subject: The Basics of Search Engine Optimization Strategies [print this page] The Basics of Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Search engine optimization abbreviated as SEO, is a continuous process of improving the rank of a webpage in search engine result pages or SERPs for a targeted set of keywords as queried by users for a particular search term. The process of SEO increase search engine rankings of a particular webpage (known as landing page) and thus generates valuable traffic for that particular website.
Search Engine Optimization is a continuous process, which requires a team of search engine optimization specialist skilled in analysis, research, planning, communication and copy writing. The process consists of basic four steps:
Analysis and Research
This is the first and foremost step for any website promotion using SEO. It starts with analyzing the objectives of any business, the strategies a firm wants to use for online promotion and the budget allocated for the same. Then a market research, customer profiling and competitor analysis is done to analyze the behavior of the overall market, customers' adaptability towards the product or service offered by the company and competitor's approach towards the market and customers. A detailed keyword research is done using various tools and techniques and relevant keywords are selected.
On Page Optimization
After the keywords are selected, the content writing and designing of the landing page is done keeping in mind the on page optimization factors such as writing an appropriate title of the page, using description meta tag, writing good quality content for a webpage with relevant keywords, writing alt tags for images, using < H1 > tag for highlighting headings, providing internal linking in a website, constructing sitemap for a website, creating external files for CSS and java scripts, avoiding frames on a webpage, etc.
Off Page Optimization
Off page optimization is more relevant than on page optimization. Major search engines like Google, etc. emphasizes more on the quality of inbound links, linking to a particular webpage, than on page optimization techniques. Quality links to the website, anchor text used in linking to the website, directory submissions, etc. are some of the relevant techniques used in off page optimization.
Post Analysis and Improvements
After all the necessary steps have been taken, we need to continuously monitor the performance of the website for targeted keywords. One needs to know which keywords brings traffic to the website, which visitors visit the landing page, return on investment and the overall performance of the efforts put in to increase the website traffic.
After the last step is followed, the process starts once again by implementing the refined results obtained post analysis to make improvements in the website, making it a continuous process. All the above steps are crucial and ensure that any website following these SEO strategies, is in the top ranking of any search engine result page.
