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How Much Do You Know About SEO?
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2010 

So just what do you know about SEO? When it comes to SEO are
you a Novice, Intermediate or Expert? Regardless of your level,
this article from a 10 year SEO war veteran may prove
helpful.

One of my biggest problems in trying to help other webmasters -
I naturally and wrongly assume they know all about SEO. I forget
these webmasters have not spent the last 10 years battling it
out with other online webmasters and marketers for some very
popular and lucrative keywords, in the process, honing their SEO
skills with other like-minded individuals.

I forget that many beginning webmasters may not be familiar with
all the SEO lingo and SEO techniques which I mention in my
articles.

There's nothing wrong with that. If I were to take up a new
hobby or explore a new subject, I am sure I would be just as
clueless. Mainly because every subject, sport or hobby comes
with a lot of terms/phrases which are unique to that subject.
SEO is the same way so maybe a little background or warm-up is
needed in regards to understanding the basics of SEO.

Tip: If you're a complete novice, a complete list of the SEO
terms might prove helpful. You can find a complete list here:
http://www.submitexpress.com/seodictionary.html

First, you must understand that SEO stands for Search Engine
Optimization... which means you optimize your website and
content so that it ranks high in the major search engines such
as Google and Bing/Yahoo. This optimization can take the form of
following a strict formula or layout of your website content
with the proper meta tags, keyword density, linking structures
and so on. It can also mean off-site optimization with link
building, right anchor text, keyword positioning and so on.

SEO has become a major industry simply because getting top
rankings for lucrative keywords can mean big bucks for companies
or individuals. We are talking about billions, if not trillions
of dollars, exchanging hands with the sale of products, services
and business transactions. Get a top ranking for your chosen
keyword phrase and it means a flood of targeted prospects/buyers
coming to your website or company, ready to do business.

Now, because there is so much money involved, a whole SEO
industry has sprung up with consultants, experts and companies
offering their services to get you or your company into those
top rankings in the search engines. These SEO services could
include link building, link buying, social media positioning,
onpage optimization, pay-per-click management... all with the
goal of bringing targeted traffic/customers to your site or
business.

White Hat vs Black Hat SEO

You may also have heard other webmasters talking about White Hat
SEO as opposed to Black Hat SEO. And as the names suggest,
White Hat is strictly above board proper site optimization,
while Black hat is using underhand devious cloaking methods and
systems to raise your rankings. For obvious reasons, always go
the White Hat route and you won't be disappointed and you will
feel better knowing you're doing the right thing in regards to
your site.

Perhaps the next concept or term you should know is Algorithm.
Search engines create complicated algorithms or lists of rules
which determine not only how web pages are listed but also
which web pages are listed first in their index or SERPs (Search
Engine Results Pages). These rules or ranking factors are used
by SEO experts and webmasters to help move their keyword
rankings up in the search engines. You open a web browser, go to
a search engine such as Google, type in a search query for "top
corporate lawyers" and the search engine returns a list of
organic results along with a list of paid listings. Now, getting
to that top spot means a lot of potential traffic/clients would
be coming your way.

This is just one example, but most people quickly realize
how lucrative getting to those top spots is for any
individual or company. They also realize that understanding
how the search engine algorithms work and how to manipulate
them is a valuable skill which many clients will pay big bucks
to have on their side. This SEO industry also consists of SEO
software which helps webmasters/marketers get their sites into
the top positions in the search engines.

Most SEO experts break up your search engine optimization into
TWO TYPES:

On-Page and Off-Page Optimization

On-Page Optimization means getting right all the factors which
influence your rankings in the search engines. Keep in mind, the
whole web is "keyword based and keyword driven" which means you
must optimize your domain and site for your chosen keywords.
Your main keyword should be in your Domain Name, in the title of
the page, in the main heading for that page, in the URL and it
should appear (with variations) throughout the page. Try to keep
the keyword density to around 2%-5%, although like many things
to do with SEO... there are varying opinions on the exact
percentage. But what most experts agree on: the layout or
structure of your web site or pages must be easily reached not
only by your visitors but also by the search engine spiders
which crawl your site. Keep it simple - have no links more than
three clicks away from your homepage. Many webmasters include
a link back to their homepage on EVERY page of their sites.

Off-Page Optimization means building backlinks flowing back to
your web site or web pages. Regardless of what anyone will tell
you, getting quality keyworded links from other high quality
keyword related sites is the most important factor in achieving
top rankings in the search engines. So link building should be a
major part of your SEO efforts and something which will bring
the fastest results. These links must appear natural and organic
so varying the anchor text (underlined part) in your links is
important. Also, the web is quickly changing, links from social
media sites such as FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter are becoming more
helpful to getting top rankings. So too, are links from blogs
especially those from Blogger and Wordpress because these are
optimized for keywords. Don't forget other media forms such as
videos since links from sites such as YouTube can also boost
your rankings.

Tip: SEO experts sometimes like to complicate matters. One easy
and simple way to get hundreds, if not thousands, of links from
the different social media sites is to add the Free Addthis.com
bookmark to all your pages/content. Let your visitors bookmark
your content for you. Simple, yet an effective SEO technique
that doesn't cost you anything. Other webmasters simply place
bookmark logos for Twitter, FaceBook, Google Buzz... on their
sites. If a page goes viral in one of those networks, you can
get hundreds/thousands of backlinks flowing traffic and SEO link
juice back to your site.

Along those same lines, the key to SEO has been and always will
be quality content. Never forget the web is a very smart place.
Remember it holds all our collective knowledge. Users will find
your quality content and promote it. Produce quality articles
and webmasters will place them on their sites with backlinks to
your site. Produce quality blog posts and bloggers will link
back to your posts. Produce quality videos and viewers will
recommend them to their friends.

Now that's not to say you shouldn't do any SEO promotion or
work. One of the best ways to succeed is to constantly promote
your site or links: do press releases, write articles, make
videos, create quality blog posts... get involved in online
forums related to your topic and leave your sig links at the end
of your comments. Do the same for all your email messages by
including your signature tag.

Many webmasters make the assumption that just because they have
created a well optimized site - it will automatically rank high
in the search engines and will receive plenty of quality
traffic. Now if you're extremely, extremely, extremely lucky and
by word of mouth your site catches on and becomes popular you
will get that traffic. However, in my experience, you can build
an excellent site and have it indexed in all the search engines
and it will go nowhere unless you do some SEO promotion.

With one of my nine or ten sites, I have done very little in
regards to SEO and as a consequence it gets very little
traffic and is nowhere to be seen in the rankings. This is a
site which I have not worked on mainly because of a lack of
time and it's not closely related in theme to my other sites.
Now if I wanted to promote this site and build up my rankings...
I would do all of the above... write articles, do press releases,
do viral videos, join related forums and get involved, do blog
posts, and so on. Now, from past experience, I know if I
work/promote this site for two or three months consistently, the
rankings would go up and the SEO would improve. Give it six
months to a year and this site would be highly ranked in the
search engines and bringing in a lot of quality traffic.

SEO is not some mysterious process that only a few skilled
individuals know how to do, rather it is a simple process of
consistently promoting your site and content by building quality
backlinks from related sites on the web. It is the simple
process of connecting your content with the steady flow of
traffic on the web by becoming involved in forums, blogs, social
networks and like-minded communities. SEO is simply placing your
site/content into the whole mix of things so that the search
engines can't ignore your site. By consistently using SEO you
will make your site an authority on your chosen subject and you
won't look back.
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The author is a full time online affiliate marketer who operates
numerous niche sites, as well as two sites on Internet
Marketing, where you can get valuable marketing tips for free:
internet marketing tools (http://www.marketingtoolguide.com) or
try here - free marketing courses
(http://www.bizwaremagic.com/Free_Marketing_Courses.htm)
Titus Hoskins Copyright 2010. This article may be freely
distributed if this resource box stays attached.
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