If you've recently built a web site, you probably know that search engine optimization (SEO) is information you need to add to your web pages that search engines use to rank you in their listings. Obviously, you want to be at the top of those listings so that human visitors can find your web site. So what information needs to be added, how do you add it, and how much does it cost?
Well, the cost is really up to you. There are many things you can do absolutely FREE to your website to optimize it for great search engine rankings. We will discuss many of those in the coming paragraphs; However, you should know that there are great software programs out there that can get you a lot further in a lot shorter time by expanding on the information I'm about to give you. There's a one time investment that will help you get ranked higher for every web page you create, generating more income for you.
So, what are the changes you can implement on your website for free SEO? First you need to know about keyword phrases. A keyword phrase is what a person types in to the search box on Google. This is information a web site owner can use to his or her advantage because if you know people are specifically typing in "online pet medicines" and you own a site that offers pet medicines, you would want to use this keyword phrase. For this you need to know how to add meta tags to your web pages. This is information that the search engines use but does not show up to human viewers that click on your page. If you do not know how to add meta tags, look in the help section of the program you used to build your website. There are three meta tags you will need to add: title, description, and keywords.
The title meta tag will determine what shows up at the very top of your page. You know that bar way up at the top where the minimize, expand, and x buttons are? That's where your title will appear. It may also appear on Google's search results. You should keep your title short and to the point, and do not try to stuff too many keywords in there. For the example above, your title would simply be "Online Pet Medications". If you see a keyword phrase (we'll talk about how to find those in a moment) that is something like "pet medicines free shipping" you could expand your title quickly to say "Online Pet Medications – Free Shipping", but again, do not stuff every keyword you find on there or on the text on your pages.
The description meta tag should start with the same main keyword phrase and offer a little more information on the content of your page. This paragraph will often show up in the search engines under your title, so you need to have good clear content here. Going with the example above, it might say something like, "Online pet medicines for dogs and cats with free shipping on orders over $ 30". If human users see this description in the Google listing, you're more likely to get targeted visitors that will end up hitting that "buy now" button later.
The keywords meta tag is not as important as it used to be. Due to misuse, the search engines do not give as much weight to this information as the other meta tags. You should use keywords that can be found in the text on your page, and put your main phrase first, again remembering not to "stuff".
So how do you find these keyword phrases? Type in Google keywords on Google and it will take you to their keyword tool. Type in a phrase you think apply to your site, in this example, "online pet remedies". Google will show you how many people typed in that keyword phrase in the last month. Shoot for phrases that get over 250 hits a month, but do not go for the ones that get 30,000. Around 1,000-2,000 hits a month are good. There are better information sources out there about which phrases to choose and why, but as far as I know, that's what you should go for. Write down all the keyword phrases you can use, and then go optimize one page per keyword phrase on your site. That's right, each and every page on your site should have different content in the meta tags and should aim for a different, related, keyword phrase.
You should also know that your page should have a lot of related content on it. This is very important for SEO. You want to make your product description clear and accurate, and then add some more info that relates to what you are selling. For instance, I sell organic crib mattresses. In my description of each one, I tell why they are safer for your baby, how they are constructed, and what is in other mattresses that organic mattresses leave out. Not only is this good for SEO, I've had more than one customer tell me they chose my website because I offered the most information.
Those are a few simple and free things you can do to get good rankings in search engines. Again, this is the basic basics. It's all I used for one of my websites and I rank # 1 in the natural searches for several of my keyword phrases. However, it took me a long time to get there. Implement these on your pages and you will ever get there as well, or take advantage of trustworthy software programs that can give you information to get top rankings in as little as a month's time.
