You have probably heard about Search Engine Optimization "SEO" and may be wondering if it is worth the effort. The answer is YES! A site with good SEO has a much better chance of showing up in the search ending results pages "SERPS" than the same site with little or no SEO. Good SEO helps Google to identify what your site is about. We are just going to cover the basics here because advanced SEO tactics are beyond the scope of this HOWTO.

SEO starts with the understanding of "Keywords". You will be targeting a few keywords or phrases that people would naturally type into a search engine if they were looking to find your site. To get a better picture of what people are typing into the search engines please see the HOWTO on keyword suggestions.

For instance, if you had a site about "Apple Pie Recipes" you would want to use that phrase a number of times throughout your website. Also you would want to make that the "Title" of your website. You can do that by editing the html but most content management systems automatically use your site name as your title. Next, the first words on your website should have that phrase and should be larger then the rest of the content on the page. When you use the phrase in your text don't try and over do it. Search engines don't like and your site would be penalized. Try to have the use of the phrase be natural enough that it is not distracting to your visitors.

A really good boost to SEO can be achieved with "backlinks". Backlinks are links from other sites that point to your site. Backlinks from sites that have similar or related content are worth much more than backlinks from sites with unrelated content. There are a number of ways to get free backlinks. Many forums allow "signatures" in posts. Which means for every post you make on their forum you get a backlink to your site. Also, many blog owners don't mind if you leave a backlink as long as you leave a relevant comment with good content. You can also contact site owners and see if they would be willing to add a link to your site or participate in a link exchange.

That is a very basic summary of SEO. If you have any questions or comments regarding SEO please use the "Add new comment" link below.