Importance of SEO and Commonly Confused Principles

There is estimated to be over 100 billion websites on the web today. That is over 10 websites a person. That's a lot of websites and a lot of competition for a person or company trying to make it in the online game. SEO or search engine optimization is the process of improving your website so that it ranks higher in the natural search results of popular search engines. Paid ads usually cost anywhere from $.40 - 2.00 a click, where as natural search is free.

Confused about indexing? Search engines work round the clock to scan and index as many websites as they can. They go from link to link following the trail and storing basic information about each site. These search engines categorize and record keywords so that when some one searches for keywords or phrases, they have relevant content to display.

Determining the order in which each site is ranked is usually kept secret, but we do know some of the basics. Websites are ranked by the quality and content of their internal structure and by the number and quality of other websites linking back to it. We call those links backlinks because they point back to your site. SEO companies work day and night to gather or create quality backlinks so that your site is rated and ranked more favorably.

A lot of people confuse the term Page Rank with the ranking of their website when certain keywords are searched for. Please know that these are different things. Google, by far the most popular and widely used of all search engines, has coined the term PageRank and uses it to rate websites on a numeric scale. New sites will have 0 as a page rank but can quickly increase as they implement proper SEO techniques. Only the best of the best websites ever achieve a 10. It is really nothing to stress about.

Ranking for keywords is something different. This is where a new webmaster should focus. Keyword ranking is the position a site comes in, relative to all other websites, when a specific and determined keyword or phrases is searched for. For example, an SEO company would love to be the first website listed when some one searches "SEO company." It is estimated that around 50% of all searchers click the first link when doing a search, so this would mean a lot of traffic and a lot of business for the SEO company.

SEO is not a fast process, but if done right, can be incredibly rewarding. Be sure save time and to do it right from the beginning.



There are a number of good free SEO guides available online. My particular favorite is a DIY SEO guide found at freediyseoguide.com. Check it out!




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