I just bought a domain a few days ago and decided to have my own website, offshorevirtualsolutions to promote my virtual assistance business. I barely know anything about SEO so I was hoping some of you can give me tips on how to start doing it? Where do you think I can get free tutorials on how to do SEO? What books do you recommend that I read for a start?
If you want all the answers in one easy to read book, check out Aaron Wall's SEOBook. It's website bears the same name
Simply you may start by having your page extensions in ".html" and make sure that you have perfectly validated stricty xhtml coding. (w3.org)
I don't think there is any set way to learning. Books can be good but outdated, forums can be good but also misleading (there is bad info often)... courses can be ok, but expensive..blogs can be good, but biased to the writer.... I think it is a combination really... anyhoo, my thoughts on How to Learn SEO... (and a bunch of links)
Go to google and use the search term "free seo tutorials" and you will have an abundance of choices to choose from.
First of all - build content. The more original fresh content the better. In the meanwhile try to get some good backlinks from established /trusted sites. Write content, build backlinks, again and again... Be patient. It will takes some time before start ranking high in Googe.
Read some of the post on the forum. Make sure to work on finding keywords for site that you can get ranked for. This means terms that people search for that have less sites listed in google. Then follow google terms for website and learn how to use keywords and meta tags.
By the way if you're looking for a nice read, here is something for you: http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization It's a great overall introduction.
Create fresh and effective content for your website use your targeted keywords in content with proper navigation. Add meta tags, submit the site in directories and exchange links with relevant sites.