What is SEO and what can it do for you?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and should be defined as "making your web site search engine friendly to improve your rankings and bring in more traffic".

Many people look at it as "tricking the search engines into giving me #1 rankings" however.

Understand that #1 rankings aren't your goal, boosting your qualified traffic is what you are looking for. Ranking in the top ten for a popular keyword related to your business will bring in much more business than being #1 for "Spanish Decorative Wall Paper" (especially if you sell golf clubs).

There are two ways to go about this, you can try to trick the search engines, or you can apply some basic tips to your site to improve your rankings safely.


=========== SEO Tricks ===========

People who see all the top ten rankings we acquire for customers (http://www.marketinghosting.com/seo.htm#proof) are constantly asking us, "what's the trick?"

The truth is tricks only work for a short time, then the search engines catch on. They then call your trick Spamming and they drop your page as a thank you for bringing the trick to their attention. What's the point?

Current popular tricks include cloaking and re-directing but I won't go into details because I know people are always looking for shortcuts and you don't want to be wasting time in that direction.

Old tricks THAT WILL GET YOU BANNED (whether you are aware of it or not) include using same colored writing on same colored backgrounds to fill the page with keyword content. The same goes for using tiny, hidden text.

Keyword stuffing is another to watch out for, filling the page with a keyword rather than using it in any normal sense.

So what does work?

============ SEO Tips ============

Stop complicating things, if you want top ten rankings use our proven tips below!

---------------------Here's the First Tip: ---------------------

In the tricks hidden content got good rankings right? Obviously if a page talks about a subject and the term is repeated numerous times then the page is about that subject. Therefore you get good rankings!

So why not have your keywords actually appear on your page, as part of sentences and paragraphs? What is your site about anyway?

How you present the content also helps, using heading tags, emphasis tags, etc...

Page content is generally the single most important factor in determining your rankings!

----------------------------------------Tip Two: Choose Your Keywords Carefully! ----------------------------------------

What keywords to target? You need popular, related keywords that will bring in related traffic but that aren't so popular you can't compete with all the other sites out there.

Here is an example:

Lets say you sell "books". Google has 49,600,000 sites listed under that keyword and Overture shows 587,034 monthly searches.

Wow! Lots of competition, too much in fact for a new site...

What about targeting "used books" instead? There are 4,150,000 competitive sites and a decent 66,697 monthly searches.

That much competition means it will take time as you'll need to set your site apart from the others but that many monthly visitors would certainly make it worthwhile!

You can target even more specific keywords like "used book store", that has a mere 2,000,000 competitive sites but only draws in 5,150 monthly searches.

The balance between the number of competitive sites and the number of monthly searches will decide how successful you are.

----------------------Tip Three: Meta Tags! ----------------------

Your Title tag is vitally important!

Stop using it for your company name unless people search first on your company name. Your title tag should look something like this:

Main Keyword: Main keyword in a sentence with 1-2 other related keywords.

Your Description tag is also important as it is how some search engines identify and describe your site. Make sure it is written to appeal to humans but that it also includes your main keywords as part of the sentence structure.

Forget the keywords tag, the search engines ignore it and so should you!

=============== Trick or Treat? ===============

Ok, Halloween may be far away but you have to stop looking for tricks if you really want a treat. (Sorry couldn't resist)

If you take the chance on using tricks, you may get top 5 rankings for a bit and then you get banned for good.

Apply our tips and score top ten rankings without fear.

Which do you prefer?

Happy Marketing!

Mike Beriault Editor, Surf22