The Term SEO: Search Engine Optimization is a technique that is used to bring oneself on top over Search Engine’s like Google, MSN, Yahoo! & others. No matter what you’re selling and no matter how much service you offer. You will never be in the Google Search or any other SE(Search Engine) unless and until you do something that is called internet marketing or SEO, otherwise you will be thrown on the 10,000th page, and nobody honestly nobody goes even to the 2rd page when Google’ing for something. A statistics shows that First Page 1st position:30% 2nd position:15% 3rd position:7% 4th position:5% 5th position:4% 6th position:4% 7th position:2% 8th position:2% 9th position:3% 10th position:5% Second Page 1st position:6% 2nd position:4% 3rd position:2% 4th and beyond:<1% Q: What knowledge does a SEO should possess?? To be an SEO, one should have the knowledge of basic HTML (I’ll tell you why, later) and a lot of brain-power. SEO is not about writing pseudo code but about thinking one step ahead of the people who search their needs and wants through Google. Question: Have you ever thought how Google shows results for the keywords that you have searched for? a) Google is Super-Genius? b) Google has its own back-end Search Engine? c) We do something for Google to find us? Answer: We do the 99% work for Google and the 1% Google-Algo then finds us. And what we do is actually Search Engine Optimization We will be discussing it later of what we do in SEO, but right now the question that you should ask is “The websites that are topping Google right now should always remain on top forever??†And if you’re not asking this question or haven’t given a thought right now then, SEO is seriously not your cup of tea. Now, this is what SEO is really all about, if you’re Optimization is good, you should beat every other Website that is on Google’s first page. How to SEO? Okay, now we know what SEO is. The next thing we will learn is how to achieve the goal i.e. how be famous over Google. (We are aiming towards Google because of the popularity level actually, how many times have you searched through MSN Search?) A little story on Google’s Policy: To be on Google’s list, a website should meet some standards set by the Google itself, and Google never tolerate anyone for breaking the rules, even if we did break, we’re gona end up somewhere on the last page of Google. MORAL: Google doesn’t need us… WE need Google So it’s better to stick to the rules or it’s the Sandbox for you (ending up on the last page or down below refers to the term Sandbox) SEO Techniques The goal we are going to achieve has been divided into two categories a) On-Page SEO b) Off-Page SEO If we talk about On-Page SEO, Google finds websites through its a) Content b) Title c) Meta Tags (keywords and description) d) Anchor Text e) Alt Text f) Heading Tags h1 and h2 You will notice, if you follow all these, you will lead your website to a clean, sophisticated backend/code as well and this counts Google a lot! But then again, these are the basics; the On-Page techniques are also updated with time Off-Page SEO changes with time to time, and the restrictions, rules and golden points vary on what the world is going on to. Google does not allow any misuse of the facilitation that it provides. Below are the few Off-Page Vintage Techniques, a) Link exchange b) Link Baiting c) Flooding Forums with the website link These techniques are still used and are only effective when applied when staying within Google’s Laws. For Instance, Link Exchange is the worst idea when misused, people started Link Farming(posting hundreds and hundreds of links on each other’s website)which resulted these websites to be banned. Other few Off-Page Technique that are used nowadays are, a) Blog posting/comments b) Article Submission c) Press Releases d) Forum posting/comments e) Directory Submission f) Online Ad-Classified g) Banner Ads. h) Back linking i) Link-age not(linkage) SEO expert should always remain update with the world in order to get best results The hottest new Off-Page Technique also is attached with the hottest new internet-craze, called Social Media where we use the power of Facebook, Tweeter, Bebo and other Social Media Networks. But then again, we never know what technique Google is using at the moment but we know that playing fair will always lead to the best results There are many other techniques (both on-page and off-page) that are followed from time to time to enhance the site reputation over Google. An SEO then monitors the website activity from miscellaneous website analysis tools and study on the visits he is getting. Whether the number of from direct links, referred from other websites or Google searched. On this analysis, an SEO Expert then switches/reviews his strategies and tactics and monitors the change. Again, no matter how good the SEO expert is, you do not get results overnight but with time to time as you earn reputation in the eyes of GOOGLE. And vice-versa the story is when you lose your reputation, your WEBSITE GOES DOWN OVERNIGHT.
nice post there... i would like to add to a very important factor to offf-page seo which is social bookmarking. I see social media (facebook, twitter etc) mentioned but social bookmarking is another thing. It is a very good tool to enhance your website, market it and get known as a good contributor to your niche. Really good post for beginners, well done.