search engine optimization tutorial
An in depth search engine optimization tutorial could go on for thousands of pages. This article will focus on some of the basics you need to know about SEO when you are starting a new website. We have other articles on this site that dive into specific strategies and more advanced SEO methods, but these tips are a great place to start!
SEO is very important when it comes to driving traffic to your website. You should have basic knowledge of SEO if you want your site to be a success. The higher your site ranks for keywords, the more visitors you will get; it's that simple!
Should you submit your site to search engines? Many people say no but Google and others still provide this feature so why not use it? It certainly can not help.
You should also generate a sitemap for your site and submit it to Google in Webmaster Tools. We will have an article on Webmaster Tools soon to show you exactly how to do that.
Next you should do some keyword research. I recommend using a tool such as Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery. You don't have to buy every tool in the book, just get one and do some thorough keyword research. You should try and find variations and synonyms of every keyword that relates to your site topic.
After you know what keywords you want to target, plan some articles around them. You can aim to target 4 or 5 keywords per article rather than just one per article. Long tail variations of certain keywords can all be used in the one article rather than a new article for very similar keywords.
Other SEO techniques to consider are meta tags, particularly the description tag, title tags, header tags, alt tags and of course external link building which covers your off site optimization.
SEO is a long and ongoing process, just make sure you get started!
