Introduction to search engine optimization
SEO, short for search engine optimization, is the usage of different techniques to help your website rank highly in search engine rankings. Here we show you information on onsite search engine optimization, and how to add these elements into your website for higher rankings in online searches, as well as SEO techniques to avoid tht may penalize you in the search engines.
What is onsite seo?
Onsite search engine optimization refers to the practice of adding certain elements and techniques into your website's coding, as well as additional file elements, to make your website more "search engine friendly" in order to help put your website at the top of search results. While that may sound somewhat technical, it really isn't. Search engines are programmed to look for certain things in your website and its code, things that make parts of your site more prominent, and when these elements are present, search engines use them to place your site higher in their search results. Luckily, many onsite techniques are very easy to implement into your site, and can give you a huge boost in search rankings. The following is a list of simple onsite techniques you should use.
When you look at the very top of your browser, you will see the page title of the page you are currently viewing. This is a big factor for search engines. Creating the page title is very easy, as all you need to do is create the title tag in the meta tag section of your page. The page title should be unique for every one of your pages, and contain keywords related tot hat page.
The meta description is another meta tag that is simple to add to your page. You simply add a good, keyword rich description of the page into the description meta tag on your page, which the search engines will read and use to rank your site. This is also important for another reason: when you do internet searches and view the results, the description below the website results is the description from your meta description tag, which can influence searchers to visit your site.
Alternate tags provide a text descript of the image it is placed in. Search engines don't "read" images, so by adding a text description with keywords of the image, it can provide a boost for search rankings, as well as describe images to people that turn off image displays in their browsers.
"H1" and "H2" tags create paragraph headings, or titles, within your web page. Search engines place prominence on words within these tags, so by using keywords and relevant content words within "H" tags, these give your page a boost. You do not want to place your entire page text within "H" tags, however.
By keeping your code lean and efficient, and using more actual contextual content on your pages, many people feel this is beneficial for search engines, as they are seeing more useful information for your visitors than code to create the page. The higher the content ratio, the better.
You need a good balance of keywords (words that relate the overall topic of the page) in your page text so that search engines can help to rate your page, however you shouldn't go overboard with them; write your content for people, not search engines, with your keywords spread throughout your content.
What seo techniques should I avoid?
Some methods of onsite seo, often called black hat seo, should be avoided altogether. While some of them may give you a temporary boost in rankings, they can also backfire, causing search engines to penalize your site by not including them in search results.
Hidden content refers to the practice of filling your pages with text that people can't see, but search engine spiders can. This is done in several ways. One method is done by placing your keywords into the page and making the text of the keywords the same color as the page so that people can't see them. Another is to use CSS to make the text so small it can't be read. Coding comment tags and javascript can also be used to hide text from viewers.
Your content should always be written for people, not search engines, meaning that when your text is read it should sound natural, not "spammy" with your main keywords overtaking all other text. The meta tag area is another place that keyword stuffing is common, both in the keyword and description tags; overusing keywords in these areas can also end up with negative results.
Link farming or free for all pages are simply pages of unrelated links, serving no actual purpose. These provide no benefit to you, and search engines often flag these pages and the links in them as SPAM.