SEO Basics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making a web page rank passively in the search engine listings. If your page has a high page rank in Google, for instance, and it is properly monetized then it will make money online for you without cost or even effort on your part.

This might sound too good to be true, but it really does work – provided that you understand and apply the basic SEO principles.

So, let’s take a look at these important SEO basics.

I will show how to do this with the aid of one or two helpful (and free) tools, such as Traffic Travis, and some really useful SEO tips.  If you want to take the shortcut to the free Standard version of Traffic Travis – and it is free for as long as you choose as well as being perfectly good for your first few websites – then

Click here for the free version of Traffic Travis

In learning how to do SEO the first and most important thing to understand is that a page with a high search engine rank will list higher than one with a lower rank and, as a result, be seen more often by searchers using the particular keyword targeted by that page.

Why Is This Important?

Searchers looking for answers will usually hit the first web page offered by the search engine in response to their query.  This page will have been selected by that search engine as being the most suitable response based on its keyword and the quality of the page content.  One of the most important SEO basics is the tailoring of a page to a particular keyword which will, if done properly, make that page appear and be chosen by the searcher ahead of any other page.

Page content is, therefore, the key to the popularity (and therefore, success) of any web page.  And you will never sell anything unless you have good visitor numbers to your web pages.

Don’t despair – there are many tools to help you, one of the best being Traffic Travis.  And, unbelievably, this excellent and very useful tool is available free for the Standard version – quite adequate for all beginners in online marketing who are trying to use SEO basics properly.

Now let’s take a look at Page Rank and how to do SEO to get to Number 1!

How Is Page Rank Determined?

Search engines use secret algorithms to trawl the internet and find web pages that seem to meet a particular search query.  Being secret it is clearly impossible for us to know the exact formulas they use, but it is possible to deduce the approximate methods employed.  This has come mainly from trial and error, but that is sufficient to build a good picture of the process needed to rank a page successfully.

Essentially this process comprises three main elements:

• Use the right keyword (the term is used to cover phrases as well as single words)
• Provide quality and relevant content to support that keyword
• Get backlinks to the page from other relevant websites

How To Find The Right Keyword

This is an enormous subject, and can use hours and hours of your time trying to get it right.  It is the Holy Grail of internet marketing.  But it is quite easy, applying SEO basics, to start a simple search.  Use the Google Keyword Tool (again, free) to provide a list of suggested keywords that you then use as the basis for further, and more refined, research.  Traffic Travis can help immensely, having a Keyword Finder and Keyword Analyser tool.

The secret of success here, and another of my SEO tips, is to find a keyword that fits well with the subject you are promoting but does not have too many competitors using it as well.  Easy to say but rather more difficult to do. This process is covered in more detail elsewhere, and there are good tools such as Traffic Travis and Keyword Elite that will help enormously.

How To Provide Quality And Relevant Content

Find the right keyword first, then write an article tailored to that keyword.  It should:

• contain at least 400 words (500 is better)
• be unique
• have a high standard of content (lots of useful information, for instance)
• be targeted at a particular result – usually a link to an affiliate product that will produce a sale or commission

Note that it is much easier to write an article around a keyword rather than trying to find a keyword that fits an existing article.

Again, the whole subject of good copywriting is discussed in more detail elsewhere, but it is super important to stress the need for quality – not just uniqueness but plenty of good information or data.  Otherwise it will not be selected by the search engines, which is the main aim.

How To Get Backlinks

The main way search engines assess the success or suitability of a web page is by the number of people who visit it.

Good page = lots of visitors; bad page = no visitors.

They also measure the time each visitor spends on each page, on the basis that the longer the time the more interesting and relevant the content.

They count the number of backlinks to the page from other sites. Until a page has achieved quite a few backlinks it is unlikely to get a decent page rank. How many backlinks?  Perhaps 50, more or less.  I have seen successful page ranks with only 5 backlinks and unsuccessful ones with more than 100.  Just concentrate on getting more and more, and on keeping the good ones.

Getting backlinks is a simple process but requires quite a lot of work and determination. It works as follows:

• write a unique article that gets published on the internet, either as a blog or as a static page
• include in that article a link back to your web page

When a reader of that article clicks on your link and gets taken to your web page, that is a backlink. Success!

But here is where the work starts. You have to identify who might want the article and then persuade them to publish it.  Again there is much more information about how to do this properly elsewhere, but it is the core task for most online marketing.  Don’t worry if you are not a good writer.  There are ways to help you and, after a while, good writing will become second nature.

Is This How To Do SEO?

Basically, yes.  If you have found the right keyword, written a web page with good content, and found a reasonable number of suitable backlinks, you have achieved on-page SEO that will eventually rise up the page rankings and send traffic (and buyers) to your website.

Click here for invaluable help from Traffic Travis