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Basic SEO Tips

Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is all about getting your webpages into the Search Engine's index (or cache) and ALL about making your site rank high in searches. This in turn will drive targeted traffic to your site, which is a good thing.

Here are some basic (SEO) tips you can use on your webpages to help improve your rankings in Search Engine Results.

These are onpage optimization basics only and will not cover offpage optimization which can be equally if not more effective. Onpage optimization is all about attracting Search Engine spiders to come and index your site. If they index your site, only then they can rank your site during searches.

First of all, you need to choose a good keyword. Find something which is not competitive but still some relevance to the product or service you are selling. I would recommend you to use a keyphrase first. For example, it is easier to rank for "funky shoes" than it is to rank for just "shoes".

1. Good keywords in the title tag of your webpage. Search Engine place some importance on the title when ranking.
2. Domain name keywords. Yes, some Search Engine place importance on the domain name as well. Choosing a good domain name can be tough, but getting a good domain name with the correct keyword can work wonders in the rankings.
3. Keywords in your URL, something like http://www.funkyshoes.com/best-funky-shoes-singapore.html (note the keywords "funky" and "shoes"?).Simply put, they work around the same way as in domain names, though the importance of the domain name is higher I believe.
4. Using h1 and h2 tags and bold important keywords. Placing keywords in those tags or making important keywords bold can help Search Engine understand what your page is all about and thus improve your ranking for the page.
5. Content. Having a good content is like a magnet for Search Engines. Content attract Search Engines and thus help you in the rankings. And your content have to be unique and informative. Again, keywords in the content can really help. Nowadays there is a buzzword among SEO professional, it is "Content is king". I agree with them completely.
6. Alt tags for graphics are useful. Alt tags were meant for those browsers which read the words out for the blind. Some Search Engines place relevance on alt tags because of that.
7. No broken links. Especially internal ones. In order for Search Engine spiders to index your site, they must first navigate your site. If there are broken links, this will prevent the spiders from indexing your site properly. So,ensure all your links are fixed properly.
8. Avoid Flash or Javascripts. Why? Because Search Engine spiders may not understand Flash or Javascripts. Worse for those flash or javascipt naviagtion menus! Search Engine spiders can't navigate them, and thus your internal links become useless. If you need to use flash or javascript for your navigation menus, then have a text-based navigation menu on the footer for the Search Engine spiders. Althought some Search Engine can read flash, it is still not perfect. Some complex flash files can't be read at all.
9. Avoid session id URLs. Or in other words, dynamic URLs. Search Engine spiders don't like session id URLs and may not follow them. And the worse case scenario, Search Engine spiders think that your dynamic id URL is a duplicate content of another dynamic URL pointing to the same page and penaltized you for it.
10. Use robots.txt to tell Search Engine spiders where to index and where not to index. Extremely helpful to stop spiders from indexing hidden areas or pages which are useless for your rankings, like the search page or the avatar page.
11. Sitemaps can work wonders in helping Search Engine spiders navigate your site successfully. If they navigate, they can index your site. Good for you.
12. Having a simple, neat and informative site is much better than having a complicated and messy site. It is good for your visitors and good for Search Engine spiders and good for you since a simple site is much easy to debug or to modify.

SEO is the best way to drive traffic to your site. It is cost effective as well. I would also recommend even the beginner webmaster to use some form of basic SEO on their website. You can follow the above tips to help you get started on your webpage.

With all that being said, I need to tell you that SEO is seriously more an art than science. Even SEO experts don't have all the answers. Even engineers in the Search Engines don't have all the answers. So I think it is better to go slow and just start basic and if there is a problem with your rankings, find out why and correct it. It takes time to get good results from SEO. And please be patient.

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