Search engine optimization or SEO as it is popularly known, is the process of enhancing the quantity and quality of site visitors to a particular web page or a particular site by search engines. SEO aims at free traffic rather than paid or direct traffic. It is important to keep in mind that when you get free traffic, it is not guaranteed to convert into profit. Free traffic may just be people browsing on your site for sheer curiosity. Paid traffic may be a means to convert them into customers. If paying traffic is the route you want to take, then SEO is important for bringing in the bacon!
The first step in SEO is to choose a domain name and host. Choosing the right host is critical because your website will need to be hosted on a server and as such, you will have to register your site with them to ensure your website will be indexed by search engines. Once registered, your host will assign keywords for which your web pages will be optimized. Once your web pages are optimised, search engines will spider your pages, giving them access to your site’s domain name and thus allowing them to index it in their search engines, making it accessible to your target audience.
It is a common misconception that SEO improves your traffic directly. In reality, SEO just makes your website appear more attractive to search engine robots and spiders, allowing them to index and rank your site more easily. This means that your site will be easier to find when a search engine user types in a particular keyword or phrase. Therefore, even if a search engine does not give you the number one spot for your selected keyword, your page could still make it to the top ten with a very low traffic count.
In order to achieve success in SEO, you must have a solid understanding of how the search engines work. Search engines work by scanning websites and indexing the pages that are most relevant to the requests they receive. For example, if a user requests information on the history of a company, his search engine results page (SERP) will list all of the sites that have mentioned the company in the past. If none of these sites show up in a user’s SERP, the search engine will move on to the next highest ranking site. Therefore, you must ensure that your website is listed within the top twenty sites on any given search engine result page.
While SEO can improve your web traffic, it is not the only factor that determines your website’s rank within the search engine hierarchy. In order to receive targeted traffic, your website needs to contain relevant content. Search engines will also look at your web pages through your website’s header tags, title tags, meta tags and anchor text. These tags provide search engine robots with information about your web pages and determine the relevancy of your site for any particular keyword. In short, SEO is only a small part of the factors that determine a site’s SEO ranking.
Although SEO can improve your website’s rankings, you may still need to use SEO strategies in order to get as much targeted traffic as possible. Some SEO strategies such as link building or posting in forums are helpful to improving your site’s ranking. However, without some form of follow-up, your SEO efforts may be largely wasted. As an example, if a forum post mentions your website address, this will not go far towards increasing traffic to your site. In most cases, it is best to make announcements of the changes you are making on your web pages so that users will be aware of what is going on with their site. Keep in mind that search engine optimization should not be an afterthought when developing your overall business plan.