Tips For SEO Success: Get The Most For Your Efforts

SEO (search engine optimization) is a term given to a variety of methods that are used to improve the placement of your website in the search engines.

A large percentage of people find new websites through search engines, and they heavily favor the sites that appear at the top of the first page of results.

The following tips for SEO success will help you get the most from your efforts.

1. Three words: Keywords! Keywords! Keywords! 

People use keywords when using the search engines, and the keywords you choose will make or break your site in the search engine results.

Invest time selecting the best keywords and optimizing your site around them.

You need to look at how many searches each keyword gets and see what kind of competition each has as well.

There is no magic number or how many searches a keyword should get, so there will always be an element of guesswork involved, which brings us to the next o the tips or SEO success...

2. Test and track your SEO. 

The search engines use proprietary algorithms to determine where a site is positioned in the search engine results, and they protect these algorithms carefully.

The best way to get around this is to test and track your SEO efforts to get an idea of what works and what doesn't.

It can take some time for changes to be reflected in the rankings, so be sure to give it some time before drawing conclusions. You also need to keep in mind that the results are dynamic because most of your competition will be doing SEO, too.

3. Linking the right way. 

There are a lot of myths about the best way to use links for SEO purposes.

Massive link swaps are one example of a link building strategy that is no longer effective.

However, you can get a boost by getting links from well-respected pages that are relevant to your website.

If at all possible, be sure that the links to your site include the keywords you are trying to rank for.

There is also on-site linking which covers all of the links on your site that link to other parts of your site. Generally speaking, you should have all of your pages interconnected and you should use keywords for those links.

4. Stagnation and SEO don't mix. 

This is one of the most overlooked tips for SEO success.

A lot of website owners think of SEO as something you do once when setting up your site, and then it somehow keeps working its magic.

The reality is that you need to keep doing SEO on a regular basis for two reasons: one, the search engines are always changing their algorithms so you need to respond in kind; two, you have to assume that your competition will always be doing SEO and you don't want to drop down in the results as they move up.