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This is an often asked question, but unfortunately, there is no often provided answer. There is a lot more to SEO than meets the eye, and much more than can be explained in an article. You need to learn SEO techniques and then in turn apply them to your website. This really isn't all that hard to do, if you have a website that you can update yourself. Knowing how to write HTML code is a huge plus. Matter of fact, if you can write, or at least edit, the HTML on your site there is no reason why you can't apply the SEO techniques that you can learn to your website and gain in search engine listings. The title tag, alt attributes, a tag attributes, the description meta tag, heading tags and navigation are the mainstays of optimization. The title tag should be different on every page and be specific to each page. Attributes are bits of descriptive code that go along with some of the HTML code, images and URL tags for instance. Attributes can be alt and title pieces of code that get added to these HTML tags. The description meta tag should be used as it is sometimes utilized by Google to fill in the description on the results pages. The H 1 heading tag is huge, it should always be used, but only once on any given page. Navigation has to be readable by the engines and is important as it is how the spiders will find the other pages of your site to index. I can't stress how to use the title tag to your advantage. If your site is about Red Sneakers, then your most important, and probably first keyword phrase in the title tag should be ... Red Sneakers. Use up to 12 words in the title tag. Code attributes can be added into some of the HTML tags. When you use the img src tag to add an image you can add an alt "blah blah" and a title "blah blah blah". These should be descriptive of the image. If the image is your sneakers site logo don't just use "Logo" as an attribution, but do use something like "Sneakers Logo" or "Acme Co. Sneakers Logo". Get it? You are using good keywords and getting more emphasis on the page without stuffing your content. The description meta tag is one that I still use regularly. As I mentioned, Google will sometimes utilize it for the description they display to users when you come up in search results. This is where you put a really motivating description of your site. A call to action. Something to get people to click on your link instead of one of the others that they see when they do a search. Opportunity knocks ... answer the door! Headings tags are great. Think of them as you would an outline. The H tag is the main title for the page. You can use H as a subheading, and use it numerous times on a page. Be sure to utilize your important keywords in these heading tags. Navigation is really something to be thought out. Depending on the size of your site, navigation can overcome a page. It needs to be planned. Before you jump onto the bandwagon and go with a flash javascript drop down, hover over, nifty javascript menu system, consider this. Javascript can't be read by search engines. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a site that only has the main home page indexed, and the reason is that the engines can't find any other pages. You really want to get your entire site indexed. So, as you see, you need to learn about SEO before you will see results from your attempts at it. There are both on-site and off-site work to do. There is plenty to keep you, and/or your staff, busy.
Robert BK Kelsey operates Ethical SEO Service where he offers access to a course to train you with his Ethical SEO Course. You can get more SEO Information in other articles published on the web, or at his site.
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