SEO Basics: What is Search Engine Optimization?

 I'm sure you've heard a lot of talk about SEO or Search Engine Optimization and the amount of information available on the subject is quite overwhelming to say the least.

You may not even be sure what search engine optimization is. That's why we're here. To give you information, definitions and quality ethical tips you can use yourself to help increase your rankings in the search engines.

But first, let's talk about what SEO or search engine optimization is.

When someone says that they want to "optimize" their website, or that they want to hire an SEO firm to "optimize" their website, what they're really asking is this:

"How can I get my business' website on the first page of Google, Yahoo! or MSN without paying for advertising?"

The techniques that you implement both on and off of your website, determine where your business will show up within the search engine results pages or SERPs as they're often called and this is what optimizing your website using SEO is all about. 

The higher you rank within a search engines results pages for a word or phrase that is related to your business, the more traffic you'll receive and ideally, the more sales you will get.

And there are certain methods and techniques that you can use in order to help move your way up the ranks.

Why is this so important?

When people search on the Internet using their favorite search engines, they typically don't look any further than the first page of results.

Consider searches you have done yourself in the past. If you searched on "flowers" for example, you probably looked at the results that came up first and clicked on one of those web pages.

The same is true of your website visitors.  They generally won't travel past page one of a results page.  Therefore, it is extremely important to have your site listed in the elite top 10. 

"Top 10" because typically a search engine will show only the first top 10 websites on the first page of the search results.

When someone talks about optimizing their website, even though the above definition is very precise, there is quite a bit that goes into actually putting that into practice.

Things such as:

• Keywords 
• Where those keywords are located on each individual web page within your site 
• How you link your pages to one another 
• How other pages link to you 
• What words are bolded within your content 
• How many times your keywords and their derivatives are used within the content 
• How much content you have on your site 
• What your competition is doing 
• How you're generating traffic to your site 
• What keywords are located within your images alt tags 
• What does your description say for each individual web page? 
• How long is that description? 
• What words to put into your title tag 
• How many words should go there. 
• and so much more. 

If you follow the tried and true tips within this website, not only will you find that SEO or search engine optimization is really not as threatening as it seems but you'll also find your site moving up in the search engine results pages.

We've included tons of SEO tips, ideas and more here on SlingBrain. Take advantage of our 7 year knowledge of search engine optimization and put it to use on your own website.  You'll be happy you did.

Next, why you need SEO for your website.

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