Is SEO Really that Difficult for a Newbie?

by Michel Gerard
Reperage Group

Building a website with a top design but with no appropriate SEO is like having a pack of name cards in a drawer. It is luckily not that difficult, even for newbies, to use a set of SEO rules in order to see correct indexing in search engines. Domain names and paid web hosting plans are also inevitable elements for a successful site.

Depending on the kind of site someone has, a blog or traditional website, applying SEO rules is more or less difficult. For both, the most important SEO tags to use are for the title, description and keywords. The domain name should also be made of the main keyword for better ranking in searches.

SEO in a WordPress blog is easy when using one of the available plugins. Some fields have to be filled and a few option boxes checked by the blogger in order to have a SEO friendly blog ready to go. It is important to read the plug-in's guidance and know the various possible options.

SEO for websites is a bit more complicated for a newbie, but someone going this route should already have some HTML and PHP knowledge. Basically, the title, description and keywords tags have to be inserted in each page between the opening "head" and closing "head" tags. Other SEO tags are also useful and a detailed list can be found when Googled.

In addition of the invisible tags set in blogs and websites, it is a good idea to add a visible description at the top of the website, so spiders scrawling for new content will index the first sentences found. Search engines work differently and Webmasters have to use all methods available to maximize chances. A site-map is also a possibility to show robots what pages of the website have to be indexed.

After on-site SEO has been applied, the site is already on its way to get correctly indexed by search engines. Other off-site SEO work is necessary in order to have the website more visible in searches and rank first in the first page of a Google search. One should expect some time to pass before results can be seen after promotion is done, especially if the topic is broad and popular.

Off-site SEO techniques are article promotion, bookmarking, blog commenting, link and banner exchange, video promotion and so many others... Depending on the liking and skills of everyone, a few or all may be used if time is available. For those able to write articles, this way of promoting will seem very easy and effective.

In conclusion, SEO is worth nothing if the website hasn't good and useful content of any value for its visitors. Regularly added fresh content is also recommended in order to see the search engines revisit the website and improve ranking.

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Michel Gerard is an independent writer based in Asia. He writes articles on a wide range of topics. Visit Dmak.net for information on webhosting solutions and other Internet services => http://www.dmak.net

Article submitted Saturday, December 19, 2009 & read 4 times.

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