Search Engine Optimization Basics Part 2

In the first part of this series, we understood some basics of SEO which includes Search Engine, Domain Names, Key word Research, Title Tags and Meta Tags. To get a full understanding, I strongly advise that you read Search Engine Optimization Basics Part 1 before you proceed with reading this part

 

Anchor Text

Whenever you create a link to one of the pages on your website, whether it is from another page on your site (internal linking), or somewhere else across the internet (external linking), you have the opportunity to use optimized anchor text. When a search engine spider comes across a link, they depend on the link’s anchor text to tell them what the linked page is about. Using the keywords that you want to rank for in your anchor text is extremely important.

 
An example of an anchor text is: To learn more about < a href = “https://lifetips.com” > Business tips </ a > be sure to check out my website. The anchor text here is “Business tips”.

Header Tags

Header tags are meant to be used as you write the actual content of each page/post on your website you create. Header tags essentially tell the search engines what the most important part of the page is. You should take great care to make sure you are using header tags appropriately. To create a header tag, just enclose whatever phrase you choose with the following tags: < h1 >Entrepreneurship Training < /h1 >

 
You can also use varying levels of header tags throughout your post, changing the number from 1-5. You will only want to use “1” once, but can use the others to varying degrees. Make sure that you are enclosing the keywords that you want to simply rank for in your header tags.

Link Structure

A proper link structure makes it easier for a search engine spider to find all of the additional pages available on a website/blog. It is a good idea to have a sitemap on your website. A sitemap is a single page which has a link to every other page on your website. Make sure that a link to the sitemap is visible on every single page on your site.

 
A proper link structure should also be used when linking to other additional pages on your website. This not only helps the search engines understand how your site is linked together, but helps your visitors to find more information about whatever you have on your website.

Keyword Highlighting

It is expedient that you highlight individual or group of words within each page. These words can be singled out, telling the search engines that these are the most important words in the paragraph. You can either italicize, bolden or and underline. This is accomplished simply by using specific tags when creating your page: < b >< /b > = Bold, < i > < / i > =Italics, < u >< / u> = Underline. The word you want to highlight is written in-between the tags.

Latent Semantic Indexing

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is something that the search engines are looking for when determining the value of each website that they come across. LSI refers to looking at the keywords that are being used on a website, and further examining how they are connected.

 
Let’s say for example that you have a website that is about Business training. If you use the keyword phrase “business training” over and over again, it can appear spammy. The search engines want to see that you understand your subject, and are looking to see additional words on your website that are related to business training. LSI examples in this case would include phrases like “business planning, business school, etc”.

Backlinks

Backlinks is more about external SEO. This involves doing every good thing you can to get high quality links pointing towards your website from other people’s website.

 
As the search engines determine what websites will rank the highest, they place great weight on the links that are pointing to a site. Not all backlinks are created equal however. Direct your efforts on getting the best ones possible. Here are the most important factors to consider when looking at the value of a backlink from an external website:

 
- Age of the Website
- Google PageRank of the Website
- Number of Outbound Links on the Website
- Relevance and Uniqueness of Content
- “Authority” Ranking of Website

 

Originally posted 2011-09-10 03:22:30.