SEO for Dummies

First of all, what is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. Everytime you go into Google or Yahoo, or whatever search engine you use a list of possible related website come up. If you go into google and type in the word ‘puppy’ and search, and you get a list of car websites, you are not going to use Google again. Google searches the websites for related material and tries to give the most appropriate results.

If you own a website, you ideally want your page up at the type when people search for ‘puppy’ or whatever it is your page will be a result of. In order to get your page to the top, you need to optimize your page for Google, the search engine. Hence the name search engine optimization.

It is not just websites that need to worry about SEO. If you write a blog, or have articles or sales pages using above average SEO techniques will mean that you ultimately get more traffic. You do need to have good content too, but thats a bit to obvious to give emphasis to.

Some pointers to get good SEO rankings:

  • Make sure your domain name is registered for more than 1 year
  • Use meta tags, if you are not sure what they are, research them
  • Stick to specific criteria. If your going to write about pets, don’t suddenly switch to science fiction
  • Establish yourself as an expert. This will drive more traffic to your website too
  • Be consistent, especially with your blog
  • If you have WordPress, do not have your blog on the ‘home page’, put it on the second page
  • Make sure your page title contains your keywords

There are many more areas you can focus on. But if you are just getting started off, try focus on these. If you need more help, feel free to drop me an email.

Remember to sign up for my free training on establishing a web presence. The first part covers setting up a blog through WordPress, then later moves onto Twitter, Facebook, SEO, article marketing and much more! Look at the form on the right hand side of the page.

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23 Responses to “SEO for Dummies”

  1. Junshien says:

    Hi.
    Can you explain the 2nd to last point? Another SEO expert specifically recommended that I put my blog on my home page instead of the second page. Do you know something he doesn’t know?
    thanks for your time!

  2. Rich Nicholls says:

    Sure,
    I was on an SEO webinar not to long ago and one of the things they spoke about was the placement of your actual blog. When Google crawls your website, they look for consistency on the home page. Having your blog on the home page means that it will probably be changing at least 3 times a week. This means that every time Google crawls your homepage it will be different. Rather put something consistent that brands you on your home page and have your blog the next one accross.

    I guess every expert has their own opinion and the only real way to find out is to try use different testing strategies. Here are two free tools (you may have them already). They are great for checking out your blog’s statistics etc. Personally, since I’ve moved my blog over one page, I have been going up in the rankings.
    http://websitegrader.com/
    http://www.alexa.com/
    Hope this answers your question.

  3. Junshien says:

    Ahh that makes sense. Thanks! :)

  4. Sheldon says:

    This is a great article you posted Rich on SEO. You made some good points on the importance what it takes to have yourself on higher SEO rankings. Again great job on training me on how to get a GoDaddy Domain name transferred to Word Press. I have never done anything like that before and so I was clueless and it would have taken me hours to do it myself. But you took the time to coach me on how to do that the right way, so that I can save time and energy and get my blog in the top SEO rankings. Anyone that ever needs help on how to set up a Word Press blog the right way, definitely ask Rich he’ll show you all how. Thanks again.

    Sheldon

  5. Rich Nicholls says:

    Glad I could help!

  6. Stumbled across your post while searching through google. I read the beginning and its great! I don’t have time to finish it now, but I have bookmarked your site and will read the rest later. : )

  7. Thanks, this is easily the best SEO and marketing blog I’ve seen in a while. Mind telling me where the subcribe button is? :)

  8. Rich Nicholls says:

    Thanks!
    The subscribe button is the little blue button just above the ‘About Rich’ on the right hand side at the top.

  9. Dude, great post about search engines. Definitely better than anything I’ve ever seen posted by Matt Cutts.

  10. Nawan says:

    Hello awesome post there. keep it going.I seriously heart to read your blog.Last of all have nice day

  11. Sun Sellberg says:

    I like your writing style thanks for the info -cheers-

  12. James S says:

    I’m quite new to wordpress. but what you write in this post is really good and very informative. I think it will help me in the future. Thanks for the great job

  13. Hey this is some good info. Keep up a good work.

  14. Hey this is some nice information. Keep up a good work.

  15. Eufemia Taft says:

    Even a pro blogger, they still using those tips =D

  16. Bobbi Tagupa says:

    Thank you for your great article. I also must say that your layout is a pleasure to view. Keep up the good work.

  17. Gladys Mudra says:

    Interesting article. Were did you got all the information from… :)

  18. Your post piqued my interest. Please give us a more indepth post if you get a chance.

  19. Lee Horovitz says:

    Hey mate. I don’t read many blogs, but yours is of thelittle I read.Have a awesome day!

  20. thanks !! very helpful post!

  21. excellent post,but i experience some difficulty in understanding the last section, could you please make it clear a little bit indepth?

  22. [...] read more about how you can improve your search engine optimization visit RichNicholls.com. To find out how you can generate leads online visit [...]

  23. I can see that you’re an expert at your area! I am launching a web site quickly, and your data will likely be very useful for me.. Thanks for all of your help and wishing you all the success in your business.

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