What is search engine optimization and why is it important?

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps you drive more organic or free traffic to your website. When you know a few simple search engine optimization techniques, it can mean the difference between your website ranking in the search engines or simply being ignored.

There are basically two types of search engine optimization. On page which deals with everything on your website and off page which deals with what you do off of your website to drive people to your website.

On-Page SEO

Keywords

Your keywords are the words and phrases that someone will type into a search engine when searching for information online. Insert keywords into your page titles and subheadings. Search bots look at the words in your headers and use them as signals for the main topic of the page.

Delighted

You want to have a variety of different types of content for maximum SEO value. This includes articles or blog posts, graphics, illustrations or photographs. Keep your paragraphs short, use bullets and subheadings, and make your content easy for humans to read (not just search engine bots). Your SEO results will improve if you generate content material that will stay relevant for as long as possible. When your content is ‘evergreen’ it means that it focuses on the problems that people will have in the coming months and years.

keyword density

Do not put so many keywords in your content to try to attract the attention of search engines. This not only makes it difficult for people to read, but also your website could be considered a spam site and blacklisted. Your keyword density is determined by dividing the number of keywords by the number of words on a page. The recognized standard for keyword density is between 2% and 5%.

Off-Page SEO

backlinks

When other websites link to you, you will get more search engine traffic. These links, called backlinks, must come from legitimate websites and in quantity.

social media

Social media is one of the most important off-page SEO tactics. People who watch and share your content on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ will win favor with search engines.

Trust

There is almost nothing more important to the success of your website than trust. If you lose the trust of your audience, you lose sales and any position of authority. You can build trust by sharing authoritative and accurate content that you have created and that others have created.