What is Search Engine Optimization and Why You Need to Understand It
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization, or ”SEO” for short, is the method by which you increase your web site traffic from search engines by using natural search results for your specific keywords. SEO is the method by which a webmaster can get their site ranked higher (or closer to the front page) in a search engine. If you would like to see SEO in action, do the following:
- Open the Google.com search page.
- type the words “dungeons and dragons blog” in the search box, and click the “Google Search” button.
- On the first page of listings, (often right around #4 or so) you will see The DMs Blog at DnDReviews.com come up:
That’s my D&D blog. I have search engine optimized that site so that it will rank high for the keywords, “dungeons and dragons blog.” I get around 20-30 visits to The DMs Blog every week based on that particular search.
There are other SEO-related topics, so many in fact that there are entire web sites devoted to SEO. In fact, SEO is quickly becoming a profession in its own right, with people whose only job is to make web sites rank higher in search engines.
Why do you need to understand SEO?
In terms of Internet writing, SEO refers to the placement and saturation of specific keywords within an article. I won’t go into the details about how to do that here, but suffice it to say that SEO is as much an art as it is a science. I am hoping to get a post up about SEO and Internet writing in the next couple of weeks, but for now you should consider checking out Yaro Starak’s Top 8 Search Engine Optimization Techniques. Much of the advice there is aimed at website SEO, rather than the writing component of SEO, but it is a valuable read nevertheless.
If you can master SEO techniques in your Internet writing, your writing will increase in value. If, for example, you can write your article in such a way as to place a client’s web site on the first page or two of Google search results for a given keyword, you offer more to that client than someone who can just write an article on a given topic. Mastering SEO makes you more marketable as an Internet writer. Mastering SEO will give you a leg up on your competition, and make you more money from your Internet writing.
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3 Responses to “What is Search Engine Optimization and Why You Need to Understand It”
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Your article was posted in the “Bringing more traffic to your blog” - 3rd Ed. Blog Carnival:
http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/03/bringing-more-traffic-to-your-blog.html
Appreciate your participation.
I think the proposition you make in the last paragraph is harder than it sounds, depending on the keyword. There’s no way to do SEO for a competitive keyword in a single article, but writers nevertheless are the natural SEO hires since we can do the onsite and offsite content to make it work. I feel an article series coming on. (But that may just be the flu).
Aw, heck John… SEO is always harder than it sounds. You make a good point about a single article, though.
Good luck with that bug