Introductory Comprehensive Guide on Search Engine Optimization for Beginners

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    www.freemindsfreelines.com Page 1

    www.freemindsfreelines.com

    Comprehensive Introductory Guide

    on Search Engine Optimizationfor Beginners

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    Welcome readers!

    This ebook offers an introductory yet comprehensive guide on Search Engine Optimizationor SEO for beginners. It was researched and compiled by a freelance writer, blogger, SEO,

    and social media consultant. This ebook is available for free through various sources. If youbelieve you have benefitted from this compilation and would like to contact the author for

    questions, comments, suggestions, hire offered services, or to even send a complimentarymonetary incentive, please feel free to leave a message through the au thors personal blog

    www.freemindsfreelines.comand use the contact form found on the site.

    Disclaimer

    No part of this manuscript may be used for mass reproduction and distribution. However,

    parts and portions may be quoted provided that a link redirecting to the blog

    www.freemindsfreelines.comis utilized as a reference.

    http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/
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    What to Expect

    Table of Search Engine Scores for various elements:

    Keywords

    LinksMeta tags

    ContentSEO and Additional Elements

    Domain Names, URLs, etc.I. Introduction SEO Defined

    1. The Functionality of Search Engines

    2. Variations among Popular Search EnginesII. Keywords the Most Relevant Element in SEO1. Selecting the Proper Keywords to be optimized

    2. Keyword Density

    3. Keywords in Specific Areasa. URL and File Name Keywords

    b. Page Title Keywords

    c. Heading KeywordsIII. Backlinks Another Relevant SEO Element

    Backlinks DefinedThe Relevance of Backlinks

    Anchor TextMethods Used When Building Backlinks

    1. Backlink Builder Tool2. Submit Site in Directories

    3. Article Directories and Forum Boards

    4. RSS Feeds5. Affiliate programs

    6. News Updates and Press Releases

    Link Methods that are not recommended

    IV. MetatagsMeta tags Defined

    Meta Description

    Meta KeywordsMeta Robots

    V. Content is King

    Defining Good ContentWriting SEO Content for Search Engines and for Real PeopleSEO Killers Duplicate Content, Spamming, and Fillers

    VI. Visual Elements and SEO

    1. Images2. Videos, Movies, and Animation

    3. Frames4. JavaScriptVII. Static and Dynamic URLsVIII. Gain Greater Traffic by Promoting Your Website

    1. Submit your site to website directories, forum community boards, and others2. Secondary Search Engines3. Advertisements and Submission Services

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    Keywords

    1 tag

    keywords

    It is vital to use keywords in tags due to the fact

    that search results will display the contents of the

    tag as the title of your site or page. Title tags

    should be comprised of no more than 7 words and thekeyword should appear at the start of the title.

    +3

    2 URL keywords Placing keywords in site or page URLs is advantageous

    such as http://sitename.com/seo-services.html, inwhich SEO services is the targeted keyword for

    optimization. But in case the keyword is not actuallylocated anywhere on the text content, do not expect to

    achieve anything by placing it in the URL.

    +3

    3 Keyword density

    applied to text

    content

    This is one more factor which needs to be considered.

    Keyword density for major keywords is advisable at 3-

    7% and for minor keywords; it should be at 1-2%.Keyword density beyond 10% appears forced, unnaturaland can be deemed as keyword stuffing.

    +3

    4 Keyword placement

    in anchor text

    Keyword placement in anchor text is also vital,

    particularly anchor texts used for inbound links. If the

    keyword used for an anchor text found in other sitesredirects to your site, it is counted as a vote for you bysearch engines. Its a vote not solely about the site but

    the keyword as well.

    +3

    5 Keyword tags in

    , ,

    , etc. headings

    Keywords placed in headings also matter. But make

    sure that such keywords are actually used within the

    text content.

    +3

    6 Keywords atopening sentencesor paragraphs

    Keywords at opening sentences or paragraphs alsomatter but not as much as keywords located in theanchor text. This does not always apply to the very first

    paragraph. There are cases, such as in tables,

    wherewith the opening is actually not the first phrase orsentence on the table but the first paragraph after the

    table.

    +2

    7 tag keywords Search engine spiders do not crawl images but they

    read the image descriptions found on the tag. Soif there are images in your site or page, maximize the

    use of the tag by adding keywords to it.

    +2

    8 Meta tags keywords Meta tag keywords are not of primary importance toGoogle but are still considered highly by Yahoo andBing. So make sure to utilize these tags correctly. It will

    cause no harm to have it done, so why not do it?

    +1

    9 Proximity in Proximity in keywords refers to the distance between +1

    http://sitename.com/seo-services.htmlhttp://sitename.com/seo-services.html
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    keywords keywords. It is of course preferable to write the wordsclosely such as, dog food with no interfering words in

    between. In case there are words in between them suchas dog being in the first paragraph and food in the

    third, it still counts. But having no interfering wordsbetween the keywords is still better. Proximity in

    keywords is applied to keywords consisting of 2 words

    or more.

    10 Keyword phrase Aside from keywords, keyword optimization can also be

    performed through keyword phrases. These are

    keywords composed of a few words such as SEOservices or even longer. Keyword phrases to beenhanced should be highly searched ones. In this way,

    you get exactly the same words in search results. It isalso logical to apply SEO for 2 or more words i.e. SEO

    and services. aside from phrases.

    +1

    11 Minor keywords Enhancing minor keywords is advantageous becauseeveryone else is already working on primary keywords.

    This lessens the competition and will eventually result tomore hits for sites and pages that are enhanced using

    minor keywords. As an example, real estate New York

    may result to thousands of hits more compared to usingreal estate alone. If you are targeting New York only,you may receive lesser hits but at least the traffic

    gained is from a locally targeted audience.

    +1

    12 Keyword roots Keyword roots are not much of an issue with the English

    language since most words are derived from the sameroot word. So if you used the word dog on your site or

    page, you will also receive hits for other related wordsstemming from the same root word including dogs anddoggy. It may become a problem for other languages,

    however, since not all words are derived from the sameroot word.

    +1

    13 Synonymous words You can also optimize synonymous words related to thetarget keyword. Like the previous entry, this applies

    well for sites written in English. It is because searchengines also consider synonyms when measuring theranking of websites. This does not apply to sites written

    in other languages when calculating keyword relevance.

    +1

    14 Misspelled keywords Errors in spelling happen all the time, even when

    searching for keywords online. So if you happen to knowmisspelled or equivalent words of your targeted

    keywords, you may consider optimizing your site

    through them too. It will gain traffic for your site but willnot impress your readers. It is recommended to usemisspelled words in meta tags only and not in the actual

    content when optimizing.

    0

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    15 Diluted keywords An overuse of keywords, particularly those that does notcorrelate with each other will not benefit the primary

    keywords in terms of rank. In fact, it will dilute or drownthem within the content.

    -2

    16 Keyword stuffing Unnaturally forced keywords which are used in a density

    of over 10% is considered keyword stuffing. Stuffingkeywords may result to your site being banned fromsearch engines.

    -3

    Links - internal, incoming, outgoing

    17 Anchor text for

    incoming links

    As explained in the keywords section, the anchor text

    for incoming links is one of the most vital elements to

    achieve good ranks. In relation to this, it isrecommended to choose a keyword for the anchor text

    although it is not necessary to do so.

    +3

    18 Source of incoming

    links

    Aside from the anchor text, it is also vital to know the

    reputation of the site where the incoming links arecoming from. Sites with higher PR or page rank providemore valuable incoming links.

    +3

    19 Links from relatedsites

    Links coming from sites related to yours add more valueto an incoming link. It creates an impression thatcompeting sites vote for you and that you are known as

    an authority in your niche.

    +3

    20 .edu and .gov. links Links from .edu and .gov sites are valuable than the

    regular .com, .info, .biz, etc. sites. It is also difficult togain links from such sites.

    +3

    21 Total count ofbacklinks

    In general, it is better to have more backlinks. But thereare also other factors which must be considered and aremore relevant than the total number of backlinks

    created. These include the reputation of the site linking

    to you; the anchor text used, if there is any keywordattached to it, and so on.

    +3

    22 Internal links and

    their anchor text

    Internal links and their anchor text are also counted but

    not as relevant as the anchor text for incoming links.

    +2

    23 Text surroundingthe anchor text

    The text surrounding the anchor text is also importantas it ensures that the link is relevant, natural, and not

    merely superficially planted to create a link.

    +2

    24 Tenure of incoming

    links

    The more tenure the incoming links are, the better. So

    to acquire a lot of links in a short period of time maymean purchasing them.

    +2

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    25 Directory links Directory links will help but it will be dependent on thedirectory itself. DMOZ, Yahoo, and other top directories

    will greatly improve your sites rank but acquiring linksfrom PR0 directories wont help. It may even be

    considered as link spamming, especially if you havehundreds or even thousands of links coming from such

    places online.

    +2

    26 Total count ofoutbound links from

    the site which links

    to yours

    The less number of outbound links found on the site orpage which links to your site, the better. This will make

    your link appear more relevant.

    +1

    27 Labeled anchors Labeled anchors (the targeted area for incoming links)will help not only for navigating within the site but also

    contributes to SEO. This is due to the fact that labeled

    anchors highlight the importance of a page, paragraph,or text. The example below shows an example of how

    labeled anchors appear to be: Readmore about dogs. Here, #dogs is the labeled

    anchor.

    +1

    28 IP address where an

    incoming link comesfrom

    Google shows no discrimination for incoming links that

    are created from the same IP address or the same IPclasses (type C). Bing and Yahoo! on the other handdisregards links from the same source (IP address or IP

    class) so it recommended to gain links from varying

    links and link types.

    +1

    29 Incoming links fromlinks farms and

    deceptive sites

    Link farms cause no harm if links gained from such sitesare reciprocally created. The notion behind this is that

    we cannot restrict which sites links to link farms. Sothere is no penalty for linking to such sites as it is notyou deliberately linking to them. But nonetheless, it isrecommended to be wary of linking to link farms and

    other deceptive sites.

    0

    30 Outbound links Google abhor pages which are filled with links, so its

    best to maintain the number of links to 100 or below forevery page. A lot of outbound links does not contribute

    to improving your sites rank and may even worsen it.

    -1

    31 Spamming or

    excessively usinglinks

    Too many links going to or coming from the same site

    does not benefit your sites rank, whether it is aboutcross-linking or linking to suspicious sites. Either way, itstill connotes spamming or even link buying. For thesake of SEO, not all links are counted in relation toranking.

    -1

    32 Outgoing links tosites with negative

    reputation

    Although incoming links from sites with negativereputation (i.e. link farms) are non-affecting, outgoing

    links from your site to them on the other hand is very

    -3

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    disadvantageous to your site. Thus, you must regularlyanalyze the reputation of sites you link to.

    33 Interlinking Interlinking happens when one site (site 1) links to asecond site (site 2), whereas site 2 links to a third site(site 3), and site 3 links back to site 1. This is only a

    basic example, there are more complicated techniques

    used. It may appear to be reciprocal in nature butinterlinking has a penalty attached to it.

    -3

    34 Pixelated links Pixelated links are almost unseen by the human eye andobviously will not be clicked. These are clearly created

    to try manipulating search engines.

    -3

    Meta tags

    35 Meta tag for

    Meta tags are slowly losing their value, but if there are

    meta tags which are still deemed valuable, these are the and the meta tags

    wherewith the latter is used to add a description of your

    website. Aside from the fact that Yahoo! and Bing stilltake into consideration the contents of the tag, these also provide additional

    benefits. These are what come up for the description

    summary of your site in search engine results.

    +1

    36 Meta tag for

    The meta tag for is also vital, but like all

    other meta tags, it loses value in the eyes of Google andis looked upon with only a minimal value in the eyes ofYahoo! and Bing. When using meta tags, these should

    be comprised of 10 to 20 words only. Never use

    keywords that are not included in the page content, itdoesnt help your sites ranking.

    +1

    37 Meta tag for

    The meta tag for must be filled out if yourwebsite has a specified language used. Search engines

    have alternative options to recognize what language isused on your sites but you should still fill out the tag nonetheless as they still crawl it.

    +1

    38 Meta tag for

    The meta tag for is used for redirecting webusers from your web site to another. This is only

    applicable if there is a recent transition from onedomain name to another. The meta tag for is

    deemed as inappropriate and may even harm your sitesrank. Aside from the tag, you can also

    redirect through 301.

    -1

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    Content

    39 Original content Content that is original, valuable, and presenteddifferently from other websites both in words used andtopics chosen will definitely help increase your sites

    rating.

    +3

    40 Duration of updates Constant change is highly valued. The duration by which

    updates are made matters. Adding updates regularlywill benefit your site the most but it wont help much if

    the updates made are very minimal.

    +3

    41 Font size ofkeywords

    If a keyword in the content is presented with a fontwhich is larger than the ones used for the rest of the

    content, both web users and search engines notice itmore than the rest. Thus, increases its value. The samerule is applicable for headings (, , and soone.), which are normally presented in larger font

    anyway.

    +2

    42 Applying format to

    keywords

    Applying formatting rules such as bold and italics are

    other means by which vital words as well as phrases are

    highlighted. When formatting through bold, italic, andenlarged font, however, caution must be exercised.

    Otherwise, the exact opposite of what you intended theformatting for might happen instead.

    +2

    43 How old the contentis

    Newer contents or those which are constantly updatedare preferable.

    +2

    44 Size of the contentfile Lengthy pages are usually not preferred. You canreceive higher ratings with 3 short files rather than 1

    lengthy file on any subject. So it is more recommended

    to divide lengthy pages into shorter ones.

    +1

    45 Separating content For marketing purposes, separating content (based on

    IP address, browser usage, and so on) is useful but in

    terms of SEO, it is not. If there is only one websiteaddress but the contents are different, search engineswill find it confusing when indexing the content of the

    page.

    -2

    46 Site codes and

    design

    Although there are nearly no sites that are banned due

    to coding and design, search engines are still clear intheir stand against site codes and designs that areineffective and improper. Its not just about the

    aesthetic value. Sites with messed up codes and designsare difficult to index. So with this, it means site codes

    and designs that are poorly implemented can be

    harmful.

    -2

    47 Unlawful use of Plagiarized content or content glorifying unlawful -3

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    56 Frames Frames are really, really not good for SEO. These mustnot be used unless it is needed to do so.

    -2

    57 Flash Search engines do not include Flash files in their indexso if there are any in your site, make sure to include analternate text to describe it.

    -2

    58 Main page in flash Good to hear that main pages exclusively available in

    Flash no longer exist. Main pages that are composedmainly of Flash with no HTML are considered a suicidal

    act in SEO.

    -3

    Domain names, URLs, and Web Familiarization

    59 URLs and domain

    names that arekeyword rich

    Having URLs and domain names that are keyword rich

    are very vital particularly for Yahoo! and Bing.

    +3

    60 Access to sitesections and pages

    Access to site sections and pages is a basic factor but isdisregarded most of the time. Sites or pages which

    cannot be accessed due to missing links, 404 page errormessages, password restricted sections, and otherrelated error messages are not indexable.

    +3

    61 Sitemap Search engines love sitemaps, especially if it is updatedand comprehensive. It doesnt matter if its formatted inbasic HTML or is written in a special Google formatting.

    +2

    62 Website size Search engines love big websites so the rule is that the

    larger the website is; the better. Large websites are not

    user friendly at times and cannot provide easynavigation due to their size, so it may be necessary attimes to break large websites into a number of smaller

    sites. There are no websites being banned because theycontain more than 10,000 pages though, so there is noneed to break your site apart just because it is growing

    in size.

    +2

    63 Domain age Just like wine, more tenured sites gain greater

    authority. The reason behind this is that tenured andestablished sites can be trusted (they have been

    existing for long and are more likely to remain) morethan budding sites which have just been recently

    created and may probably die soon.

    +2

    64 Website niche Keywords found in domain names and on site content

    are not the only ones which are vital. The websitesniche is also relevant when it comes to site rating. Thisis due to the fact that when the niche of the site falls

    under one theme or topic, the rank of all pages related

    +2

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    to it will be increased too.

    65 Location of files

    within the site

    The location of files within the site matter too. Those

    that are found anywhere within or near the rootdirectory of the site are ranked higher than those whichare found further below.

    +1

    66 Main domain versus

    sub domains

    A main domain is preferable than sub domains. For

    example, a main domain likewww.freemindsfreelines.comis much better than a sub

    domain likewww.freemindsfreelines.blogspot.com.

    +1

    67 Top level domains

    or TLDs

    TLDs dont have the same value. Some TLDs are

    preferred over others. As an example, the most usedTLD which is .com has an advantage over .info, .biz,

    .ws, and other domains. But all these are conquered by

    domains .edu and .gov.

    +1

    68 Hyphenated URLs Hyphenated URLs make the website addresses morereadable and also improve SEO ranks. This is applicableto hyphenation in domain names as well as the whole

    site name found in the URL.

    +1

    69 Length of the URL The length of the URL actually doesnt make a differencebut if it is very lengthy, it may appear like spam. So it is

    recommended to keep the URL length to no more than10 words with 3 or 4 applied for the domain name and 6to 7 to complete the site address.

    0

    70 IP address The IP address may have an implication for websites

    hosted in a shared or a free hosting service, most

    especially if the type C of IP addresses is bannedbecause of unethical techniques like spamming.

    0

    71 Adsense does not

    contribute to siterank

    Adsense is not connected to SEO rating. Google does

    not increase your sites rank because of Adsense. It maybecome an additional source of income but is not

    associated with search engine ratings.

    0

    72 Adwords is notassociated with your

    sites score

    Like Adsense, Adwords is also not connected to searchengine rank. Adwords can help gain greater traffic to

    your website but does not directly contribute to yoursites score.

    0

    73 Website downtime Website downtime makes your site inaccessible and so ifit is always experiencing downtime, it becomes

    unindexable. This matters only if your web hosting

    service cannot be relied upon and offers an uptimebelow 97% to 98%.

    -1

    74 Dynamic URLs Search engines have a preference over static URLsalthough some websites with dynamic URLs may

    -1

    http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.blogspot.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.blogspot.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.blogspot.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.blogspot.com/http://www.freemindsfreelines.com/
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    dominate search results at times. Lengthy dynamicURLs with more than 100 characters and symbols are

    disadvantageous. These must be rewritten into aversion which is SEO friendly and readable by humans.

    You can use dynamic URL rewriter tools to have it done.

    75 Session IDs Session IDs are far worse than dynamic URLs. Session

    IDs must not be used for content which you would needsearch engine crawlers to index.

    -2

    76 Banning robotsthrough robots.txt

    Banning robots from an extended area of a website willcreate a domino effect on other areas because crawlers

    tend to visit sites with a noindex rule less often.

    -2

    77 Site redirect (like

    301 and 302)

    If not utilized correctly, redirects can cause damage

    such as when the targeted site does not load or even

    worse, the redirect will be deemed as a black hatstrategy when the web user is redirected to another

    page right away.

    -3

    I. Introduction SEO Defined

    Every time you enter a keyword or set of keywords on a search field and hit the enter key,

    a list of websites shows up on the search results. Web users often visit websites listed at the

    top of the list since they are thought to be of greater relevance to the keywords beingsearched. If youre wondering why some sites rank higher than others, then you should

    know that this is due to a powerful Internet marketing method called Search EngineOptimization or SEO.

    SEO is a method which enables your website to rank higher than millions of others inrelation to a searched keyword. SEO thus contribute in increasing your websites traffic from

    search engines.

    This tutorial on SEO will discuss all information you must learn about Search EngineOptimization including its definition, how it works, and the different criteria used by search

    engines when assigning ranks to websites.

    1. The Functionality of Search Engines

    The first thing you should know about SEO is that search engines are not actual humans.Although this is very obvious, how humans and search engines take a look at web pages is

    not the same. Search engines are not viewing web pages based on text, like humans do.Despite advancement in technology, search engines have not evolved to an intelligent formwhich can appreciate website designs as well as the audio and moving images in movies.

    Search engines are crawling the Web, taking note of specific items in a site (mostly the text

    portion only) to understand what a website is all about. This short explanation is not themost comprehensive yet because next we will see what search engines do in order toprovide search results. They will crawl, index, process, calculate relevance, and retrieve.

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    Crawling is the first thing which search engines do. It is done through software called a

    spideror crawler. In Google, its a Googlebot. Spiders or crawlers visit links from one to

    another and indexes everything they pass by along the way. Since there are quite a numberof web pages online (about 20 billion), it may be impossible for spiders to crawl a site

    everyday just to check for newly added pages or for modifications of existing pages. Insome cases, crawlers may not be able to visit a site in a month or more.

    What you can at least check is what the crawlers actually see from your website. As

    mentioned earlier, crawlers do not have human characteristics. They dont see images,Flash videos, JavaScript encoding, website frames, pages protected by passwords, and in-

    site directories. So if there are a lot of these elements on your website, you should try using

    the Spider Simulator found below to find out if such elements can be viewed by spiders. Ifthese cannot be viewed, they are not indexed, spidered, or whatever you want to call it. In

    other words, they simply wont exist for search engines.

    After crawling, what should follow next is indexing. The page will be indexed and kept in adata storage center for later retrieval. Indexing is the process by which keywords that best

    describes a web page is assigned. It will be humanly impossible to process a huge amount

    of information but search engines are able to do so with a breeze. In some instances, they

    are also having trouble identifying the meaning of a page but you can help them understandpages better through SEO. It makes it easier to have pages classified and will also improve

    your sites ranking.

    When a query happens through a search field, search engines will process it. The search

    engine will compare the keywords being searched with the pages already indexed in the

    database. It is likely that millions of pages are related to what is being searched; the searchengine then begins to calculate the relevance of related pages.

    Search engines utilize different algorithms in order to calculate relevance. All algorithmsfollow varying value assigned to common elements such as links, tags or meta tags, andkeyword density. This explains why all search engines show different search results for the

    same keywords or search string. It is also a given fact that search engines like Google,Yahoo, and Bing regularly update their algorithms. So if you would like to stay on top, youneed to adapt well to such changes. This is one reason why you need to be dedicated toSEO efforts. Another reason is of course the constant addition of competition every day.

    Lastly, search engines retrievesearch results. Its simply the process of showing the searchresults to the browser you are using. Retrieved pages will be displayed based on relevance

    in a seemingly endless list of pages.

    2. Variations among Popular Search Engines

    Although all search engines function similarly, the minimal differences among these explainswhy there are variations when it comes to displaying search results based on relevance.Different search engines have differing considerations. These factors are also considered

    differently when it comes to relevancy. Some SEO experts sometimes joke about these

    differences. Some say that the algorithms used by Yahoo or Bing are intended to be theexact opposite of Google. There may be truth in such jokes as different search engines pay

    attention to different details. So if you intend to dominate more than one of them,

    optimizing must be done very carefully.

    One major difference between search engines is on keywords. Yahoo and Bing assign

    greater significance to keywords on the actual pages. Google on the other hand, places

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    File and directory names are also relevant. Search engines prioritize pages or sites with

    keywords in the file name. As an example, http://mysite.com/adopt-dog.htmlmay not be

    as effective as http://adopt-dog.net/adopt-dog.html but is at least more ideal overhttp://mysite.com/animal-care.html. What makes keywords in file names more

    advantageous than keywords used in URLs is the fact that it will be easier to change it incase a new site niche is chosen.

    b. Page Title Keywords

    Page titles are one more important place for keywords because tags are often

    displayed in most search engines (Google included). HTML guidelines do not require adding

    contents in the tag. You can actually keep it blank and the browsers title field willsimply read Untitled Document or something similar. For the sake of SEO however, it is

    best not to keep the tag blank. You should write the title of the page on it instead.

    Unlike URLs, you can use a generous number of words for page titles. Applying the dogexample earlier, the tag for the domain http://adopt-dog.net may include the

    following titles: Adopt a Dog - Save Lives and Bring Joy to Your Home,

    What You Must Know About Adopting a Dog, and other lengthier titles.

    c. Heading Keywords

    Headings are often used to categorize different sections of a page based on topic so itseasier to read. It doesnt seem fit on a literary sense to use headings for every other

    paragraph. But for the purpose of SEO it is advisable to have as many heading as can be

    tolerated on a single page, most especially if the headings contain keywords.

    There is technically no restriction when it comes to the number of tags used, i.e.

    , , , but headings that are too long are obviously not recommendedas theyre very unsightly to read. So you need to be careful when it comes to the number ofwords used in headings, in the same way you would pay attention to URL length. Another

    consideration is the layout of the heading itself. The first heading or is usuallydisplayed in larger fonts. Also, it is recommended to use 7-8 words or even less for theheading. More words used will mean spreading the heading in 2 or 3 lines, which is notadvisable and should be avoided.

    III. Backlinks Another Relevant SEO Element

    Backlinks Defined

    For easier understanding, there are classifications of links. These are inbound and outbound.

    Outbound links begin from your website and redirects to another site. Inbound links on theother hand, starts from an external source redirecting to your site instead. For example, if

    another site links to your site, the link from that site is an inbound link for your site.However, it becomes an outbound link from the other sites point of view. Backlinks are

    actually one of the main components to an effective SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

    The Relevance of Backlinks

    Backlinks indicate how popular a website is. It also measures the relevance of the site.

    Backlinks are relevant because there are certain search engines such as Google, which gives

    http://mysite.com/adopt-dog.htmlhttp://mysite.com/adopt-dog.htmlhttp://adopt-dog.net/adopt-dog.htmlhttp://mysite.com/animal-care.htmlhttp://mysite.com/animal-care.htmlhttp://adopt-dog.net/http://adopt-dog.net/http://adopt-dog.net/http://mysite.com/animal-care.htmlhttp://adopt-dog.net/adopt-dog.htmlhttp://mysite.com/adopt-dog.html
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    greater importance to websites with a large number of quality backlinks. Search engines

    rank such websites higher than others when displaying search results in relation to a

    keyword search.

    When search engines measure the relevancy of a website to a given keyword, they take intoconsideration not only the quantity of backlinks connected to the site but also the quality of

    each link. In determining the quality of links, search engines check the content of the sitewhere your link is placed. When evaluating the quality of links, search engines examine the

    sites content. If other sites are the source of backlinks for your site and if such sites havesimilar content or theme with your site, these backlinks are deemed of greater importance

    to your website. If backlinks found on other sites have different theme from that of yours,

    then these are deemed with lesser relevance. The more relevant the backlinks are, thehigher the quality.

    For instance, if a website owners site discusses about rescuing orphan dogs, and a backlinkfor it exists from another site which is also about dogs, then a greater relevance is placedon it by search engines compared to a link about racing cars. Thus, the more relevant the

    site linking to your own website is, the higher the quality of the backlink it provides.

    Search engines advocate a fair play among websites and are in search of naturally placedlinks that comes as a result of a slow but sure process in time. Although it wont be a

    problem to optimize your websites page for SEO, it will be more difficult for you to enticeother sites to create links for your site. This is why search engines place a greater valuewith links. Also, the criteria used by search engines to classify quality backlinks has become

    more difficult to achieve, thanks to unethical web owners who attempt to acquire backlinks

    through deceiving and surreptitious means. Some of which include hidden links or pagesresulting from automatically updating pages which simply aims to create backlinks for sites.These types of pages are called link farms. Not only are they ignored by search engines

    when analyzing links, but creating links through link farms may result to your website beingbanned for good.

    Anchor Text

    An anchor text is a link which applies the hyperlink onto a keyword. The anchor text in a

    link can be considered as one of the most useful tools a webmaster may ever have.Backlinks from various websites wherewith the anchor text is orphan dogs will help build

    your sites rank for the keyword orphan dogs. Applying hyperlinks on keywords is more

    powerful than creating links which simply say click here or the like that doesnt describeyour site at all. There is a backlink anchor text analysis tool which you can use in order tosearch for backlinks made for your site and the keywords which were used for the link.

    Should you ever stumble upon a site creating links for your website but the anchor text

    used is incorrect, you may contact the sites admin and ask them to update the anchor textin order to associate it with keywords that are of greater relevance to your site. Doing so

    will help increase your sites rank.

    Methods Used When Building Backlinks

    Despite natural backlinks which will eventually be created for your site, more quality

    backlinks should not be turned down.

    1. Backlink Builder Tool

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    This type of tool allows you locate websites where you can possibly find and plant quality

    backlinks just by entering related keywords in the search field.

    After typing in keywords you would like to search for, the backlink builder tool will display

    suggested sites where you can possibly create links from.

    2.Submit Site in Directories

    If you really want to establish your presence online, then submitting your site to directorieslike DMOZ and Yahoo is necessary. Its not only about creating free quality backlinks but it

    is also about promoting your site easily amongst search engines and actual web users.

    Normally, being listed in website directories is free but the only problem is that you mayneed to wait for a few months before you are finally listed in the category you choose.

    3. Article Directories and Forum Boards

    Search engines usually index forum boards so participating in forum threads is another

    option to create quality backlinks using the anchor text of your choice. The backlink created

    is of greater value if the blog is a highly respectable one. There are some instances

    wherewith a forum moderator or administrator may edit your reply or at worse, delete it incase it violates the terms of use within the forum though. The forum admin may not even

    allow links within posts unless it is really necessary. This is very rare but there are forumowners who intentionally block search engines from crawling or indexing the entire boards.So it will be useless to create links in such forums.

    4. RSS Feeds

    You may also offer RSS feeds for free in case some sites become interested. Once your RSS

    feeds are published in other sites, you gain a backlink for your site and possibly a swarm ofvisits too. People will visit your site to see more details after seeing the headline publishedin the other site.

    5. Affiliate programs

    Affiliate programs also provide an opportunity to build more quality backlinks and attract

    more visitors and potential buyers at the same time. This method can be very costly thoughsince affiliate commissions are normally at 10% up to 30%. If you do have an affiliateprogram to attract buyers, then is there a reason why you should not use it to gain quality

    backlinks?

    6.News Updates and Press Releases

    News updates and press releases are not used regularly when building backlinks but youcan expect great results in case the method is applied correctly. There are various websites

    which posts about news updates and press releases for free or after paying a minimal fee. Ifthe press release about a relevant event is written by a professional, it may attract potential

    visitors. The backlink created about your site coming from a respectable site will also helpencourage your SEO attempts. There is an issue though as press releases cannot be

    released if its not news worthy. This is the reason why we mentioned earlier that news

    updates and press releases are not often utilized to create backlinks.

    Link Methods that are not Recommended

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    In the past few months, reciprocal linking has been the talk of town. Google had also

    targeted these in one of their recent updates. In the update, reciprocal links were filtered by

    search engines.

    In relation to reciprocal linking, what webmasters do is to create a mutual agreement withother sites in order to exchange reciprocal links in order to build the rank of their sites. In

    this type of exchange, a web owner places a link which redirects to another site on his ownsite while the other site will also do the same for your website to return the favor. Problem

    is, a lot of such links are irrelevant and were not counted anymore. During the whole time,links that are not relevant are disregarded. This had caused the relevancy score of a lot of

    websites to drop and eventually remove them off the Google top ranks.

    Google is also working on a patency that will consider not only the popularity of the site you

    create links for but will take into consideration the trustworthiness of such sites. It means

    that your site may get penalized by search engines just by creating backlinks for black listedsites.

    A lot of webmasters own more than a single site. The sites created may or may not be

    relevant to each other. In case it is the former, you have to be cautious about interlinking

    various sites on a single IP. If you have a few sites that are related to each other, thencreating a link for each of the websites on a single page may not become beneficial to you.

    Search engines may detect that you are trying to manipulate rankings. A lot of webmastershave utilized the same method. Having numerous links for specific sites coming from asingle IP address is called as backlink bombing.

    One fact is for sure, linking between your own sites will not become advantageous to youfrom the point of view of search engines. The only purpose for interlinking between yoursites is to redirect web users to additional resources available through other sites. If this is

    the purpose for interlinking between your sites, then it will be allowable provided that thelinks coming from one IP address alone is done minimally. A single or even two links in onepage from time to time will not have the sites penalized.

    IV. Metatags

    Meta tags Defined

    Meta tags function as a summary of the information found on a specific page for searchengines crawlers. Meta tags are not visibly seen by site visitors. The most common Meta

    tags utilized are tags for the keywords used and the sites description. You must insert these

    tags anywhere in your sites page.

    Years ago, Meta tags are the main tools used in search engine optimization and you candirectly correlate keywords found within Meta tags and the sites rank for search results.

    Search engine algorithms have improved since then though and it decreases the weight ofdata found in Meta tags every day.

    Meta Description

    The Meta description tag is another option for you to describe your site. It will inform searchengines about topics and themes that your site is related to. There are even search engines

    (like Google) which uses meta descriptions when displaying a summary of your contentonce it is included in the search results list for a specific search string. So if the Meta

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    description written for your site is very descriptive and keyword rich; you may be able to

    gain greater traffic for your site.

    As an example, for the site about adopting dogs which we have cited earlier, the Metadescription tag may be similar to this:

    Meta Keywords

    The Meta keywords tag can be possibly used to add keywords which have great relevance to

    your sites pages. Popular search engines may not consider it but this is still an opportunity

    to specify and place emphasis on your targeted keywords. You can also include misspelledwords and related words to your keywords in the Meta keywords tag. The effect may be

    very minimal but if it helps improve your websites rank among search engines, why not

    take advantage of the opportunity?

    e.g.

    Meta Robots

    Meta robots tag makes specifications about pages and sections in your site that you do NOTwant for search engines to crawl and index. There are certain contents which you dont wantsearch engines to index but at the same time, need them to remain where they are placed

    on your site. Excluding such pages from search engines index can be accomplished in two

    ways. You can either do so through a Meta robots tag or through a robots.txt file. The latteris a more recommended option. But in case you apply the former, this is how it will looklike:

    V. Content is King

    If textual content for SEO is being written exclusively for machines, then optimization wouldhave been very easy. Just choose keywords, use them in specified areas of the article, and

    watch how fast your hits go up. At some point, SEO writers dont remember that this is not

    how it works. Real persons read the content and they presume that your article or webcontent will be beneficial to them in return for the favor of visiting your site. They are

    expecting a worthy content and these presumptions have developed the system used bysearch engines in ranking websites.

    Defining Good Content

    Good search engine optimized content possesses three principal distinguishing elements: Provides relevant information which engages human readers Improves rank for search engines Entices other sites to create backlinks

    Notice that human readers are on top of the list. Your website should provide valuablecontent wherewith visitors can engage with. There are not much sites with expertise on a

    single subject alone to have a very informative niche. Competition sites actually abound.

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    Your website can stand out by featuring interviews, useful lists, and researching all

    information well. Its either you write the content greatly or spend money on hiring a prolific

    writer. Shelling out for this purpose will greatly reward you in the long run for the greatertraffic achieved.

    Search engines are not your number one spectators but they do matter when it comes to

    your sites rank. When SEO was first introduced, Meta tags filled with keywords can alreadydrive traffic back to your site. Web users get enticed to stay on a site which offers

    affordable flight fares and featured advertisements, but that did not bother search engines.Each update made on the algorithm of search engines improved how they differentiate

    relevant sites from garbage, so webmasters needed to improve their methods too. Instead

    of Meta tags, keywords were used all throughout the article instead.

    The algorithm update in April 2011 for Googles search engine demoted the use of keyword

    and key phrase spamming and assigned greater value to other methods used to evaluate asites importance to visitors. This change had affected a remarkable population of Internetsites. It included popular business sites to personal blogs and top ranking websites which

    trusted on keyword stuffing. A lot of powerful sites lost their might down due to this.

    Although the importance of keywords did not waver, they are not the sole element used by

    search engines when ranking sites now.

    The fall of SEO keywords have caused the rise of links. If other sites link or ping your siteback as an attention worthy read, a thought provoking rant, or as a source of content withauthority, search engines will judge your page or site as something readers may need to

    see and as a result, increases its points. Applying link baits to your site will attract the

    attention of search engines and readers who utilize them. The best way to accomplish this isthrough a powerful and fresh content. Adding social media to the picture, they are alsoattracted to pages with amazing content. Links provided by social media sites still matter,

    so entice such sites through a link worthy content.

    Writing SEO Content for Search Engines and for Real People

    SEO is not about spreading keywords anymore, the way Hansel and Gretel spreadbreadcrumbs. Newly developed search engines crawl pages as if they were actual readers.

    Jakob Nielsen from Copenhagens Technical University, a popular research professional andan expert when it comes to how humans and machines communicate discovered that about

    80% of a sites viewers actually scan pages instead of reading the content per line. The first

    few seconds will be crucial for them to decide if a website or page deserves their time.Search engine programming professionals still make use of Nielsens study to applytechnique which will create natural and useful rankings.

    What entices web users in a site also works for search engines. The upper left hand side of

    the site is the most profitable real estate-like section of the site. This is what viewers willfirst notice. This section should house texts of great importance so search engines will easilyfind it. It is also a perfect area for texts inside boxes and for items under a list. Both of

    these look appealing on more human brains (based on carbon) and machine brains (based

    on silicon).

    Text highlighted in bold grabs the attention of humans and machines alike, but the

    application of these should be done with a sound judgment. A lot of bold texts will appearlike your advertising too much and search engines will demote your site because of it. HTMLtags for bold and italicization should be applied for text with informative ideas, and not to

    simply highlight words. The words very or more in bold or italics does not imply anything

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    to search engines, so these must be utilized only for placing tags on valuable ideas and

    headings.

    Queries now search for related terms and important phrases, not mere keywords. Anyone

    can get clues from contextual meaning and easily differentiates the word clippingwhile itrefers to hair from the exact word which denotes film or video games. You must make sure

    that your sites viewers whether human or machine understand if youre referring toGerman shepherds as one of the breed of dogs or as an enticing job in farming for wool and

    mutton in Europe. In SEO, your text must be filled with synonyms of related words to makesearch engines understand what your site is all about.

    Luckily, there is a method to apply proper words into the content without the need to keeptrack of the density of keywords and key phrases. All you must do is to write an enticing

    content which human readers are sure to enjoy reading. As you go ahead and write for

    human visitors, the problem with pleasing search engines will definitely follow after.

    SEO Killers Duplicate Content, Spamming, and Fillers

    You already know what describes SEO content of today, but it is also necessary to know

    what it should not contain. The same research from Nielsen revealed what made web usersstay on a website and what turned them off. All search engines consider the same reasonswhen assigning low ranking to websites or when removing them completely from the

    ranking.

    Duplicate content can pull down a website. Even duplicate content that is gathered throughlawful means such as linking articles fully to news bits and an ample quote devaluates a

    sites SEO efforts. Viewers will not keep visiting a website which provides them only with

    another sites content in summary. If there is no original content to boast of, page rankingwill eventually slip down.

    Although you will not like an ample supply of duplicate content delivered to your site, you

    do need the fresh information which news feeds provide. So what you need to do is to writeup-to-date content based on data gathered elsewhere whenever you can. You will have toexert greater effort to associate and make a summary of news stories or to apply it on a

    new article only as a link, but applying these steps will place your site in a moreadvantageous position. If you include enough valuable information combined with great

    writing plus add useful links, you will see your site in the heights of search engine ranks.

    The traditional way of using keyword computation and keeping up with the right calculationfor keywords is not only old; it will also hurt the ranking of your site. Keyword stuffing is the

    trademark of websites filled with advertisements, and search engines are aware of it.

    Making use of associated words and important phrases to emphasize a topic labels your

    website with relevance and increases it advantage over search engines. A variation in wordsalso enhances readability for human readers.

    Still citing the Nielsen research, human viewers avoid websites that are filled with fillers.

    Pure and complete web writing is more valuable than endless pages filled with fluff material.Exaggeration and overly promoting content such as calling a product as ever perfect or

    the best solution as an example does not add valuable content. Human viewers elude fluff

    material and search engine software pulls down sites filled with it so it is best to minimize orcompletely remove it from your sites content.

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    Search engines actually update their algorithms periodically in the hope of providing web

    users with search results that are of greater relevance. The status of SEO art also updates

    alongside these changes. The only element which remains the same in web content writingis human readers. Pages filled with content which appeals to readers and are presented in a

    user-friendly format will rank higher.

    You can use tools online such a Similarity Page Checker in order to determine thesimilarity by simply entering the URLs of both sites.

    VI. Visual Elements and SEO

    It was noted earlier that search engines cannot index certain elements such as images,audio, videos, and Java Script. Rather, they depend upon the text content and descriptionprovided in relation to such files for indexing. In a way, this scenario can be comparable to

    how everything works about 10 years ago. The Meta tag allows you to write a description of

    your site and search engines utilize this description in order to analyze and index your siteand page. In the future, there may be a possibility for search engines to index the

    aforementioned types of data. But for now, the idea is still far from reality.

    1. Images

    Images are an important element in any web page and from a web master or designers

    perspective. It is no ordinary element but a necessary feature in all sites. But searchengines and web designers do not share the same idealism. For search engines, everythingelse other than the text fades away in the background. Web designers may find it difficult to

    understand that links based on text (with correct anchor text) as well as a pure text pagepresentation in exchange for attractive images is not a fancy but a necessity. True, it will bea struggle to maintain a balance between the application of both art and SEO in a website.

    But because of the fact that even the most appealing site is not visible online if it does notattract search engines, compromising visual appeal is a must.

    With everything that has been mentioned, the bottom line is not about completely removing

    images. Of course, this is not feasible because it will leave the site empty and unappealing.Instead, the real score is about using images to illustrate the text or decorate the site andnot for navigational purposes or in worst cases, to display fanciful text or font. Most

    importantly, the tag of the must be filled with a relevant description of the

    image. It is not a requirement for HTML components but it is for search engines. It will notbe bothersome to add appropriate file names to the images instead of generic names such

    as image 1, image 2, image N, and so on. As an example, we bring you an illustration of the

    proper way to name an image file and to include a detailed description through the alt tag.

    Sample:

    Just make sure that when writing descriptions for the tag, most especially for smaller

    images, the content should be no more than 20 words. A small image file with a longdescription may arouse the suspicion of search engines and may even look like keyword

    stuffing.

    2. Videos, Movies, and Animation

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    The issue with videos, movies, and animation can be comparable to images. These are

    important for a web designer but are not preferable for search engines. For example, an

    appealing Flash animation welcome is still usually applied for home pages. But you do notrealize how disadvantageous this is for search engines. It is in fact the top killer for

    rankings! It may become worse than that when you apply Flash when narrating a storywhich can actually be written in textual content and will be easily crawled and indexed by

    search engines. You can deal with this by creating an HTML version of the Flash based filefor search engines. You must also create a robots.txt file in order to restrict search engines

    from crawling and indexing the Flash file. Otherwise, there may be a penalty for duplicationof content. We will not be expounding on the topic of robots.txt file; however, as it is not for

    starters.

    Google is trying to develop new search software which will permit the search function to

    crawl videos, movies, and animation. This technology will also enable .swf format to be

    accessible and usable for search engines. But since this is not an available technology yet, itis still recommended to minimize the use of Flash in websites or in case it is used, adescription in text must be present alongside the Flash file through the tag.

    3. Frames

    Its great to hear that frames are starting to become obsolete from the Internet as the dayspass by. Web designers love frames about 5 or 10 years ago but search engines never did.

    Search engines find it trivial to index pages with frames due to the fact that the URL for

    these pages remains constant regardless of which frame you view. It was confusing forsearch engines to see that there is only a single URL for 3 or more pages. Search enginesfollow a rule when it comes to this - that there is 1 URL for 1 page. Although search engines

    can actually index the pages by checking the links from one frame leading to the next, but

    this is rather challenging for them.

    Should you ever use frames nonetheless, there should be relevant description about the site

    placed in a tag. An example will be provided below. It is not for newbies so in

    case you do not comprehend what it is all about, just bear in mind the fact that the tag is used to create an alternate (or a brief description) of your website forsearch engines and also for web visitors who utilize browsers which cannot interpret frames.

    Moreover, if you consider the use of the tag, it is recommended for you tolearn more about it before you actually use it.

    Sample:

    This website works best for browsers that are compatible withframes.

    Welcome! Our site is dedicated for everyone who is contemplating upon

    the thought of adopting dogs. Dog adoption, particularly dogs without homes they can call

    their own, is an act of nobility. You rescue the pitiful animal by doing so.

    4. JavaScriptIt is a fact that sheer HTML alone does not contribute much when it comes to thecomplexity of websites and in providing a lot of extra features needed. HTML was not

    created for advanced web site structures anyway, so it is not expected for HTML to be ableto store web session data as well as to handle an actual written database of programsneeded by websites of today. This is why other languages for scripting like JavaScript andPHP are used to improve what HTML can do.

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    As of the moment, search engines simply skip JavaScript when they see one. Due to this,

    first off, links that are embedded within JavaScript codes are not crawled. Second, when

    JavaScript is presented in the actual HTML file instead of uploaded through a .js file whenneeded, it scatters the HTML file and search engine crawlers will most often than not, jump

    over it and proceed to the succeeding site for spidering. For the sake of providinginformation, the tag will show an alternate version to be displayed in browsers

    but the use of this functionality is difficult to discuss, so it not actually worth expoundinghere.

    VII. Static and Dynamic URLs

    In reference to the preceding chapter, you probably think that everything about searchengines is designed to be against webmasters intentions to create an impressive site. But itwas already discussed earlier why search engines are not in favor of additional elements

    such as images, videos, and other extended programming.

    You probably also believe that search engines are too audacious to disapprove of dynamic

    URLs but in truth, web users are also not attracted to URLs such as

    http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10 because these types of URLs will not describewhat the site or page is all about.

    There are various explanations why static URLS are ahead of dynamic URLs. First, dynamic

    URLs are not often present. These come up as a result of an end user action such ascompleting a form, sending electronic data, and initiating a search with the sites own

    search engine. You can say that in the eyes of search engines, these types of pages are notpresent at all, because spiders index pages when they crawl through it, and not by

    submitting answers to forms.

    Second, although a dynamic page is created after a user fills up a form and its saved on the

    server, search engines may still possibly ignore it due to multiple questions and other

    neither non-alphabetical nor numerical characters present. In the past, search engines does

    not even index dynamic pages altogether, they are trying to do so today but at a normallyslower pace when compared to indexing static pages.

    This limitation is not to promote the use of static programming only. Websites based ondata are exceptional but it will be preferable if pages are presented to search engines in a

    language they can understand better. This issue with dynamic URLs can be resolved with

    the use ofURL rewriting. All servers and control panels actually have systems which can beutilized in order to rewrite URLs in a format which present them in browsers as if they arestandard HTML pages. You can try URL Rewriting Tools available (over the web) in order to

    change an encrypted text like the sample below:

    (http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10) into a more understandable version, such ashttp://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10.

    VIII. Gain Greater Traffic by Promoting Your Website

    SEO was mainly created to increase your sites visibility with search engines which in turn

    elevate your sites rank in search results. This obviously translates to greater traffic back to

    your site. Acquiring more visits (especially more buys) to your site is the main goal as towhy you promote your site. The truth is; SEO is just one of the many ways to promote awebsite and gain traffic. There are various other options both online and offline in order to

    achieve the goal of generating greater traffic and extending reach to a targeted group of

    http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10http://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10http://site.com/product-categoryid-2-productid-10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10http://site.com/section.php?cid=2&pid=10
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    web users. We will not discuss about these in this guide but bear in mind that search

    engines are not the sole option to attract visits to your website, but they appear to be a

    better option and it is easier to gain traffic through them.

    1. Submit your site to website directories, forum community boards,

    and others

    After applying search engine optimization techniques to your site, the next step is to have it

    submitted to search engines. Usually, there is nothing needed to be done for your site to beindexed as search engines will normally crawl your site and index it. Although problem is,

    there is no definite time frame as to when they will crawl your site initially and at what

    duration they will do so again afterwards. There is nothing which can be done in order foryou to entice them to do so. True, you can always utilize their Submit a Siteoption inorder to provide information about your website (URL, most of the time) but it does not

    guarantee that they will actually crawl your site immediately. Moreover, even after

    submitting your site URL, search engines will still decide whether or not to visit your siteafterwards. Nonetheless, these are the URLs to where you can submit your site in the top

    search engines: Google andBing. Yahoo is actually consolidated with Bing now so

    submitting website URLs are processed as one (Bings submit URL page).

    Aside from search engines, you can also submit your site to website directories. Althoughthese directories also compile websites based on topic, they are not the same as search

    engines in a few factors. First, website directories normally employ humans and thewebsites submitted to them are manually analyzed based on relevance upon submission.

    Second, website directories do not utilize crawlers to locate URLs, so you must visit themand have your site details submitted. But at least after doing so, your site is listed for all

    time and you dont need to do anything after. Popular website directories include DMOZ and

    Yahoo! directory (not the search engine) and these are where you can submit your site forlisting:DMOZandYahoo!.

    In some cases, adding link which redirects back to your site in appropriate forums and

    related sites can generate traffic. You may have to locate these forums and sites that arerelevant to your sites specialty but searching through search engines such as Google and

    other top search engines will help you know what these sites are. As an example, if you love

    hardware, you can key in hardware forums through the search field and after a fewseconds, a compilation of the top hardware forums will be displayed. You will then have to

    visit each site one after the other as some does not permit mentioning links, particularly

    commercial ones in posts. Although participating in forums for the purpose of promotingyour site will take longer as compared to the time it takes to submit site information tosearch engines, the benefits derived from such an effort will be worth it.

    2. Secondary Search Engines

    Primary search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing are not the sole search engines inthe world. Nor are they the only search engines designed for general searches. There are

    other secondary search engines which also exist for the same purpose and will be beneficial

    in your quest to reach out to a targeted group of web users. You dont have an idea aboutthe total number of search engines specializing in a specific niche such as law-related,educational, and so on. There are actually some which are large websites on their own and

    collect data on other sites which deal about a specific topic. Most of them however, accept

    all sorts of sites and have these organized into different categories. So upon finding a

    http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurlhttp://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurlhttps://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/submitsitepage.aspxhttps://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/submitsitepage.aspxhttps://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/submitsitepage.aspxhttp://dmoz.org/add.htmlhttp://dmoz.org/add.htmlhttp://dmoz.org/add.htmlhttps://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/introhttps://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/introhttps://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/introhttps://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/introhttp://dmoz.org/add.htmlhttps://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/submitsitepage.aspxhttp://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
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