Your Basic Guide to Understanding Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, commonly abbreviated as SEO, has become a buzz word across all industries in the last few years. SEO is a process of making your Web site search engine friendly to help drive traffic to your site. This means that when users enter certain keywords into the search function of search engines such as Google and Yahoo, a link to your Web site or article will appear if you have properly optimized your site or article. You can optimize your business' Web site, as well as place strategically-written SEO articles on other Web sites to draw traffic to your Web site. Before you can successfully utilize SEO, there are a few steps you should take to make sure your efforts pay off.

In order for SEO to work properly, your site must be written using HTML or PHP mark-up language (the weird text you see when you look behind the scenes of a Web site). Each page of your site or article must meet specific standards to be correctly indexed so users can easily locate your site or article. Your first step is to make a list of target keywords if you have not already done so. Your list should contain descriptive words about your business and the services or goods you provide. For example, if your business is Tommy's Speedy Car Wash in Columbus, Ohio, your target keyword list may resemble the following:

• Tommy's Speedy Car Wash
• Car wash
• Quick car wash
• Cars
• Car washes in Ohio
• Columbus, Ohio car wash
• Car detailing
• Polish
• Buff
• Coupons
• Etc.

After you have completed your target keyword list, make sure you heavily use these words throughout each page of your Web site (at least every 90 words), or frequently throughout each article (appearing approximately every 150 words).

Now we'll move onto working with the HTML code of your site. Your next step is to examine the page titles of your site. Your title should be relatively short, to the point and effectively describe what actually appears on each page. Try to incorporate words from your targeted keyword list whenever possible, unless it results in an awkward-sounding title. An example of a page title for Tommy's Speedy Car Wash would be: "Tommy's Speedy Car Wash Coupons."

The next step to optimizing your site is to place "description" and "keywords" metatags in the head of each Web page. Each page should have a different tag. An example of this is as follows:

Description: "supplier of quality car wash and detailing services at discount prices"
Keywords: "car wash, detailing, quick, discount"

The next step in the process is to incorporate heading tags in your Web site's HTML code. Many search engines place the most emphasis on heading tags, so it is critical to use words from your target keyword list for this step. Place one "h1" tag on each page next to the most important keyword. Use subsequent head tags ("h2," "h3," etc) to support the main heading, and draw additional hits to your site from supporting keywords:

h1 - Car wash
h2 - Quick Shine Car Wash service

As previously stated, the text of each page of your Web site, or article should contain words from your targeted keywords list. Additionally, try your best to incorporate words that people may commonly enter when searching for a business of your type. For instance, when searching for a car detailing service provider in Columbus, Ohio, someone may enter "quick and affordable detailing service in Columbus, Ohio." You may want to place "get quick and affordable detailing services" in a few places on your site to help drive traffic to your site when someone is searching for that specific term. Be careful to strategically place your keywords and search terms throughout the text so you ad copy does not sound unnatural.

J. Mariah Brown is the owner and editor-in-chief of Writings by Design, LLC. Mastering SEO can be a little confusing when you first begin. If you need help navigating through the process, or if you would like to learn more about SEO and how you can quickly and inexpensively drive traffic to your company Web site, email Writings by Design at inquiry@writingsbydesign.com, call us at 866-937-2361 or tell us more about your goals or future project at http://writingsbydesign.com/contact_us.