SEO 101 - Part 1

Tutorial - A beginners Guide to SEO

In this series of articles I am going to explain some SEO basics. Soon I will tell you the number one SEO tip, but first I'll explain what SEO is. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization - optimizing your website and webpages to rank as high as they can in the search engine results pages when people do a search related to your site.

I have several sites which have top ranking keywords but this has been achieved through a lot of trial and error over a period of 6 years as a webmaster. I have made sites that never got anywhere in the search engine indexes, but my best performing sites today are the ones which follow the rules set out in this tutorial. Read on and find out how to do it right.

To get a top ten ranking in a short period of time for any popular search phrase or search keyword requires commitment and many grinding boring hours of work... and possibly a lot of money. Are you ready for that? If not, stop now and be satisfied with the mild boost in rankings you will get with some basic SEO. The good news is that if you have a great site in a niche it is possible to rank high for not so popular kewords and keyphrases which provide a steady stream of visitors.

Note that earlier I said as high as they can - I didn't say rank number one, or rank top ten or anything like that. If your site is the 38th best site about growing cactus, don't expect to rank number one for growing cactus. Your average ranking will always be number 38. And be brutally honest with yourself, don't fall into the trap of believing your site is the best, based on your own opinion. Ask impartial people to evaluate your site and give their opinion. You could start by requesting a site review here. They best way to into the top 10 sites for your niche is to ensure your site deserves to be there.

What SEO is NOT about...
SEO is not hidden text, repeated words, or deceptive page layouts. SEO is not spamming blogs or other people's guestbook with links to your website. SEO is not including links to your site in forum signatures. In fact, using these tactics may well get you banned or penalized by search engines, which is just the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve!

The Number One SEO tip...
I promised I would tell you what it is, and this is it - patience. That's right. You can't rush good SEO. There are ways to get high rankings quickly, but that just means your rankings are likely to drop just as quickly. Build your rankings slowly but surely - if you work hard, you should allow at least one or two years to start ranking well for several good keywords and phrases. The more you try and rush things, the more likely you will fail over time.

Rankings that are built over time are more resilient to changes in search engines' algorithms and are much less volatile. Make your changes slowly and don't expect quick results.

Next: Part 2 Basic SEO for your web pages - make search engines love you!