Search Engine Optimization

People create web sites for one of two reasons. The first reason is that they have something to say; the second reason is that they have something they want people to see. Everything else that someone might give as a reason for wanting to have a web site created is based on one of those two principles.

So, now you have a web site; good for you. At this point, there are four ways that people are going to find out about your web site. The first way is that you're going to tell people, either through email or in person, possibly by telephone. The second way is the you're going to hope someone is just going to happen upon it while surfing the net; don't hold your breath. The third way is that someone else is going to tell people about it; that's probably only going to happen if one of the first two ways happened already. The fourth way is that people are going to find it by using search terms on a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc.

The fourth is the easiest way for people to find your information on the Internet. All someone has to do is go into a search engine, put in what's known as a "keyword", hit "enter", and the world comes to them through their computer screens. But as we have all seen, sometimes it takes more than just putting in a single word such as "food", "diet", "training", etc. When people put in one word search terms, they will come up with millions upon millions of pages of information that doesn't tell them anything that they're hoping for, because search engines will pull up every single page they know about with that word in them, without discriminating as to what it might be you actually want. So, the next thing people do is start selecting extra words to help fine tune what they're looking for.

That's were search engine optimization comes in handy. What you want is for people to be able to find you based on the search terms they put into their browsers (browsers are what people use to do anything on the internet, such as Internet Explorer, which automatically comes with every Windows based computer, Netscape, , Opera, etc). Because your web site is probably new, as in, it hasn't been around for as long as many other websites, if you choose common keywords, you probably don't have a much of a chance to compete against others who have had web sites for a while. So, you have to work a little harder to find ways to help people find your web site and your information.

The thing about keywords, which you can learn more about it in the tutorial, is that it doesn't do you any good to come up real high in search engines for keywords that nobody is ever going to put in. For instance, if you happen to sell Christmas trees, and you chose as your specific keywords "pretty red trees", you could probably come up at number one under that search term, but how likely do you think anyone is ever going to put that in as a search term? Many search engine optimization sites will make offers like that, and prove it to you, but it does nothing for you.

At the same time, however, if you only put in "Christmas trees", you're going to compete against the world. So, you might try to find other words that people might put in along with the words Christmas trees that makes sense for your particular market, such as a specific city location, "real" or "plastic" or "metal", "tall" or "short", "pre-decorated" or not, or almost anything as you can come up with, that you think people might put into a search engine.

Customizing keywords in that fashion will help you move up the list, but unfortunately, even with that, you have to help the search engines to find you. You must begin the process of search engine optimization of your site. If you're the only person who sells that particular product, you might not have anything to worry about. If other people are selling similar products, by optimizing your site, you have a chance to jump ahead of those other people so that your items, or information, are being seen before theirs.

And that, friends, is what search engine optimization is all about.

© SEO Xcellence, 2007