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SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is easier than most would like you to believe. There is a lot of jargon, so the simple truth of good, solid SEO is a mystery to many. However, I can show you a way to generate lots of extra traffic to your site while you remain in compliance with the Google Terms of Service agreement.

At the core, SEO is all about gaining a higher page rank on the big search engines. Your page rank is the end result of what you do, how you optimize your page, making it seem as relevant as possible to various search engine queries. At a very basic level, for the complete newbie, there are 4 rules you must follow in order to achieve your optimal page rankings. I call these the 4 Golden Rules of SEO.

SEO Rule Number 1 – Backlinks Are Your Best Friend

The number one rule of optimization in my opinion, is to gain as many links from outside of your website, pointing back to your targeted page, as you possibly can. It can be easy to gain a lot of backlinks but you must ensure that you are not spamming other sites in the midst of your efforts. Two of the most popular methods of backlinking are article and directory submissions.

The single most popular and, perhaps, most effective method of backlink building is done through Article Submission. You simply write articles on the subject of your website and submit them to ezines. These ezine sites allow you to create a resource box where you can write a little about yourself, your knowledge, and make a pitch to the readers to visit your site. You can use the very powerful Text Anchor Links, meaning using selected keywords that you want to rank for on a particular page, and these text anchor links will factor heavily in your search engine rankings.

For Directory Submissions, you can submit a link to your page to thousands of different directories, usually consisting of a brief description of your site, a list of keywords, and you also must select a category in which your site will be placed. Manually, this can be tedious but it can also be rewarding. A lot of Webmasters elect to go the automated directory submission route. It makes the process easier but, in the end, most directories do not like automated submissions.

SEO Rule Number 2 – Update Your Site Regularly

While you are busy building links back to your site, you will need to update your site as often as possible. Search Engine Optimization at its’ best would suggest that you update your site each day. However, that can be a little demanding when you consider all the other tasks you will have to complete to get a high ranking, so it would be okay as long as your site is updated at least once a week. A real simple way to update your site regularly, without having to write new articles each day, is to go into an article that has already been published, maybe change a few words, and publish it again. That will save you some time as well as convince the search engine to visit your site more often.

Another way to think of it is this:

A search engine will visit your site, crawl around, and leave to report what is on your site. If the robot keeps visiting your site and leaves, with nothing new to report, it will begin to visit your site less frequently. On the other hand, if the search engine crawls your site, always has something new to report, then it will visit your site much more often. This is what you want. You want to convince the search engines to come to crawl your site several times a day. This can only be accomplished by updating your site regularly.

SEO Golden Rule Number 3 – Your Website Is Like Your Home

The third Golden Rule Of Search Engine Optimization is the structure of your website. You can think of your website like you do your house. How big is it? How easy is it to navigate? How strong is the foundation? When a search engine robot visits your site, it’s not going to hang out for a while, drink some coffee, chat, and then leave. It’s going to come and be gone in a matter of seconds. Ensure that you have links to your inner pages on the main home page of your site. These links are like doors to the other rooms in your site and the search engines should have easy access to these doors at all times.

You can think of the H1 and H2 meta title tags as like your front door. Make sure that you use these tools effectively. The H1 and H2 tags are what give the search engines a first impression of what your site is going to be about.

Your main objective, in search engine optimization, is to rank for certain keywords that web surfers would type in while trying to find the product or service you offer. That’s why it’s crucial for you to make sure you place these keywords within your site frequently. Not so often that it doesn’t make sense or looks spammy, but you want to make sure that your chosen keywords are on the pages of your site. You probably want your keywords to be 3 to 6 percent of a given article.

And lastly, on your site, you may want to link to internal pages with chosen keywords. If, in one of your articles, you type a keyword that relates to an article you had previously written, you should use that keyword to link to that other article. Text anchor links are, while not as powerful as they once were, are still one of the most powerful things you can have in your site.

SEO Golden Rule Number 4 – Content Really Is King

If you have been doing ANY research on search engine optimization, you have probably become real familiar with this term. Content really is king because it’s the foundation of the house you build online. If you do not have useful information, services, or products, your visitors may visit but will never return. You will naturally gain a lot of links from your visitors, saving you a lot of painstaking work, but only if they find what you offer to be helpful. It’s tempting to take the easy way, and offer a bunch of copy and pasted garbage, but you will find that good and solid UNIQUE content is what makes a successful website.

Now, don’t fear if you’re not any good at writing articles as there are many sites that you can utilize to hire a writers to create articles for you. You will usually need to pay a few bucks for these articles but, considering it will be unique quality content, the value of using these freelance writers can be priceless.

Understand that, while search engine optimization will not take forever and requires a little patience on your part, it can take a while before you see your efforts paying off. However, when that time comes, you will be on top of the world because your site will last. Following the 4 Golden Rules Of Search Engine Optimization, you have built a quality website and, perhaps most importantly, you have done it the right way.

By: Steve Levi

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