Search Engines have become the single most important tool for searching the internet for information, this has made it necessary for every blogger and webmaster to optimize their blog/site for the search engines know as Search Engine Optimization - SEO. But wait a minute, What Is Search Engine Optimization?


Abbreviations:
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
SERP – Search Engine Result Page
SE – Search Engine

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving web pages so they rank high in SE’s for a specific keyword phrase. SEO is divided into two categories: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

On-page optimization refers to every method you use that change the page code
Off-page optimization equals link popularity (more on this later); Link popularity is the number of relevant quality inbound links pointing to your website.


On-Page Optimization
On page SEO means the code page optimization so, in this phase, you should pay special attention to the following:


On-page factors

• Page title
  
• Header tags
  
• Alt tags
  
• Meta tags
  
• Bolding, italicizing, and underlining
  
• Placing keyword in the correct position on the page
  
• Keyword prominence, Proximity, Frequency and Density
  
• Anchors and Links
  
• Navigation

Note: Even though on-page optimization is necessary and must be done, off-page optimization is THE most important aspect of ranking well in ANY search engine. It's critical you know this.


Off-page Optimization
Off-page optimization basically consists of all of the ranking factors that are NOT located on your webpage, which the search engines look at when ranking a website.

Off-page factors

• Which websites link to you
  
• The number of websites linking to you
  
• The Page Rank of the website linking to you
  
• The page title of the website linking to you
  
• The anchor text used in the links linking to you
  
• The number and type of links linking to the website that's linking to you.
  
• The number of outbound links on the website that is linking to you
  
• The total number of links on the website that is linking to you
  
• Whether or not the websites linking to you are deemed as an authority website.
  
• The IP Address of the websites linking to you.

Like I mentioned earlier; off-page optimization equals link popularity and Link popularity is the number of relevant quality inbound links pointing to your website. Most major search engines use link popularity as part of their algorithm which helps to determine the relevance of your website. If you don't have inbound links, you won't rank well for competitive keywords.

Well, below are few ways to build link popularity:

Link exchange
Building inbound links through reciprocal link exchanges is very powerful website promotional tool. If done correctly, increasing your linkage will:

Allow other people to publish your e-zine on their web site
Include your web site's ad and link in each issue you publish. This may also help you increase the number of people that subscribe to your e-zine.

Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic
Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business ad at the top of the directory's home page

Offer a free e-book to your web site visitors
The e-book should be related to your target audience. Allow them to give the e-book to their own web site visitors by linking directly to your web site.

Exchange content with other web sites
You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.

Join or create a web ring
A web ring is a group of web sites on a similar subject agreeing to link together. To find a web ring to join type keywords "web rings" into your search engine of choice.

Directory Submission
Directories are different from standard search engines in that a search engine will query a database of indexed websites before it produces results and a directory is a database of websites that have been arranged by subject.


DON’T USE THEM

• Frames , Java scripts and Flash, are not spiderable from the search engines, do not use them excessively. The reason for this is that spiders cannot read JavaScript (or Flash) and thus any link or text created by such JavaScript will not be counted in your indexing and will produce a lost opportunity.
  
• Link Farms and link exchange programs. A link farm is a Web page that is nothing more than a page of links to other sites. Most search engines, such as Google says these are artificial and illegitimate way to increase link popularity. Google considers "link farms" spam, and may ban your site for participating it or in link exchange programs.
  

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