Web site SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is one of the most controversial topics on the Internet today. And one of the most misunderstood areas of web site design. And the reason is simple, search engines don't reveal exactly how they index and rank web pages.
But the only way to get any Search Engine Traffic is to adhere to some basic known facts. The three largest search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN do give some guidelines on how they value your web page. Web site SEO is both an art and a science.
The first mistake most beginners make is that they don't realize that the search engines rank web pages and not web sites. I have several web sites that have a higher ranking web page than the web site front page. So always remember that you are optimizing the web page, not the web site.
The next biggest mistake I often see is that people tend to try and optimize for too many Keywords on any given web page. A keyword or phrase should be the main subject area of any given web page. If you had a web site on automobiles, each web page should have some subject matter related to automobiles like maintenance, performance, or special features.
You don't want to combine all three examples above on one web page, make a web page for each one, and many times even go deeper and make a web page for subcategories.
And the third mistake often made is that the value of the content to the visitor is not considered. Good content should be relevant to the keyword. That sounds obvious but many lose site of the basic rule of good content. It has to provide some value to the searcher in relation to the subject matter (keyword or phrase).
So the best Web site SEO advice I can give any new web site owner is to make sure they have valuable content based on their chosen subject matter. You can never go wrong with good relevant content.
The structure of your web page is important too. You should make it as easy as possible for the search engines to determine exactly what your web page is all about. The search engines use a software program called a bot to constantly scan web pages to determine search engine ranking. These "bots" look for certain items on a page to help value the web page in relation to other like web pages.
There are many other aspects to getting more search engine traffic but I would have to say that good content, proper keywords or phrases, and relation to title and description are the top three. If you do nothing else to optimize your web page you'll be better than most web pages.
You can find many more Web Site SEO tips and recommendations in our collection of articles. Many times it only takes one small change to have a huge impact on your website traffic from the search engines. And there is no reason not to do basic search engine optimization, unless you don't want any search engine traffic. Getting web site traffic from the search engines is worth a little time and effort.
Web Site SEO is important and can provide highly targeted traffic from the major search engines. Check out some of our articles on search engine optimization, search engine rankings, and how to get more search engine traffic.
