What do I need to know about Search Engine Optimization?

Search engines look for more than just keywords and relevance, they also look for link popularity and other factors. Search engines have algorithms that try and determine whether or not a website is relevant to which keywords, so that when a user types in those keywords that site comes up in the results. The goal of search engine optimization is to increase your rank in the search engines.

Many websites create their content and add some META tags for keywords and site description and then hope that search engines will find their website and rank them high. An owner of a website may feel like theirs should be at the top of the list as their content *is* relevant, but search engines have to go off of more than just how one feels a website should be placed. A Part of having high search engine placement is to have relevant information on the website page that is specific to the topic that you are covering. If you are covering the topic of 'fresh water coral', your content should be specific to 'fresh water coral', or whatever topic you may be covering. The content part of your website is the most important aspect of getting good search engine results as without content, what is the search engine going to look for?

If you are competing with other websites for search engine placement, their website can be researched to find out how they got their rank in the search engines. If you know of a company or website that ranks high in the search engines for the specific keywords that you are also using, you can take a look at their websites and see how they optimized their code to see if you can follow some of their ideas. Not talking about duplicating someones site, but rather using another website as an example of how-to optimize your website for search engine placement. Knowing what your keyword competition is doing to keep their sites ranking high in search engines is good knowledge so that you can use that knowledge to make your website rank even higher than theirs.

One of the things to remember is that your website or content should be specific. If you are advertising for 'widgets' you need to keep your content inside the subject matter. Optimizing your website or pages for specific keywords is always better than writing for a broad topic and just hoping that your website will be found among the masses.

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