The internet is already one of the major sources of information for modern man aside from books. There are approximately two billion people from all parts of the world who use the internet daily. This is why getting into online business, and then advertising that business online is something that needs consideration.
If you stop to think about it, there are always websites popping up by the minute. There are billions of websites and they are even increasing. This makes the competition in the cyber world difficult. You have to ace other companies who also have gone online. Ten years ago, purchasing things on the internet was seen as ‘risky’ or ‘scary’! Today, it is part of everyday life. One of the many methods employed by business entities over the internet in order to market their products and to get ahead of their competitors is called search engine optimization or SEO.
SEO primarily works around search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and others. This is a process that basically involves optimizing a website so that it will be visible to people who use the search engines in finding websites. This would then lead to an increased number of visitors that a website gets. There are two key points in SEO: higher page rank in the search engine or SERP, and more website visitors.
There are two types of optimization that an SEO consultant can employ in order to optimize a client’s site. The first one is on-page optimization and the second one is off-page optimization. For each type, there are certain methods that consultants use in order to attain the above mentioned points.
On-page optimization is probably the first step that SEO consultants need to take. This is important since it helps in increasing any website’s page ranking and also improves the site’s readability to visitors. The methods for on-page optimization that a consultant should take note of are: title optimization, keyword optimization, meta tags optimization, image optimization, link optimization, and HTML tags. The unifying factor of most of these methods is that you have to use keywords. Maintaining enough keyword density throughout your website will help you in getting a higher rank.
Off-page optimization is the term used to refer to techniques that are used in SEO that are not on the pages of the website. The methods used for off-page optimization are: article submission, inbound links, and directory submission.
Since SEO is already getting more and more important, a number of people are also resorting to drastic measures just to be able to increase their ranking and their visitors. This method is called black hat SEO. Black hat SEO is more known for its spamming techniques. This is an unethical way of optimizing as the website is optimized without even following the search engine rules. This can lead to being banned which would be devastating to any online business and should be avoided.
The white hat SEO, on the other hand, follows the search engine rules. This optimizes the site ethically and does the above mentioned methods for SEO while conforming to the rules. Search engine optimization is surely getting a huge buzz in the online community. This can be helpful to those people who are interested in getting high rankings in search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. Even a newbie who wants to try this out with his/her blog can do so as long as they are careful to follow the rules.