SEO is search engine optimization, a magician's bag of tricks to get your web page on high SERP (Search Engine Rank Placement) and high PR (PageRank). SERP is when you search on Google for a keyword (word you are studying) like cats, you get a page of twenty websites on cats back out of a hundred or thousand pages. SEO is the art of getting your web page to be listed for as many keywords pertaining to your site on the first page of hundreds. Since people have short attention spans, they tend not to search ten pages of returns to find your page.

That is the short skinny on the subject. If that answered enough, quit reading. Still curious? Below is a more in-depth, but only basic, description. It still is a basic description even if it lacks brevity.

To get high SERP, you can bid on keywords through Google and other search engines. Every time someone clicks on my ad in blue at the top and sides of Google pages (these are the auction listings, I will pay anywhere from .5 to $5 every time someone clicks on my site for the keywords I bid on. The one who bids the most gets to be on the first page for cats. The rest of Google is suppose to be based on scholarly research qualifications).

So, you need to find a keyword that people actually look for but not too many people are bidding on. You have to niche your keyword. To find appropriate keywords you check your web logs to see what words people used in search engines to bring you to your site. Also there are online tools to use that suggest keywords and give a thesaurus of options along with how many times people searched for that keyword last month.

Then we get PageRank which is based on how many people link to you. The higher PageRank used to mean higher SERP but search engines update and change to keep ahead of SEO people. Google's Jager update screwed me up. The higher the PR, the higher you can charge someone to advertize on your page, 10 being the highest.

To get links, you want people to link to you in the middle of a paragraph near the top of their page with reference to your desired keyword. This would be a better link, natural linking, instead of a directory of 200 people to a page called 'mile high links.' Natural linking is someone considering you more an expert than just linking by subject as in 'mile high.' Sometimes the first ten can get points from robots to get high SERP on 'mile highs' but these pages, in general, start out with lower wealth. So, sites charge you a premium to be listed on a home page or the top of a directory. But, you will never get anyone to click on these links, the only importance you get from them is robots.

Robots are programs that scour the web following all the links on your page to each other and all the ones you list to other sites. They check to see you have good code and list your words for their directory so people can find any phrase you placed on your site. Links to other sites within three pages of your home page, toward the top of each page, get better points than any deep in your site or toward the bottom of the page. Also, they down-score links if there are too many on a page.

To get your site indexed by robots, you go to search engines, to the bottom of the page, and find a link called 'submit your URL.' There you put your address in and hit return. It could take anywhere from 3 weeks to four months for a robot to find you for the first time. Then it will index you once a month unless, in your pages code, in meta tags, you tell it to visit every day. Also, it is good to submit URL on search engines every time you change your home page. More times you change your home page the better for points.

Some engines charge you to be listed. But, in time, they will index you because people on their engine have links to your site that their robots will follow to you. Then you are indexed for free. Yahoo charges to be listed in their business directory.

To get links is a tedious process of sending out hundreds of emails with a friendly greeting, your site title, with appropriate keyword placement in it, and site description. For their listing you, you give them a reciprocal link with their title and description on your link page. You can get people to link to you as an expert through natural linking. You can do the same for them. But, if you get a link without giving one, it gives you higher points which, in turn, gives you higher SERP.

Another way to get natural links is to create something buzz-worthy or give free tools. If you have a cool video of someone winning a Darwin Award, someone might say 'Check this dummy out' and link to your site. If it is a popular page, you get more points for the link. If you have a free tool like these; Whois, Keyword Finder, or Favicon creators (little icons that appear at the top of the browser to the left of the URL).

Last, but not least, are RSS, blogs, newsletters, and article submission.

RSS is Real Simple Syndication. It is a poor man's AP wire service. People have attachments to their browsers called aggregators that read this peculiar code. It can also have placement on your web page. You can have a feed from the latest news updated daily by the New York Times which helps keep fresh content on your site to get points. Or you can have people list your articles on their site giving you links back to your site.

Then we have blogs. If you blog, you will put a link back to your other page. When this gets higher PR so does your other site. Also, it is something else to attract clients to you in another arena. Everytime you comment on a board or blog, make sure you link back to your site in your signature. All posts tend to be indexed by robots. If they find your link they come back to your page and give you points.

Newsletters you create will do the same. Links from emails count, too. If you click on the links, you will give points to that website. But, mostly newsletters are marketing to gather sales and inform the public on your product.

By submitting articles to directories, they get published by other websites and provide links back to your site.

About The Author

Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin is propietor of Docspond Life Coach Services (www.docspond.org) providing individual counseling, group facilitation, and key note addresses that speak to the heart of the mission while delivering the bottom line finacial growth.

Return to Index