What is SEO
SEO is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization.SEO is the process by which the content of your website is optimized so that search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo rank it higher. Search engine optimization is a necessary exercise for most websites. This is due to the fact that people tend to visit sites that appear at or near the top of a search
engine search results. People typically perform millions of searches daily on the web. Research after research shows that people usually click on just a few links and these are almost always located at the top of the results page done by a search engine.SEO can be both `On Page’ or `Off Page’.
On Page Optimization
This refers to all the changes that are made directly to a web page. This includes changes that are made to the webpage title. Having titles like Dave’s Page or Home do not help search engines such as Google identify your website’s content. Another factor that is taken into account when doing On Page Optimization is keyword relevancy. Webpages are pretty much like writing. Too many jumbled up words and unrelated ideas can often drown out the main theme of your website. This is not good for a search engine. Search engines find it easier to identify the main theme of your website when the topics are neatly separated. Heading Tags are also important when doing On Page optimization. Search engines will look at your heading tags to determine the relevancy of the website to their search. Bolded text or headings are taken to mean that these are important to the website’s main theme. The Keyword density is also taken into account. The degree to which the author uses certain words helps determine their relevancy. A good example is when writing an article about real estate. Certain words such as property, interest rates and so on are almost certain to be used. On page optimization therefore involves using certain keywords to the recommended keyword density.
Search engines in the past were often fooled by a technique known as keyword stuffing whereby certain keywords were used excessively in a bid to raise a webpages’ ranking. But modern search engines do not fall for this trick any more and in fact, penalize webpages with obviously stuffed keywords. Search engines rank websites with well-written content higher and this is yet another of the facets of On Page Optimization. In case two webpages appear equally relevant to search engines, the technical architecture of a webpage and whether it meets XHTML validation is considered.
Off Page Optimization
Off page optimization is the process by which links to your website are provided from other websites. The reasoning behind this practice is that if other websites find the content of your website useful, then it likely is. The number of links is important but the text that is associated with the link as well as the relevancy of the webpage that provided the link is equally important. Some people mistakenly use software that provides hundreds of links to their website. But major search engine easily detect this and consider it spamming, a practice that can lead to your website being heavily penalized. Once you get your website ranked highly by major search engines, it is then a matter of time before other sites start linking to your webpages, which further enhances your ranking.
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