type into search engines to find relevant websites. If you go to Google and type in "how can I make money online," that's a keyword phrase.

KEYWORD RESEARCH

Keyword research involves finding keywords that have a good amount of traffic, but are not overly competitive. There are different strategies for choosing keywords. Just be sure to choose keywords that are appropriate for your market and not overly competitive.

DOMAIN NAME

Once you have your keywords, you're ready to build your website. The first thing you can do to help your website is to buy a domain name to match your keyword phrase. If it's not available, you can try to get a domain name that is similar or has other relevant keywords.

WEBSITE TITLE

Use your keyword phrase as the title of your website. The title appears at the top of your web browser and at the top of your website description in search results. In most cases, it will help you significantly if you put your keyword phrase in the title.

META DESCRIPTION

You should also use your keyword phrase in your meta description. Your meta description is what shows up in search results as the description of your website. In other words, it tells people what your website is about.

HEADINGS

Depending on how your website is designed, you might want to use your keyword phrase as a title on your website. If you use headings and subheadings, you can use your keyword phrase as a title, preferably an H1 title tag. Search engine robots read your website code and may give more weight to words or phrases designated as headings.

CONTENT

The content on our website should be written primarily for visitors. People visit websites because they want compelling, original content. If your website is made up of a bunch of keywords thrown together, no one will want to visit your website and no one will want to recommend your website. If it makes sense, use your keyword phrase when you can, and use related keywords.

LINKS

In addition to having your keyword within the content of your website, you can link to separate webpages within your website using the appropriate keyword phrase as anchor text. Anchor text is the actual text that is used to create a link.

For example, I could type "make money online," and turn that phrase into a link to my website. The anchor text is "make money online." A good technique to use on your website is to link between pages using the proper anchor text.

OFF-PAGE SEO

Off-page SEO is everything you can do outside of your website to help rank well in search engine results. Off-page SEO primarily consists of backlinks. Backlinks are just links to your website from other websites.

There are numerous ways to get backlinks. You can get them from article marketing, social media websites, guest blogging, forums, comments, social bookmarking and video sites. You are only limited by your imagination.

A few things to consider when getting backlinks. Getting a backlink with your keyword phrase used as anchor text is better than getting a backlink using your url as the link. Links from webpages with high PageRank are better than links from low PageRank websites. Links within content on a webpage are generally stronger than links in a footer or sidebar.

Any one technique listed above shouldn't make or break you. The more things you can do, the better results you'll have. If you can't do everything, so be it. Look at the big picture and keep learning as you go.

About the Author:

To learn SEO, check out Superbad Internet Marketing, where you can find strategic internet marketing advice and free videos on how to do keyword research the right way. superbadinternetmarketing.com