Getting to know SEO

Why Search Engine Optimization is the way to make money online

Given the growing number of money making opportunities that can be found online, from ad-based blogging to specialized web stores, making your website a top hit on search engines is absolutely crucial to its success. So how do you convince Google to make you a top three hit on searches for your product or service? The answer is Search Engine Optimization, or as it is more popularly referred to, SEO. SEO is essentially a web-based marketing strategy used to increase web traffic to a website through the inclusion of specific keywords in the html code, and the creation and maintenance of links from other sites that lead to yours.

The recent explosion of freelance consultants and professional SEO companies means getting your website or blog noticed is as simple as hiring an expert. But knowing how people search for information online, and how search engines produce search results is essentially the only things you need to know to get top results.

Finding the right Keywords

Usually the best place to put your keywords in the html code of your webpage is in the Meta tags. Keeping your keywords simple and relevant, but unique enough that they won’t get lost with the thousands of other sites that used those keywords is important to remember. In general short phrases work better than single words, and making sure that you have multiple keywords, but aren’t “keyword stuffing” is the best approach.

How will people search for what you have to offer?

While most know that SEO involves selecting the right keywords to include in your html code meta tags, often getting top results for tags on image or business searches can be just as critical, and sometimes more effective. This is especially true if you are creating a website for a business such as a hair salon, or bakery; or an image rich blog.

Back Linking: The New SEO

Back Linking is the other way that search engines organically find and rate your website, and its relevance is determined simple by the number of pages that link back to your site. While the number of ways that you can get your website Back Linked is ever increasing, it is important to ensure that the sites linking yours are topic relevant, and the more popular the better. Search engines like Yahoo and Google are taking active measures to reduce the number of top search result hits that are simple there due to aggressive “black hat” SEO tactics being used by an ever growing number of websites. While it is possible to create revenue based blog or website, keeping your content quality up and topic relevant will prevent your site from being removed, and ultimately produce more revenue in the long-term.