I am sure you have heard about Search Engine Optimization before, but for those that are new it is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or “organic” search results. It means making changes to a website that help it rank higher in the search engines for various keywords. The higher a website ranks in the search engines the more traffic it can achieve.

Although SEO is a basic method for promotion it is one of the most important methods for free promotion of your online business. Slight changes today regarding SEO can have a positive impact on your business years from now. The process of SEO includes on page changes to your website to help it rank higher and also building links into your website.

You want your title tags to include your main keywords that you are targeting. So for example if you were a chiropractor in Illinois the keyword you would go after may be a phrase like Chicago, Illinois Chiropractor. Your title tag would need to include that keyword. The title tag can be found at the very top of your Internet browser next to the logo of the browser you are using. The words you are read up there are your title tags. Most companies make the mistake of putting their business name up there instead of keywords there. This limits your traffic to people who already know you exist. So make sure you are including your keywords in your title tags. For best results try to make a new keyword for each page of your site as well.

To find relevant keywords that you should be targeting visit https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

When the tool opens up just type in some phrases related to your services and it will show you a list of keywords that you should be targeting. If we go back to the Chicago, Illinois Chiropractor example that is a keyword you would type in. It would do you no good to rank for chiropractor, so be smart with the keywords you go after.

You will want to also ensure that your main keyword is mentioned a few times within the content of the page on your website. So if your keyword is Kansas Auto Insurance than that keyword should be mentioned a few times within the article.

Another important SEO factor is making sure you have text based links and aren’t focusing on flash or JavaScript based links.

Further it can give you a boost if the keyword you are targeting shows up in the URL. So if you have a page targeting Wichita, Kansas Auto Insurance than the URL could look like this yoursite.com/wichita-kansas-auto-insurance.htm or something like that.

Your webmaster will know how to make these changes to all of your tags. Now, keep in mind that this is a very simple and basic view of SEO. This alone could warrant an entire book, but adhering to these simple principals will make a big difference for your business.

The other important aspect of SEO is link building, and that could be an entire course. The great thing is that these links you build into your website help your site rank high, but also the places that link to your site will also come up in the search engines. These places really help increase your traffic overall as well.

Filed under: Search Engine Optimization