Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website so that ranks better with search engines. The most common SEO techniques involve clever use of keywords and links. Search engines want quality sites with the user in mind, not sites designed solely for tricking them. Keywords are the words users put into a search engine to find your website, but they need to be used in a natural way within texts in order for search engines to consider them to be reputable.

Keywords Go Beyond Meta Tags

Gone are the days of putting every possible keyword into the Meta tag and calling it finished. Search engines pay little, if any, attention to that. Search engines want a website with data highly relevant to their users, so they look for sites with keyword intelligently, and naturally, used within all the content.

There is no set rules on how often keywords should appear, but most will agree on somewhere between 1-4% per text. That means for every 100 words of text, you will have 1-4 instances of that particular keyword. Search engines frown on keyword stuffing (having keywords occur too often), so be careful. Good SEO follows this rule, and also puts keywords into the titles and subtitles (H1, H2, etc.). A website with keywords in the title tags for pictures also ranks higher. Keywords that are bolded or emphasized also help the site to rank better. Of course, you need to use these tools in a way that looks natural to the user. You’re providing useful data for the users, so be sure it appears that way.

What’s In a Link?

Like keywords, everyone knows links are crucial for a well-ranked website, but not everybody knows how best to use them. Incoming links to your site is like a popularity vote. The more links you have coming in shows that your website delivers great data. Good SEO includes having links from similar sites and with relevant keywords in them. Linking to more data, such as pictures and videos helps, too. Reciprocal links, i.e., “you plug my site, I’ll plug yours” do not rank as well, so stick to legitimate SEO methods and always remember quality data reigns supreme!

Picture copyright – lassedesignen – Fotolia