How to SEO 101

Most people are a little confused when it comes to SEO and what it is. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  Search engine optimization is what enables the search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc to find your website based on what you provide or sell and what consumers are looking for. It is their method of creating an order to the all the websites out there that carry similar products or sell similar services or information. The result of SEO usage is just that, basically the order of how web pages are ranked to the consumer.

SEO is a Ranking Method.

SEO is a ranking method designed for your benefit. SEO gives the searcher the closest possible match to what they are looking for. Let’s say you specialize in selling electronics. You might think being generic and broad that you can attract everyone to your site that is looking for electronics, but the truth is most people type in exactly what they are looking for.

SEO makes it easier for a consumer to find exactly what they are looking for.

So if you sell all types of electronics, it is in your best interest to write about each of those products on your page. You will want to write that you sell cameras and portable DVD players and flat screen tv’s. But you will also want to have keywords on your page that say digital cameras, cheap cameras, Kodak cameras, Fuji cameras, top rated cameras, consumer best buy cameras, etc. etc. because that’s what people are looking for. If you don’t mention these things on your page, the search engines won’t know you offer it and will place a competitor’s page that does this before your page. So if I’m looking for the best deal on Cheap Kodak Cameras, I will get the website to someone who can sell me or give me information on “Cheap, Kodak, Cameras” before I get the page of where I can just buy cameras.

SEO with Long Tail Keywords

What are long tail keywords?  It’s a keyword within a phrase of other words that are typically what people type in the search bar.

Today most people don’t just type one keyword.   Today people want more accuracy and with more accuracy comes more words.  This type of searching has birthed the concept of “long tail keywords”.  And it encompasses phrases, questions, sentences that add descriptive content to the actual keywords themselves.

That’s SEO 101.

Now you don’t have to necessarily have the words in the same order, but they all must be included; Cheap digital cameras, Kodak cameras, etc. SEO is using keywords on your pages that consumers are typing for in their search boxes. Keywords are the details of your product because most people know or think they know exactly what they want and they will search for that and for your page to be ranked you must have those included.

SEO for Images

What matters?

1. Image File Name and
2. Image File Sizes

One things that is often overlooked are the file names of the images you have on your site.  For example; If you upload an image of your office and the image file name is “img_7452.jpg” you are missing out.  Name the images to reflect what that images entails for example in this sample, “YourCompanyname_office picture.png”

Also, often forgotten is the size of the actual image itself. Make sure your images are not so big that they take long to load.  Shrink the size of your images so they load faster.

2 Reasons for this:

1. When your images are too big, they will take long to load and Google considers this an obstacle for their searchee’s and is detrimental to your SEO ability.
2. If images take to long to load, most people will leave your website anyway.  Even if they go to it directly and without a search engine. Nobody has time for images to load anymore.  They need to come up and come up fast.

So shrink their size to under a meg if possible and name them accurately before you upload them for use on your site.

SEO in Videos

Today videos are viewed 80% more than regular text or image content.

SEO your Videos

How do you SEO your videos?  Make sure you are creating and naming videos with these below points in mind.

1. Video File name
2. Video Title
3. Video Description
4. Video Tags
5. SRT Files (captions on your video)
6. Video Thumbnails

If you make sure to consider each of those elements as powerful strategic points of focus, you can truly make a positive increase on your organic search on Google.

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Sandra Noemi Torres

Extracted content from an Original Article Source (05/16/12): http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sandra_Torres/515089