Search Engine Optimization - Getting Started With SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website for search engine spiders (aka: crawlers or robots). A search engine spider is an automated software process that crawls websites that exist in a hosted environment. When a search engine spider finds a website it indexes all the pages in the site by following links from page to page. The information is sent to a main server and complex algorithms determine the importance of the webpage. The more important the webpage is determined to be by the algorithms, the higher the webpage will place on the Search Engines Results Page(s) (SERPs) for any given search phrase. Although the algorithms vary from each major search engine, they all share some very common factors in determining placement of a webpage within the search results. Collectively, these common factors make up SEO techniques that can be applied by a website's owner (aka: webmaster).

What does all this mean? It means Search Engine Optimization is a necessity. By ranking high in search engines you are exposing your site to potentially millions of users. If you choose to ignore basic SEO you'll find that you're site seldom (if ever) gains any traffic from the major search engines. This guide will teach you the basics of SEO and get your started on the right track of gaining higher search engine placement and increased website traffic.

Although you don't need to have a technical background to understand SEO, it does help to at least have very basic understanding of HTML. This guide will be segmented into four parts.

Part 1 will introduce you to keywords and the basic on-page optimization dealing specifically with page content and how to structure it.
Part 2 will continue detailing on-page optimization but will focus on concepts that are not entirely content driven (such as in-page linking).
Part 3 will expose you to off-page optimizations and introduce you to internet marketing.
Part 4 will discuss some of the black-hat SEO techniques and how to avoid them.

Together all four parts will cover most of the SEO bases. If applied correctly, the information in this guide can catapult you into the top of the search engine results! One thing that needs to be mentioned before we start: SEO is NOT rocket science! All you need to apply a successful SEO campaign is patience, ambition, and the desire to succeed.

The best way to learn is by example, so through-out this guide we'll use a fictional Loan and Consolidation website as a reference site to showcase some the techniques being discussed.

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Choosing Your Keyword Phrase