Basic SEO For Newbies!

I will first like to make sure you understand that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) isn't magic! No one knows what algorithms search engines use and being that each is even more different than the next you pretty much have to do the best you can. When you first make a website there are a few things you must do FIRST in order to get the most out of SEO. DONT WORRY! This Warrior is here to tell you exactly what to do so after this thread all of this should just be automatic after making a site (I hope i worded that correctly LOL). I will try to keep this thread as White Hat as possible lol.

1) First things first! Make sure you fil out your meta tags with the right keywords, a good title, and description. I personally think the keywords meta tag is overhyped but it is a great way to organize your list of keywords for you to reference. Include keywords in your title. Definitely use the description meta tag because Google will normally use that for the summary it displays in the listing. REMEMBER! It isn't used for indexing so write it for humans, which is what gets people to click on your link when they see it in the search engines results. (DONT USE THE SAME METATAGS FOR EVERY PAGE ON YOUR SITE)

2) TAKE NOTES!! When you start creating a bunch of sites its sometimes hard to remember everything you were thinking before an if your memory is as bad as mine you will definitely need to pull out a note pad. The metatags help you remember the information on your website as uch as it helps the search engines figure it out.

3) Make sure you have good content. Remember, the internet was invented for content so if you have quality content all the SEO you're doing is just to get the ball rolling. If its good enough then it'll eventually start building on its own because people would have liked what they have found. (AVOID DUPLICATE CONTENT ON THE PAGES OF YOUR SITE OR ELSE THE SEARCH ENGINE MAY PENALIZE YOUR SITE FOR IT)

4) Include your keywords. Structure your content correctly, make a few title headers in the content that include keywords (use header tags h1, h2, etc.), try to have a keyword density around 2% in your content, and maybe 4% for the whole page including the metatags, alt tags, anchors, etc.

5) Make a robots.txt file and I like to include a favicon because without them the robots will trigger file not found errors on your server. Be sure to configure your robots.txt correctly. Make a custom 404 page. If your site has more than just a couple of pages then also create a sitemap.xml file. It's not a bad idea to just create a sitemap anyway no matter what, it lets you define the structure of your site to the crawlers. Just search google if you don't know how to do any of that, it's very basic and you can find exact instructions within a minute when you do a search.

Other than that there isn't a lot more you can do for on-site SEO. When people ask about SEO they're always thinking of on-site SEO, but thats the easy and quick part. Just do it and get

6) Off site SEO is where the magic is so focus your effort here. You need to now begin to build up backlinks. A great start would be Social Bookmarks, profile Links, Directory Submissions, and Blog Comments. (You can services that offer them BUT in order for it to be done right they have to be posted on many different accounts and ip addresses.) I would suggest you start off doing this yourself to see how it works (NOTHING beats experience). Dont build your backlinks up to fast because the search engines will think its unnatural (RESEARCH THE PROPER AMOUNT). Dont even think about linkwheels until you have enough experience because one slight move could make or break you!

7) Whenever possible include keyword anchors and title or alt tags on your backlinks. Don't always use the same anchors, vary it up a little, use 3 or 4 different keywords and even do a few with some non keyword anchors. You are trying to look as though a lot of different real people have taken a liking to your site, if it were natural then all links wouldn't be exactly the same, so you want to simulate that same type of randomness (LOL). Backlinking strategies are all about simulating the natural events that happen as a site grows in popularity. If you can do it successfully then the search engines will put you at a good position in the listings, and then hopefully what you are simulating can become reality. The point of all of it is to get traffic.

8) Change up your anchor text. The idea of backlinking is to simulate that masses of people are becoming interested in your site. It should have some amount of randomness to it in order to look natural. I've seen a few made up stats on what's best, but I think a good rule of thumb is maybe about 45% primary keywords, 35% secondary keywords, and about 15% random unrelated like Click Here, and then about 5% just the url. The exact percentage isn't dramatically important, it just needs to seem like the linking is natural.

9) Create relevant articles containing your keywords, include backlinks using keyword anchors, and submit to article directories. Article directories are mostly authority sites and your article becomes a relevant backlink to your site. Then create profiles and accounts on blogs, social networking sites, forums etc. Include a link to your website whenever you do that and each one of those become backlinks as well.

Yea this thread would have been a little more catchy if it had 10 steps but HEY I RAN OUT OF IDEAS FOR NEWBS LOL!

All jokes aside, monitor your sites stats to see what keywords are getting the most traffic to your site an if needed, remove or add keywords to your content and tags.

REMEMBER, SEO is a never ending battle! You have to continue building links!

Alright guys there ya go! Also if any of you SEO smart guys see something thats not correct in this thread by all means inform me!

Cheers!