Search Engine Optimization Programs | SEO Tutorial Program

General SEO Information

With millions of web pages clogging the internet, and the number of pages increasing by thousands every day, it is only natural that one is finding it difficult to search out a particular page from the cyberspace with the aid of a search engine.

Further, as online business is a domain that is witnessing a burgeoning growth, it became necessary that one’s website must always been visible, no matter what its contents are. Thus took shape what we know today – the search engine optimization or SEO – which is a way of designing or tailor making a website to suit the search algorithm used by the popular search engines. While SEO is not 100% successful – as search engines often change their search algorithms – it has been able to strike a successful enough rate, making the technique indispensable for almost all websites one could find in the cyberspace today.

SEO includes optimizing a variety of factors such as webpage designing, its contents and keywords, keyword location, meta tags, number of pages, overall arrangement of page contents etc, to name a few.

Keyword density ideally must be in the range 5-7%. But it is also important that it does not exceed the upper limit. Anything above 8% can be counter productive. Further, the keyword must be closer to the initial part of the page than coming at any lower part first. Equally important is the occurrence of keywords within the title tag. Keywords in links and text formatting – in bold or higher fonts – are also an effective technique to catch the eye of search engine spiders.

Continuing, more the number of pages, the better will be the visibility of a website in a web search. Also keywords in the navigation menu and page name improve the search results considerably. Further, if there are too many pages – equal to or more than 24 – put all those in a root directory and try to avoid subdirectories. Beware; pages in the subdirectory are mostly avoided by search engines.

On a flip side, there are certain aspects as well – commonly called SEO mistakes – that needs to be avoided, which otherwise can really bring down all the other efforts that has been put in to improve the ranking of a website.

The most widely made SEO mistake is the use of graphic headers at the top of a webpage. Remember, the top portion of a webpage is where most of the keywords must come in for best SEO. If that space is used instead for some logo or other catchy images, while it leave the webpage good looking, it does not help search results in any way. The same is the case with graphic navigation menus. The search engine won’t be able to index the text contained in its links.

Another aspect to note is the use of scripts for site navigation. Keep in mind, search engines cannot execute or read scripts. Also, it is not advisable to use deceptive hidden texts for duping search engine spiders, for it could invite possible bans, which would mean complete outclassing from search results forever. Finally, avoid redirects as much as possible. That really complicates the matters for the search engine spider.

In fact there are more intricate aspects of SEO, but much of it are beyond the scope of this article. For those who are keen to know more about SEO, it is advisable to refer any related technical articles or books. Such resources are available in plenty in the internet and also in book stores.