SEO Basics
The term "SEO" refers to Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of determining which search terms are most commonly typed into search engines for the purpose of attracting visitors and traffic to your site. If SEO is done right, it can be a very effective way to gain thousands of new website visitors each day from Yahoo, Bing and Google.
Ideally, search engine optimization is much more than just including your keyword targets inserted into your web page. To get your site to rank in the search engines, you need links and lots of them. You can build your own links, you can trade links and you can even buy links. A link is short for hyperlink and is considered a vote for your website by the search engines.
Articles on your site can and should provide valuable information to the potential customer or repeat site visitor and prompt the reader to buy or partake of the service being offered. You must also consider that articles are written for the search engines as well. Make sure to include your target keywords in your articles, but don't overdo it. Generally, try to write in a voice that convinces readers and is interesting, straightforward, easy to understand, and not gimmicky or written in a salesman type voice. Writing that turns users off tends to be the opposite of this in every aspect. It is sloppy, contains a great amount of typos, and makes it blatantly obvious that the writer is simply trying to fit the correct terms into the correct spaces.
Of course, site owners can pay a great deal of money to have professional search engine optimization workers come in, monitor the site and diagnose the search terms used to find it and then write articles or place the terms throughout the page. However, it really is quite simple (and much more affordable) for site owners to go through this process on their own. Simply sitting down, thinking about the questions or terms a person is likely to use when trying to find the information contained on the site, and then putting these into a basic, informative article is often enough to eliminate the costs of hiring a search engine optimization professional. Furthermore, basic and often free website "counters" can often provide useful information about the links or routes visitors took to get to one's site.
Whether a site maintainer decides to go the more expensive route and have a trained worker come in and set up the SEO articles and terms or whether he or she decides to do the work individually, what truly matters is the ability to make search engine optimization something more than just a clever hook. Granted, SEO terms should be a way to draw visitors into the site, but the site will have to provide much more than the hook if it wants you to stay on the site. Search engine optimization, then, should be a way of attracting visitors, not the only thing that one's site has to offer.
