What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is comprised of many different ways that you can tweak your website or blogs to gain strong visibility on the internet.

There are basic search engine optimization SEO methods and tactics you need to know. However, there is no one way to perform SEO for your online business.

Most time you just have to experiment with stuff and wait to see the result that it brings. Technology, the internet and customer’s demands change at a rapid pace therefore, you will always have to be watching out to pick-up on new trends.

Well known search engines such as Google and Bing rank websites according to complex algorithms which are designed to determine which websites are most relevant for particular search terms.

This does not mean you will have to work on SEO every week or every month but you can examine the progress as often as needs be.

There are two types of SEO that you can use. They are known as on page optimization and off page optimization. Optimization of your website pages are done to gain first page ranking on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

I deliberately mentioned page optimization for you to learn that in the context of search engine ranking, your website is ranked based on your web pages.

This means that you can have one web page that is optimized properly and it brings you hundreds of traffic each day.

In that case it will help your website to have an overall high ranking when you check your ranking on website like www.alexa.com. Websites with properly optimized web pages that bring lots of traffic are referred to as cornerstone content.

On Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

On page optimization is the process of making tweaks to your website pages to make them SEO friendly. For a website to be SEO friendly it needs to meet the guidelines of the search engines. This means for each page you created on your website it should have the following basic optimization:

• Creating a robots.txt file: this is a onetime set up.
• Creating a site map: this is a onetime set up.
• Title tag optimization: Write your page title with targeted keywords, usually 65 characters.
• Meta tag description: Give a short description of what your page is about, usually 156 characters.
• Content optimization: Your content should contain information based on your title tag with optimal keyword density. Your content should not be flooded with the keyword you used (keyword stuffing).
• Internal linking: Linking related web pages on your site. This helps visitors to stay on your website longer. When visitors click on a line to move to another web page on your site, providing that you use the webpage keyword, the search engine will view that page as important and will improve its ranking. The same benefit will apply when you set up a link on other websites and visitors click on it and come to your website (off page SEO).
• Setting up permalink to create rich snippet: Your page URL should contain the name of your page title and not numbers and/or letters.
• Good navigation: Search engines and visitors should find your site easy to navigate.

Off Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Off page optimization is anything you do off your website. To create a listing for your business on BillboardJamaica.com is an off page SEO method.

Other off page optimization are setting up back links to your website, social bookmarking, blog posting and commenting, joining forums on other websites, directory submission and much more.

There are two methods of off page SEO namely, black hat SEO and white hat SEO. White hat SEO are the recommended process I explained above.

On the other hand, black hate SEO is aggressive SEO strategies, techniques and tactics that focus only on search engines and not a human audience, and usually does not obey search engines guidelines.

This type of SEO is one that will work for you immediately but will cost you dearly in the medium to long term. Therefore you would want to stay clear of this off page SEO method.

The world of SEO is complex and continually evolving making it difficult for most business owners who do not specialize in SEO to keep up with the changes in the industry. If you are not good at SEO or if you can afford it, it does not hurt to hire an SEO expert.

As usual, if you find this post on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) useful, please leave us a comment or share some of your SEO strategies and tactics for the benefit of other readers.