What Is SEO And How Does It Work?

The internet is similar to the earth where like people, the number of websites is steadily growing. And also like crowds, it's difficult to stand out from the rest unless it has unique qualities (read, relevant content). The technique used to make websites stand out is called search engine optimization or SEO. You may have come across it in your search of how to make a website 'pop'.

Let's say you own and manage a website that caters to DIY plumbing repair techniques. The content is well written with step-by-step guides given by experienced plumbers, the layout is attractive, images are placed appropriately and you've included helpful links to other similar websites. But, when you run a quick search on a search engine, you find that you aren't listed anywhere on the first page, let alone the top five. What are you doing wrong? Or more precisely, what aren't you doing right?

There are unique SEO techniques used by popular and high-ranking websites, the secrets of which we may never know. But all these techniques fall within the realm of what is possible to achieve using standard SEO methods.

Before moving to specifics, know that there are techniques not acceptable or legal in cyberspace that could get a website removed or an IP address banned. Known as black hat techniques they try to trick search engines to zero in on a site to generate traffic.

Link analysis

Link analysis refers to other websites linking back to a particular page or site. For example, your DIY plumbing website may have attracted the attention of other sites or you can make use of social media sites to link back to it. The more sites that link back, the better the chance of your site being ranked among the top 10 hits.

You can also make link exchanges by including links to other sites on your site in exchange for them doing the same with yours. Do make sure that you do this only with trusted sites that contain similar material to what yours does.

Keywords

Keywords means the use of specific words in relation to what a website or webpage is about. For example, you want DIYers to visit your site and check out the tips and tricks listed for plumbing repair. Including something like 'DIY plumbing repair techniques' on the title of the page as well as the words 'DIY, 'plumbing' and 'repair' in headers and text bodies will lure spiders/crawlers (search engine programs) to zone into your site.

Meta tags

Meta tags work behind the scenes to present a webpage in a readable and attractive format. They're part of HTML codes which form the backbone of many successful websites. These tags contain keywords that alert a search engine to their presence.

What you should understand about meta tags is that over the years, unscrupulous webmasters have used them to stuff in keywords to generate abnormally high traffic to websites that contain no relevant information to a user's query. As such, many search engines skim through meta tags and those found to contain too many keywords are flagged as spam. Therefore, if keywords are included in meta tags, they must follow strategic placement and be used only when necessary.

These are three of the basic techniques used to generate traffic to a website and increase its rankings on search engines. If the effort is too much or you find yourself becoming confused, contact an SEO consultant to help optimize your website.

Search engine optimisation takes time and it depends on how competitive the phrases you want to be found. seostudio.com.au can provide excellent SEO strategies to help their clients compete at the top of Google for keywords that will make them sales. Click here for additional details!