How SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Works
This is an very short introduction to SEO. It aims to tell you what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is, but not to educate you how to become an SEO professional. Much of the website SEO process is just hard work and learning from your mistakes.
If you do your own website SEO you will still likely want to chat in SEO forums and read online on the topic before starting. Many of the seo blogs can go quickly out of date, but if you ask around there will likely be at least a couple good guides which are commonly recommended.
What is Website SEO?
SEO is the art or science of gaining targeted traffic for relevant keyword through making search engines believe your website is more relevant than your competition’s websites.
What are Keywords?
Keywords are terms or (more often) phrases you would imagine somebody to search for to find your website. With SEO you select your keywords and create web pages focused on them. You can only focus every page on a specific keyword phrase or few specific keywords. One of the best tricks to SEO is to gain traffic using many pages focused on specific terms vice focusing on broad single word terms. Specific terms are generally easier to rank well for and often have a high conversion rate.
Using the Correct Domain Name
Acquiring links is vital to rank well for competitive terms. When possible you want the links pointing at you to use your targeted keywords in them. Other sites (especially business listing sites) are more inclined to link to you with your keywords in the link text if they are also in your official website name or domain name. It is generally a good thought to use your keywords in your domain name when possible.
Website SEO Feedback Time Frame
When you search a search engine you are not searching the web. You are searching their cache of the web. It takes search engines some limited amount of time to find and properly index new links and pages.
If you are new to SEO (or are just beginning to do SEO on your website) it may take up to 6 months or more to gain a top position for a competitive phrase. If you work hard enough you can easily rank well for less competitive phrases in as little as a couple months.
Gaining Top Rankings can take a Long Time
Some of your major competitors have likely been around for a long time and have lots of links built up over time. You can check their links by:
- Searching Yahoo! for linkdomain:www.CompetingWebsite.com ;
- Searching Google for link:www.CompetingWebsite.com ;
- Yahoo! usually shows more links to your site than Google does, and each search engine will likely show some links the other is not showing;
- Search engines know of and evaluate many more links than they show using a backlink check. Even though all links do not show, checking backlink can help you estimate the popularity of a website.
How to Build Links
- Register your site in major web-directories such as the Yahoo! Directory and others I also register my clients websites in many of the minor directories and niche specific directories. Search engines often do not count links that go through redirects, so before spending money on a listing you will want to verify if the directories offer static links.
- Write press releases and blog articles and syndicate them on other websites. Link back to your website (using your keywords if possible) in the article signature block.
- Ask friends, product manufacturers, product distributors, and other business partners to link to your website.
- Buy advertising from related websites.
How Much Should Website SEO Cost?
Quality website SEO is time-consuming and normally requires an investment of at least 4 figures if you are paying someone else to do your website SEO for you. You may be able to find a low-cost SEO service if you are in a niche field and have your keywords in the domain name. I would suggest setting aside at least a thousand or few thousand rupees for SEO if you are hiring an SEO.
Some SEO steps are time-consuming and costly. Long-term link building requires significant cost in both time and money. The cost of effective SEO can sometimes be as low as 5000 to 10,000 and it can cost 25,000 a month depending on how niche or competitive your field is.
The price of website SEO is normally market driven. Niche fields do not cost much, but if you are in a business that can make thousands of rupees per day then you should expect to be paying thousands of rupees per month.
It may be worth it to hire SEO company. If you do your own website SEO services make sure you account for the time you spend when figuring out how much it is costing you.
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