Search Engine Optimization - How a Little Effort Can Reap Huge Rewards

Search engine optimization - the art of tailoring your website to gain recognition from the search engines has become a highly specialized field within web development. Also known as SEO, it is vital to establishing a successful web presence and bringing traffic to your site.

Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! use a variety of factors to determine how to rank websites within search results (SERPS). Ideally, the websites deemed most relevant and valuable appear near the top of the list, while others might sink several pages deep.

Four of the most common factors affecting SEO include:

1. Keywords. The words contained within your content are indexed by search engines as an indicator of what your site is about. Taking the time to performing keyword research is a worthwhile investment if it enables you to determine the best words and phrases to use. Beyond the visible content of your website, keywords can also be placed within titles, headers, domain names, and the meta tags of your HTML code.
   
   
2. Incoming links. The more links directed toward your website, the greater value your website appears to have. Of course, these links should be generated organically, meaning that people discover your site and link to it voluntarily because they consider it to be of value. If a search engine such as Google discovers that you are paying or swapping for links, you may be penalized.
   
   
3. Site structure. If visitors to your site cannot find their way around it or if search engine robots cannot properly index your site your website will not appear as prominently in the search engines as it would otherwise. Keeping a simple and easy to use website while eliminating dead links should effectively boost your ranking. An XML Sitemap can also help robots as they attempt to index your site.
    
4. Original content. Unique is always better when it comes to SEO. If the content on your website also appears on other sites, it will not be considered unique. Avoid using the same content across multiple sites.

By paying attention to these and other SEO factors, your website can attain a higher placement, thus attracting more visitors. It's not complicated; all it takes is a little time and effort to optimize your site so it can begin its ascent up the search engine results pages.

Check your on-Page SEO with our SEO On Page Checker / Analyser.