SEO Article: SEO Strategies | Search Engine Optimization Strategies

For the novice, SEO can be an overwhelming adventure. Although the primary search engines used today (that would be Google, Yahoo, and MSN) have well-guarded algorithms that are not available for public consumption, the search engine community has helped to sort of reverse-engineer the process, and has determined that there are many techniques available to the webmaster, to help increase searche engine ranking.

These SEO strategies, when applied correctly, can incrementally increase one's organic search engine ranking, which can have the net effect of increasing traffic to the website. None of the strategies outlined below will increase a search engine's ranking significantly by itself. However, if many of the techniques outlined below are applied in unison and properly, an expectation of increased search engine ranking (that is, an increase in the SERPs - search engine results pages) can be expected.

The following SEO strategies, when applied together, can dramatically improve a website's search engine rankings:

• Headers used in Web Pages - Proper use of web page headers can effect your web page ranking in a positive fashion.

• Use of Meta Tags - Use of specific meta tags will augment the search-engine awareness of your website.

• Content is King - The more unique content that your website offers, the better. This is probably the single-most important item that you can address in a website.

• Link Popularity - In a typical election, the more citizens that vote for you, the better odds you have of securing a victory in the election. In SEO, the more external websites that "vote" for you (that is, link to you), the better. There are some very important techniques that can be used to obtain these "back-links".

• Keyword Density is Crucial - There are key metrics that should be applied to a web page. Keyword Density, which measures the percentage that a keyword or phrase appears in a web page, is of particular importance. Keyword Density values for a keyword or phrase that fall into a particular range, are looked at more favorablly than density values that fall outside this acceptable range. The Keyword Analysis exercise, which helps optimize pages for various keywords or phrases, is a key ingredient to the SEO process.

• Recognizable Domain Names and Domain Name Age - Name recognition of a domain name is important. If a user can remember your domain name (maybe due to its catchy name), then this will certainly add traffic to your site. Additionally, the older and more established your website is, the more (positive) weight is given to it, by the search engines.

• Sub-directories - Definitely consider the use of subdirectories under a domain name, since the subdirectory will get direct benefit from the parent domain.

• Use of Sitemaps - The use of XML-based sitemaps help expose your website to search engines more expediently.

• Filenames should contain Keywords - Always have your physical web page filenames contain keywords, that you are optimizing your web page for.

• Email Address Capture - Although not an on-page SEO technique, the ability to capture and garner Email Addresses from your website, is an extraordinarily simple and useful technique that will enable you to subsequently contact these users again and again, via emails, newsletters, etc. This continued contact invariably results in repeat traffic to your website.

• Submit Websites to Directories and Search Engines - Submitting your website to all kinds of search engines and directories, can be result in increased traffic to your site.

Finally, there are many other non-SEO techniques (offline techniques) that can easily be used, to help increase search engine traffic. We will save these topics for another article.