SEO FOR BEGGINERS
- By John Perez
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- 11 Apr, 2016
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Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website on organic ("natural" or un-paid) search engine result pages (SERPs), by incorporating search engine friendly elements into a website. A successful search engine optimization campaign will have, as part of the improvements, carefully select, relevant, keywords which the on-page optimization will be designed to make prominent for search engine algorithms. Search engine optimization is broken down into two basic areas: on-page, and off-page optimization. On-page optimization refers to website elements which comprise a web page, such as HTML code, textual content, and images. Off-page optimization refers, predominantly, to backlinks (links pointing to the site which is being optimized, from other relevant websites). Simply put, SEO is a set of rules that can be followed by web site (or blog) owners to optimize their web sites for search engines and thus improve their search engine rankings. In addition it is also a great way to increase the quality of a web site by making it user- friendly, faster and easier to navigate. SEO can also be considered as a framework since the whole process has a number of rules (or guidelines), a number of stages and a set of controls. After choosing the right SEO keywords but before writing a ton of content, you have some choices to make. So think through this carefully. Before you begin, you need to know the following: What you’re site is about What the purpose is How committed you are Once you’ve settled on those three things, then it’s time to get to work. If you’re just getting started, SEO can seem like a dense, confusing world. Google, Bing, and SEO experts have produced thousands of articles on exactly how sites are ranked and what you can do to rank higher in search engines. Some experts end up disagreeing with each other based on conflicting data sets. Every move requires a different degree of technical expertise, and to top it all off, Google tends to change the game every few months with a new update. Without digging too deep into the technical elements of SEO, I want to help clarify the nature, purpose, and qualities of the strategy. Many newcomers I speak with tend to ask the same kinds of questions, so here I’d like the opportunity to answer them: 1. How Much Does It Cost? That all depends on your approach. If you’re just getting started with the basics, you might be able to do most of the work yourself in 10-20 hours a week (again, depending on your niche and goals). I covered this question in-depth in my article How Much Should You Spend on SEO Services? If conducted properly, a campaign at any budget level should end up returning more than what was originally invested. 2. How Long Does It Take? Again, this varies wildly based on your approach. If you’re only writing new content once a week and investing the minimum, it could take many months to a year before you start seeing progress. Multiple weekly blog posts, regular link building, and content promotion could see results in a matter of weeks. The longer you pursue a campaign, the better results you’ll see. I covered this question more in-depth in my article What ROI Can I Expect From SEO? Search engines grabbing more market share – Somewhere between 80-90% of customers now check online reviews prior to making a purchase, and this number is only expected to increase. It won’t be long before virtually everyone is searching for products and services online. Do you want them to be able to locate your business, or not? Without organic SEO in place, people will have a very hard time finding you and will instead find your competitors.