Internet users would sometimes come across the term SEO while surfing the web. People usually think it stands for some sort of company acronym or obscure term and just ignore it. But what the term stands for exactly is very important to a lot of website owners and, in fact, most users who rely on the wonders of the Internet for information.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Put simply, it is a strategy or technique that internet users can employ to ensure that an online content is well-structured to make search engines easily find them.
There are several important considerations in writing online content to make them more search engine friendly. The following items are some of these.
Keywords and key phrases are key considerations
A search engine query is the staple of finding information online. This is the process where an internet user enters into a browser program a term corresponding to the item that needs to be found. The browser will then list links on its results page showing all the items it found matching the term. It does this in a way that the first few links on the page are what it considers the most relevant to the search term. This means it ranks the matches from most to least relevant. How a search engine determines a link’s relevance is based on the link’s written content. To optimize an item so that the browser program will find it relevant, one should understand what keywords are.
Keywords and phrases are the terms that are entered into the browser when making a query. The more specific the keyword is, the more accurate the search results will become. If one inputs Disney in the search engine, it will return all things Disney, like Walt Disney, Disneyland, Disney World, or Disney characters. But if the user wants to search for Disneyland, using the word Disney as the keyword is obviously not ideal. It has too wide a scope for the search. Therefore, to help the search engine narrow down its criteria for doing the search, the most specific keywords possible should be used. It will also put a link in the top of the results list if the keyword itself occurs frequently within the content of that particular link.
What this means for SEO is that keywords or phrases should be included repeatedly throughout an online item, without it becoming too redundant. In lay terms, this implies hitting the sweet spot where search engines find your article very relevant and readers find it enjoyable to read. A basic SEO rule is to have the keyword or phrase occur three or four times every 100 words in the text body.
Titles Play an Important Part in SEO Strategy
Always pay attention to titles and subtitles. In SEO, a title should be informative enough to give a brief idea about the content and should be search engine friendly as well. Also, make sure the domain name and URL of the article link are likewise optimized for search engines. A good way to do this is to include the keywords in them if possible.
Quality over Quantity
Let us assume that there are 100 or so articles on a single subject. There is a promising chance that at least one of them will be read by a user interested in that subject. But one does not need to write 100 items to get read. The point is, the same result can be had even if only a few articles are written, as long as each one has quality content that people will enjoy reading and search engines can find easily.
The Essence of Links
However, writing quality content does not preclude writing 100 articles on a subject. If one is so inclined, then one can write that many articles and the chances of being read will become even greater. Having one article read by someone can lead to it being shared to friends and acquaintances of the reader. But then, this is just one article. There are 99 others that the same group of people might find enjoyable.
On the other hand, if that one article was tied to a blog site about the subject via a link, more readers will be able to read it and the other articles as well. Imagine each viewer sharing each and every one of those articles. Online awareness about that entire body of work would increase exponentially. In addition to gaining web popularity, SEO is achieved at the time. This is because web traffic volume is another criterion used by search engines to rank websites.
There are two kinds of links that are useful in SEO. One directs web traffic from other websites to the article, and is called a back link. The other is an internal link that leads the users already reading one article to the other articles found on the same website. These two links work synergistically to promote the articles in the search engines.
The Importance of Having an Eye-catching Introduction
In keeping a reader glued to your written material, interest should be maintained from start to finish. If the reader loses interest before reaching the end of the article, then the rest of the material will not get read. The sad thing about this is that there might be engaging content in those unread parts of the article that can re-stoke the interest of the reader. However, getting the eye of a prospective reader is the first thing that needs to happen, and is the hardest part. Opening sentences therefore are very important. They should be catchy enough to attract readers and build up interest.
Slow Page Loading has a Negative Effect on Page Rank
A well-optimized web page that ranks high in search results can turn away viewers if it takes too long to load. Turn away enough users, and that page will soon find itself at the bottom of results lists.
Good SEO being spoiled by this problem can be avoided or fixed with basic HTML knowledge. Using this tool will enable the article writer or website owner to fine-tune files so that they will load faster.
Fix Errors
Having a web page link that does not load at all is worse than a web page that loads slowly. Both share a common trait, though. They contribute to a decrease in page rank. Bear in mind that search engines continually re-index pages in their databases, and if one happens upon a broken link, its programming allows it to remove the offending article from the database. When this occurs, then the web page will have no chance ever of appearing in search results.
Write according to what People like reading
A popular subject is a read subject. Write about ideas that keep up with current trends. Try to incorporate everything you know about the subject, including your opinions, and write them up in a way that makes reading enjoyable. Using these guidelines, you will soon find readers flocking to your articles.
These are the simplest things to remember when doing search engine optimization. There are a lot of other techniques that can be used as well, but the ones above form the groundwork on which those advanced SEO methods are formulated. Novices at the SEO game should do well to start with these easy basics.
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