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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION BASICS

Effective Integral Search Engine Optimization, Based on Ethical Internet Marketing Methods, is USER ORIENTED - NOT SEARCH ENGINE ORIENTED!

Manual major search engine submitting and search engine positioning are important parts of overall search engine marketing campaigns, but without expert search engine optimization your website might rank high for all the wrong terms on search engines, thus still being invisible to your potential customers. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a substantial form of search engine marketing (SEM). In short, SEO is the process of making a website search engine friendly. But without making it user friendly as well, all the efforts would be in vain.

Definition of Search engine optimization, according to Google Web definitions and many relevant web dictionaries, is: "Search Engine Optimization is the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search".

Search engines send computer generated programs known as spiders / crawlers / robots to gather information and identify, analyze and index websites. To search with a search engine, a user enters keywords or phrases. The websites returned in the results are ranked by relevancy. In ranking indexed web pages, search engines follow specific set of rules - algorithm, which vary from one engine to another. Information on search engine algorithms are not known publicly, mostly because of search engine's competitors and spammers.

Ethical search engine optimization is the practice of creating a website in a manner that allows it to be properly read, indexed and ranked by search engines, while ensuring it's user oriented. This is a minimal condition that must be accomplished to make your website indexable on search engines.

To maximize the chances of attracting visitors, your website should obtain top placements on search engine natural / organic listings for terms visitors often use when searching, but also relevant to your business.

To obtain long-term top placements across all of the major search engines, your website should incorporate targeted keyword phrases, i.e. must be optimized. Websites submitted through a paid-inclusion program should also be expertly optimized to achieve higher rankings. If there are no keyphrases incorporated in the text of your website, you could not rank high for them within the search engines.

On the other hand, if the searchers don't typically use your chosen targeted keyphrases while searching for the specific information across the search engines, however high your rankings are for those terms would make no difference.

Analyzing and selecting the most appropriate keywords and phrases to target is essential for effective SEO as well as overall SEM campaign.

Search engine optimization is the process of honing your website to comprise specific keyphrases that are both relevant to your line of work and popular on search engines. It does NOT mean editing the text and implementing as many popular phrases as possible! For optimum search engine positions, your keyword phrases need to be strategically and logically placed within your website copy. Your website also needs to be easily indexable by search spiders, easily utilized by users, and rich in relevant content. As search guru Dan Thies underlines: "an optimized web page would be a well structured page that clearly indicates the relevant topics".

Expert SEO process includes keyword research, website development, copywriting, and HTML coding.

KEYPHRASES ANALYSIS & SELECTION

High rankings on search engines for the terms nobody searches for would not make you website visible to your target audience nor bring potential customers to your website. That's why thorough keyphrase analysis of the popular terms used in search queries on search engines is extremely important part of expert search engine optimization. Target the wrong keyphrases, and all the efforts to optimize your text with them would be useless. The most common mistake of unsuccessful SEO is NOT researching and carefully selecting the targeted keyphrases.

Note that selecting the most important keyword phrases does NOT mean selecting the terms you find most significant for your site and your line of work. You MUST select the terms searchers consider most relevant, and would most likely use for that topic!

You might try using similar keyphrases as well, if they do explain your actual product/service well. You could also try less similar phrases, but than you would also have to offer the appropriate content for those keyphrases. Satisfied visitors that came looking for quality information you offer, might also get interested in some of your products/services. Generally, the impact of quality content and interesting information provided on your website is substantial.

Some of the keywords and phrases are much more competitive than others. Single keywords and too general phrases are not only too competitive most of the time, but often return the least targeted traffic. It could be expected as someone searching on just one keyword might be looking for just about everything, while there are much better chances that someone looking for a keyword phrase, and especial longer keyphrase, might be the actual customer.

Don't make the mistake of choosing the terms which are often used on search engines but don't match your actual product/service. Don't waste time targeting keywords that will not bring you qualified traffic and potential customers. Optimizing the text on your website for just the right terms searchers look for would still not be enough. You would rank high for all the popular terms, searchers would come to your site, but if there is no corresponding website content they would just leave. Supplying the information searchers look for on your website is equally important as targeting the right terms. Another common mistake of unsuccessful SEO is NOT supplying the appropriate information users expect to find on your website for targeted keyphrases - conducting artificial SEO.

Expert search engine optimization of your website for popular terms used in search queries across the search engines, and relevant to your website, must be accompanied with corresponding quality content and useful information.

Both above mentioned SEO mistakes are connected to optimizing the website for the search engines and not for the users. Search engines are just tools people use to search the Web. The primary objective of expert search engine optimization, web site positioning strategy and overall search engine marketing campaign is not only to get extraordinary amounts of new and targeted traffic to a website, but also to make the potential customers stick around, and come back often. Expert search engine optimization implies enhancing the user experience while achieving top placements on search engines.

Effective integral search engine optimization, based on ethical Internet marketing methods, MUST BE USER ORIENTED - NOT SEARCH ENGINE ORIENTED!

Various user and search engine friendly SEO techniques and tactics are utilized, to make a site easier to spider, and maximizing its chances to obtain top natural / organic listings through expert and ethical search engine optimization. Ethical Search Engine Optimization Strategies >>

User Oriented Design & Ethical Website Marketing Strategies by Distinctia, 2003