SEO Optimization is very often kicked around and almost always misunderstood. Business people and marketers actively using the web as a source for promoting their products know of it, but not all are sure how to "optimize" their site.
In earlier days link farming was a very common method before it was deemed illegal by Google. Then came the time when people focused on meta tags, but now-a-days it has been further refined and there are several generally accepted techniques for Search Engine Optimization.
There are some things you can begin doing to optimize your site:
Build a great web site. I'm sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, "Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?" Be honest. If it's not, make it better.
Include a site map page. Spiders can not index pages that can not be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site's hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make multiple site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links.
Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names. Do not overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammed and users may be hesitant to click on it. Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a "space," while underscores are not.
Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it's a particular challenge for online retailers. If you're selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research because great content is a great way to get inbound links.
Use social media marketing wisely. If your small business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities and post high-quality photos there. If you're a service-oriented business, yourself as an expert in your industry. With any social media site you use, the first rule is do not spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.
Obviously because of the number of people who are tech savvy, the English speaking big markets for SEO UK and US.
