Search Engine Optimization Tutorial

So you are looking for a reasonable search engine optimization tutorial yet you can’t seem to put all of the pieces together. I know when I was getting started on the internet, looking around at different places, I found a ton of information on search engine optimization and some sites dealt with how to put your title tags together, and other sites focused on keyword density. Still other sites just focused on relevant content usage and rules.

It wasn’t until, I would say, a couple of years later, that I actually found a reasonable amount of information that I could piece together myself and I have been using it ever since. This SEO tutorial is specifically for people who are beginners and for those folks who can’t seem to finish the puzzle. Without further delay here is what you want to do.

You have an article that you have written, you have your website or blog, depending on what it is, it really doesn’t matter. Now you want your website articles to rank for a specific word do you not? So let’s say that your website is about training your pet dog. For this example we will use dogs because there is a huge market for this animal.

Within your dog training website, you would have a series of articles and let’s say that one article talked about how to stop your golden retriever from digging. Another article talked about how you can stop your german shepherd from barking. These are two distinct examples and what happens is that you want each one of those articles to come up in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, when someone types in those search phrases.

So how do you get it to rank? Well, here is a quick list:

• Relevant website, well categorized, well written
• Proper on-page optimization
• Proper off-page factors
• Decent size website (50+ pages)

So, let’s go through that list. You want to make sure that your website is actually built upon a proper foundation of categories. If you walked into a library with no sections, it would be an absolute mess trying to find the book you wanted. The same principle applies to your website. You want to organize your website both from a hierarchy standpoint for the search engine spiders and for your visitors and their navigation while on your site. Keep your your website themes related and you will see your rankings improve, perhaps even without doing extra off-page work. Although it should be noted that off-page optimization is the bread and butter 90% of the time.

Following the proper category structure of your website should be well written unique relevant articles. Make sure to include your on-page factors within these articles. The on-page factors you want to focus on are the title, the amount of times you use your key phrase, and the use of bolded or “strong” words. By bolding your keyword within the article, it is letting the search engines know that the particular phrase is of greater importance than all other words within that article. You are putting this word on a pedestal above everything else.

You also want to use the phrase within the title, meta keyword tag, and meta description tag of your page. I can’t do this for you. You have to find out how to do this with whatever software you are using to build your website. At the very least you should be able to easily change the title of  your page. This is the basis of on page optimization and from here you switch gears and focus on your off-page factors. So what are off-page factors anyways? This is anything that helps your site rank well, but isn’t in your control (to an extent). Allow me to explain.

You want other websites to link to your particular articles on your site, that contain the phrase you want to rank for. So for example, if you want to rank for the word “stop dog from barking” – you should have an article that talks about the ways in which you can get a dog to stop barking. Make sure you use the phrase “stop dog from barking” within your title, keyword, and description tags and also within the context of the article itself. Do not spam the article with repetitive usage of the key phrase.

Now the fun begins. If your content is well written, other sites may link to you automatically. Otherwise, you may wish to seek out link exchanges with other websites relating to the dog niche. The more websites that link to your article with the words “stop dog from barking”, the higher (for the most part) that particular article on your website is going to rank for that phrase. It is all about proper structure, well written articles, and quality back-links. Combine all of these into a search engine optimization campaign, and you have a recipe for success.