Be careful when you hear that search engine optimization is totally free. The truth is that organic results themselves don’t cost a whole lot but the effort required to achieve those results are expensive. Whether you are paying someone to optimize your website or build links to your web site, achieving top rankings for your website require time and money.
Make sure to begin your search engine optimization efforts with keyword research. Many SEO experts don’t spend a lot of time on keyword selection but it is by far the most important aspect of SEO. The reason is that when you optimize for the wrong keyword means a lot of wasted effort resulting in little or no traffic. You want to find a keyword or keyword phrase that is relevant to your audience, has a high search volume, and very little competition. As you might assume, finding the right keyword can be a real challenge. Start with effective keyword research and your SEO efforts will be successful.
After choosing a keyword or set of keywords you’d like to optimize for, it’s time to do a little research. Do a search for the keywords you are considering and evaluate the websites in the first three positions of search results. Take a look at each website and determine their page rank, web site age, number of inbound links and other ranking factors. After doing so you’ll have a good determination as to whether or not you can out rank them based on your SEO efforts.
You can also discover about a topped ranked website by researching it via Alexa.com for additional ranking information. Shoot for keyword phrases that have less than 2 million competing pages, less than PR 6, and less than 500 in-bound links. If the top competing websites are too large, you should pick a different keyword to focus on.
After choosing the most effective keyword phrases for your niche, design web pages to optimize readability for web site browsers and search engines. Basic areas of on-page optimization you should consider include having the appropriate headers for landing pages, a clear call to action and clean navigation. Your keyword phrase should also be used in meta tags and throughout your web page. Don’t overdue it though, keyword stuffing can result in significant penalties from search engines.
By far the most important factor in Google rankings is a combination of Google page rank and the number of web sites that are linking to your own website. Referred to as inbound links, Google evaluates their authority and rewards your site with higher listings on search results. You are always better off receiving links from sites that are established and popular than new sites that have neither a strong web presence or inbound links. When link building make sure that link text includes your keywords.
Succeeding with search engine rankings is easy if you take the time to optimize your website and focus on building in bound links. The result is a site more valued by search engines, improving rankings for keywords and keyword phrases. Stay the course and build links over time. This ensures that you rank higher than your competition over the long term.
