The Fuss About SEO

If you are a freelance writer like me, you know hundreds of clients come up to you asking you to write SEO-optimised articles, blogs, or product descriptions.

They give you a list of keywords and sometimes mention a keyword density to use in the text.

Why do they do that?

Why is everyone so crazy about SEO?

Let's find out.

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of getting traffic to your website by listing on a search engines.

When you type in something in you're looking for in your search engine like Google or Yahoo, it returns a long list of results. The results are returned on the basis of a particular ranking done by these search engines.

Now, how are these ranked? All the web pages, documents, videos and local listings are ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to the person conducting the search.

 For example: if your keywords are, lets say, 'ghostwriting book's, and I am a ghostwriter, I desperately want to appear on the first page of the list that search engine creates. 

Remember: Surfers have a very short attention span. If they find what they need in the first five entries and mine is ranked # 101, chances are that I will never get a visit unless England is a keyword and my business caters to the residents of England or UK.


Why do Online Sellers Worry so Much About SEO? 

Ever used a phone book or yellow pages or a dictionary?

 With the Internet having conquered the world of information, it's less likely you use any one of these, but it's the best way to understand the concept.

 If I am looking for a hotel in the Yellow Pages, I'd look up for them under the 'Hotels and Restaurants' subheading.

 Let's say there are a hundred listed in the area I'm looking up. Unless one of them has a big prominent Ad in the Yellow Pages or I have heard of this one from a TV ad or perhaps a friend recommended it to me, I am going to choose one of the first few ones appearing at the top of the list.

Who'd bother to scroll down when you've what you need at the top? Likewise, in business, people want to appear at the top and become prominent. They want their potential customers to be able to find them in the deep sea of other competitors and businesses from all  around the world.

So you see, that’s why sellers in any kind of e-business worry about SEO. They want to get chosen first!


How Do You Ensure You are on that First Page? 



Want to rank at the top? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are my keywords you accurate, and will searches actually use these keywords?

2. Do my page titles direct surfers to the targeted keywords?

3. Is my web text concise, descriptive and rich—but not stuffed—with keywords?

4. Does my anchor text point surfers to additional pages in my site and does it have appropriate and effective keywords?

5. Have I used text links from my home page to other website pages?

6. Are my graphics sparing effective and useful for all three types of search engines?

7. Do I have both XML Sitemap and HTML Sitemap?

8. Are my pages simple, precise and effective?

9. Am I proactive in building links to other sites?

10. Am I or is a site administrator constantly updating this site?

11. Have I started a blog site to attract traffic to my website?

12. Do I use videos or photographs effectively to describe my products or services?

13. Am I using advertising on other sites to drive traffic to my website?

14. Have I used an analysis service to explore my keywords, web text, products, web traffic?

What are your answers? Jot them down and see what you're lacking or missing upon.

Catch you later with more useful info on keywords. See you!