Thursday 29 December 2011

SEO Training Courses And The Basics Of Search Engine Optimization

Almost every product in the SEO training courses niche claims to be able to get you to the number one ranking in the search engine results pages (serps) but most contain over hyped information that simply fails to live up to its promises. However there are five simple steps that anyone can take to improve search engine rankings for their own website.

Any SEO training course that guarantees you a top spot for any keyword of your choice is to be avoided, because you cannot simply just get top search engine placement for the most popular keyword's that everyone else is trying to get.

You need to "dig a little deeper" as it were, and find slightly less competitive keywords related to your chosen niche, so that you can target them and then get a top position in the serps.

Of course most of the many SEO products that are available on the internet today do not go into detail explaining this to you, as they fear putting you off your goals and failing to make sales and commissions from you in future.

This is why many search engine optimization tutorials are failing the very people they are designed to help - those people that wish to improve search engine rankings for their own websites.

At this stage the term "search engine optimization" probably requires a little more explanation. Some might think from this term that attempts to optimize a website for the search engines simply means creating poor content, that can be created quickly without much effort, and then using some sort of "clever coding magic" to get the search engines to show it high up in their results listings.

True "search engine optimization" as every decent SEO course would tell you is all about creating good quality, original content, and then finding those keywords (searched for phrases) that are a perfect match for that content and using such keywords in relation to that content.

Below there are some simple steps that can be taken to ensure good website search engine optimization, as any of the good SEO training courses would tell you (if you can find a good one, that is) but this is an area that is far too complex for just one article, but in essence the following should be used for anyone that wishes to improve search engine rankings for their own site:

1. Keyword Research

Search for and find keyword phrases that are closely related to your content, using any of the free keyword sources available online. Pay close attention to keyword phrases with similar meanings to the ones you are looking for, and also keep an eye on how often such keyword phrases are searched for and also how many other websites Google considers to be relevant to a search for those phrases, as all these other sites will be your competition should you choose to target that phrase.

2. Keyword Usage In Meta Tags

Once you have chosen your keyword phrases (longer phrases being easier to rank well for, as less competition, remember!) ensure you include them in all available Meta Tags on your webpage. They should be in Title tags, Description tags and Keyword tags.

3. Keyword Usage On Page

Ensure these keyword phrases are also within your Heading tags (H1 tags) and used throughout your page. Draw they eye to them by using Bold, Underline, Highlight and Italics as this also shows the search engines that you are focusing on these particular keyword phrases, helping to further prove your relevance in any given search for such keywords.

4. Keyword Named Images

Ensure that images on your webpage are also named with a variation of your keyword phrase, and that they include that keyword phrase as their Title, and as the text to be used when the Image cannot be shown in a visitor's browser for some reason. (This is known as ALT text, and there are several reasons why it might be shown, but for now that's not important - Just do it!)

5. Anchor Text Links
Finally, and most importantly when trying to improve search engine rankings, you should try to get as many incoming links as you can to each page using your chosen keyword phrase as the anchor text. (Anchor text simply means the actual words that are hyperlinked in any text link. So for example when you see "Click Here" as a link to another site, then the words click here become the anchor text for that link)

For more detailed information on how to use SEO for your own site, simply search online for a decent free copy of a guide that you are allowed to download without the need for sign up or opt in.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6296474

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