SEO > Search Engine Optimization for Beginners - Beginning SEO Tips

First off, search engine optimization is a big phrase but do not be intimidated by it. It is a very powerful method that will get your website a lot of traffic if done correctly for little or no cost. I refer to SEO as the method of making your site relevant for a given topic so that search engines place your site high in searches for that topic. It is a lengthy process that takes a lot of hard work and patience but the dividends are worth it, trust me.

- The first thing to do is to be smart with your decision about what exactly your site’s topic is. Be as specific as possible, if you have a site about African American cooking do not target just “cooking” as it is too broad and will bring visitors that aren’t looking for soul food. Be thorough in your keyword research which can be done with free tools such as Good Keywords (google it) or http://inventory.overture.com. Be sure to target keyword phrases and not a single word that is relevant to your site. Check the very end of this article for a resource that goes over in a full-length ebook how to research keyword phrases to target.

- Place your researched keyword phrases in four places. One, make sure your most relevant and primary keyword phrase is the first to appear in your keyword meta tag. If you are unsure of what a meta tag is make sure to refer to the e-book site at the end of the article. Meta tags are hidden to the visitor but are read by search engines to determine information on your website. Two, place it in the early part of your description meta tag so that search engines pick up on that keyword phrase as well. Three, put it somewhere in the title of your website. Lastly, make sure it appears a few times in your website’s content but do not spam that phrase all over the place. I also recommend having anywhere between 5-10 keywords in your keyword meta tag, but the first four are most important.

- Have unique, relevant website content. Make sure your website’s content relates to the primary keyword phrase you are targeting and that it is unique, original content. Search engines have cracked down on duplicate content and penalize website’s for spewing their dupes all over the web. It takes more work to write up the new content but like the entire process it is worth it and a big piece of the puzzle.

- Build backlinks by submitting your site to link directories and website’s at the top of searches for your targeted phrase, especially if they have a high page rank. If site’s linking to your site are relevant to each other search engines love it and will reward you for doing so if you get enough.

- Write unique articles and submit them to article directories like ezinearticles and articlesbase. I advise that for every website you launch that a press release to be sent to prweb.com or other pr sites and 5 launch articles dealing with the topic of your website. These articles should pre-sell your website or service but not by describing it, it should provide the similar information or summarize the content of perhaps a recipe database or an e-book. This article is a perfect example, I want to inform the masses of my knowledge but also want readers to expand on that knowledge by picking up my e-book. Make sure you include your site’s link in the author bio this will also build up backlinks. After the initial five I advise at least writing one article a day to submit, ideally I’d say get around 500 unique articles in directories as soon as possible, but make sure they are relevant and well-written; do not cut corners with SEO.

- Once again be patient and be willing to wait a while to see the results of your work. I have faith that with these small steps and more in-depth procedures and descriptions to be revealed from my e-book that you will have all the knowledge that you need to put it to use and get to the top of Google.