A Look at Search Engine Optimization

If you are thinking about working in internet marketing, you are going to come across the process of search engine optimization. This is a somewhat complicated process as a whole, but I will try to explain it as simply as possible. The overall goal of SEO is to improve the way a site shows up in search engines. If you run a dating site online, you would want your website to show up on top when someone looks up "online dating site." With the right SEO practices, the site could do just that. Here is an overview of search engine optimization so you can understand how it works a little better.

Keyword Research

The first step to a good SEO marketing strategy is keyword research. This process involves trying to figure out what keywords someone would use in a search engine to find a site. Sometimes this is as easy to figure out as looking up comparable keywords to the obvious ones. Other times it takes a little bit of digging. The trick is to find popular keywords that don't have a ton of competition. Once you can successfully tackle those keywords, you can move on to ones that may be a little more flooded.

Competitor Research

Another step in search engine optimization involves researching a site's competition. If we were doing a competitor analysis for Google, the competitors would be Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, etc. The purpose of a competitor analysis is to see what a site is up against, in essence. When you know who your competition is, you can figure out what marketing practices they are using that are bringing them traffic. Then you can try to use the same tactics with improvements to make your site stand out from the crowd. If you don't know who the competitors are, you can't define a site's image on the web.

On-Site SEO

On-site SEO involves optimizing the content on a website so it shows up best in search engines. This could be something as simple as inserting keywords on a page, and it could be as complex as making a site function in a favorable way. Photo optimization and design optimization are both components of SEO, and they can determine which sites show up the best on search engines. On-site SEO provides the foundation for an overall internet marketing campaign.

Off-Site SEO

Off-site SEO involves any marketing content that a site may use off the site. This may include internet marketing, social networking, video marketing, and much more. Most off-site marketing campaigns will focus on link building, which is the process of putting links on the web that go back to a certain site. If I put a link to ScholarshipsHQ.com in here, I have just created a backlink for that website. That is a component of link building and thus a component of SEO. There are plenty of other examples of off-site search engine optimization, but that should give you a rough idea of how the process works.

Conclusion

Search engine optimization is a loaded process that can take on many roles for a website. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important principles to learn if you want to become an internet marketer. You have to understand how search engines work and then do what it takes to make their formulas work in a site's favor. This is tricky at first, but it is far from impossible. With the right research, tactics, and luck on your side, you can make any website a success in no time.