Introduction To SEO 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Marketing is a method of generating traffic for your online business without any cost. Created early in the web 2.0 era, this method has been used ever since from marketers around the world to create online traffic streams till today.

The Beginnings 

One of the good things about SEO marketing as it has the ability of creating passive traffic. Which means, you’ll be getting traffic without having to actively be there. (we will see how in the next few chapters). This seems like the ultimate choice especially for marketers who are on a shoestring budget. The essence of SEO marketing is that traffic generation relies on the optimization of web content to draw free traffic through search engines such as the big “G” (Google). Google is the biggest search engine in the world with millions of searches going on daily. By tapping into SEO, you will be swimming in loads of traffic.

SEO is essentially the art of getting your page on the first page of Google for search terms relevant to your online niche business. Let’s say you are in the dog training niche… Hence, when people search for terms like “dog training tips” or “dog training guide”, you want your web page to appear on the first page of the search results – And that is what SEO is all about! The better you are at SEO, the more traffic and hence, more sales you will get. Of course, if you have a huge marketing budget you can spend it all on advertising and totally forego SEO, but if you are on a shoestring budget, you can always tap into the powers of SEO to get tons of free traffic!

Google ranks how relevant a website is to its searches in terms of Page Rank. By boosting your page rank, you stand higher chance of getting in front of the search engines. Facebook has a page rank of 10, meaning it is one of the most highly sought after and visited websites on the web. When you first start you website, you probably have a page rank of 0. So it will take some time to build your page rank, but with these methods I’m about to show you below, building page rank will become a walk in the park! Having and following a proper SEO strategy for your business will raise your chances on your online visibility and organic traffic.

Keyword Research 

Keyword research is an essential part of SEO. You will need to find what keywords are the most sought after in your niche and target them in your web content. That way, when the majority of people search for something on the net, everything will lead to your website. The winning formula for good keywords are: 1) High search volume 2) Low competition. As a general rule of thumb, getting about more than 1000 organic searches a day is a good bet for a highly searched keyword. If you want to check out your competition, get the Google toolbar and see what are the “page ranks” for search results are in the first page. These keywords and key phrases will then be targeted to draw you massive free traffic via SEO. There are also long tail keywords which are longer key phrases with less search volumes but virtually no competition. These should be targeted as well.

SEO Basics 

As mentioned earlier, SEO is the art of getting your web content highly optimized so that Google “likes” it. So how do we optimize your website? There are two type of optimization techniques: Onsite optimization and Offsite optimization. Onsite optimization deals with the things you can tweak and modify on your own website to make it more relevant to Google searches. Offsite optimization deals with interactions with websites outside of your own. This could be in the form of getting backlinks or social interactions, which we will go into more detail later.

The SEO trends are constantly evolving. That is because people are constantly finding ways to exploit SEO and make their websites on top of the search ranks. But Google is a smart company, and they have a team who constantly evolves Google’s algorithm to make sure that searches remain relevant and not bring spam sites in front. People who exploit SEO in the wrong way are called “Black hat SEO” artists and their practices should be avoided at all costs. That being said, let’s dwell deeper into SEO the right way and how we can start applying it to our businesses immediately!

Onsite Optimization 

As mentioned earlier, onsite optimization deals with the things you can edit on your own website to make your web content more likeable by Google. The first thing you must know is keywords. In short, every page should have about 2-5% keywords density. So sprinkle your keywords where it’s due but don’t overdo it. For total optimization, keywords or key phrases should be present in the titles of blog posts, the first sentence of the first paragraph and also at least once in the body.

Keywords should also be bolded or italicized every now and then. Links should be worded with anchor text links (keywords and phrases). Also, onsite linkages is highly recommended. Meaning, you should link blog posts and pages together if they are relevant. These small steps contribute to SEO and should be applied when convenient. One more thing about on site SEO, people say that images don’t contribute to SEO. I beg to differ. Images should be given alternate texts or descriptions. You can also link images to blog posts. Stick to these good practices and you’ll be on your own to free traffic.

The PORTMAN Education Group