The Key Dos & Don’ts of SEO

• SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of making your web pages rank higher on search results pages, or at least attempting to do so.
• Creating quality content is a mainstay of SEO. If you can provide quality content, it will likely result in more traffic to your web pages, higher rankings with the search engines, and (one would hope) more customers.
• “White-hat” is the term used to describe legitimate SEO tactics.
• “Black-hat” is the term used to describe trying to manipulate the search engines in order to receive higher rankings.
• “On-page SEO” refers to things you can do to optimize the content and code of your web pages.
• “Off-page SEO” refers to processes external to your website, such as finding ways to get backlinks.
• “Backlinks” are links to your web pages from other pages on the web. Tracking backlinks is a method the search engines use to gauge the popularity and significance of pages on the web. Backlinks can be a major factor in determining web page rankings by the search engines.
• SEO is generally a page thing, not a site Think of each page of your site as being separate, then use SEO tactics to optimize them individually.

Most important things to do:

• Commit to only white-hat tactics. For the long run, it’s the only way. Create a great website that is useful for its visitors. That alone is a great SEO strategy.
• Make sure each page you want to show in search results has on-page optimization, such as page titles, the description meta tag, alternative text for photos, and formatted headings above blocks of text.
• If you are serious about SEO, start finding ways to get quality backlinks. Doing guest posting on blogs, participating in forums, and asking people you know for links are ways to get started.
• If you are serious about SEO, you should definitely have a blog, and continuously add content that can be helpful for your visitors. Quality blog postings can lead to higher rankings, more traffic, and natural backlinks to your site.

Most important things NOT to do:

• Waste time trying to manipulate the search engines.
• Overlook the importance of adding basic on-page optimization, especially the <title> tag. The title tag is one of the most important places a web spider looks to know the topic of a web page.
• Hire someone to create backlinks for you without knowing exactly what their tactics are. Links from link farms and other low-quality sites can only harm your rankings.