SEO 101

Basic SEO Theory

A lot of people have confusion over what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is and hopefully this article will fix some of that. If it leaves a question unanswered, remember there is a feedback link at the end for questions or comments. First off, a lot of people do some really dumb things on SEO. Some of them get good results for a short period of time then repeat the procedure after their sites get banned... personally, I like all my work to continue to produce in the future so I accept a stable yet continuous growth. Like anything else, the "easy" way is rarely the best way. What I will explain here is a basic but thorough method for SEO tweaking your sites and pages. Nothing really ground breaking here but hopefully I will lay it out clearly.

Titling Your Page

All pages should have a Title. This is one of the most important SEO tags. Writing Standards Compliant HTML, the <title></title> tag will come right after the <head> tag. If you do a search on Google, the Link part of the results is the page title. Pretty important right there. Also, the Title is heavily weighted by the SE spider's and bot's. This means that if your page is about amateur outdoor sex, your page title should reflect this. Try and use key words in the title and leave out unneeded words like "hot". All these do is dillute your keyword density.

Meta Description Tag

Next comes the meta tags. Starting with the <meta name="description" content=" "> tag. This tag provides the information for the description area on Google after the linked site title. This makes it important because the SE's obviously rate it high but it is also your initial sales pitch. Remember, sales is a qualification procedure, the first hurdle in online sales is getting someone to click your link after they find it. Obviously, you want a keyword rich description to go into the tag and it would look something like this: <meta name="description" content="Keyword Rich Description goes here ">

Meta Keyword Tag

Immediately after that comes the <meta name="keywords" content=""> tag. This tag is pretty well devalued but I recommend using it. Inktomi likes it and something interesting might be in store there and even if not, it makes a good place for you to list your keywords as notes to yourself as to which you are targeting with a particular page. It is used something like this: <meta name="keywords" content="First,second,third"> The rest of the meta tags are not really relevant for the bigger SE's so we are gonna skip right by them... some have value but not for sake of this topic.

Header Tags

Getting into the body of you page you want to put a <h1> immediately following the <body> tag. This is a Header tag. The SE's reward highly for properly used Header tags. They should contain a Keyword rich topic. Notice the words above each paragraph in this article, they are all in Header tags. These work in order... so, main topic would get put like this: <h1>Main Topic</h2> and sub topics would be <h2>Sub Topic</h2> and so on. As a quick clarification, the first Header tag used is an <h1></h1> and all the subsequent ones are <h2></h2> tags.

The Page Itself

This part is where a lot of people get into trouble FAST. There is a fine line between Keyword rich text and spamming the shit out of the SE's. The basic rule I use is to write my text from the perspective of reaching a surfer that has already found you and clicked your link, then I go back and improve the text using the Keywords I am trying to target with the page. This method means that my pages should be interesting to the human that I am trying to attract and should give me good SE results. I certainly will not get banned for spamming the SE so I will stand a chance at modifying my SEO and getting better results over time. It does not matter how high your listing in the SERP's is if the surfer hits your site and it is some string of text that makes no sense in English or your target language. Be careful to not over use your Keywords as well. Always work several similar words and phrases throughout your pages. Try and keep similar words on your linked pages and sites but change them so you cover as many keywords as possible. Google wants their results to be relevent to the search phrase, make your pages and sites fit your keywords and you will be ok. HTML spec calls for a couple things that allow you to add keywords to your page and not have them directly visible to the surfer. Always use the alt tag for your images and your title tag for your links. Use your Keywords in these tags, but try and keep the title tags so they make sense to humans, they will work as mouse overs in most newer browsers.

Inline Scripts

Basically, for SEO, they are bad. Get them out of your page text by including them rather then putting them inline. Call Javascript from a separate file and link your CSS rather then putting them inline or embedding them. Remember, to a SE spider, it is all text. CSS is rarely good for keywords. Also, do NOT use Java for links! SE spiders and bots cannot follow them, they are a total waste for SEO. Also, Flash is a total waste of space for SEO. Do I mean don't use it? No, but don't plan on it helping in the SERPs.

Using a Sitemap

A Sitemap is a page with links to all your other pages. SE spiders and bots love them and are built to find them. Build your Sitemap to be found by naming it sitemap.html and linking it to your main index page. Put all your pages that you want indexed on the sitemap. This is a greatly overlooked page.

Using Your Site For SEO

There is not a single page or site on the net that is truly stand alone. It ain't built to work that way so don't fight it, exploit it! If you build a page about amateur outdoor sex, you also want to link that page to the amateur indoor sex page and the amateur on a boat sex and the amateur fetish sex page and all those pages being linked together by the amateur sex page. Again, Google is looking for relevant results, by having pages of similar topics interlinked you are building your own increase in relevance. Also trade links with other sites that are similar in topic to yours to increase your relevance. Another reason for multiple pages is you won't dilute your own Keywords. What I mean is you won't be trying to hit the fetish Keywords on your amateur boat sex page and vice versa.

WTF Does All This Mean?

In a nut shell, do good clean work, skip the dirty tricks and use your head. You will want to pick your Keywords carefully and use them smartly. Do not get anal with it, there is not enough time in your day and you might go too far. Poor SERP listings can be fixed with some editing, being banned by Google rarely gets fixed. Skip the fast tools to advance in the listings, there are more profitable ways to spend your time. Hopefully, this was helpful to you! If not, there is still that Feedback link right under this.