SEO 101

May 10
09:17

2008

Rob Emmerson

Rob Emmerson

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When promoting your web site or online business most webmasters are looking for more targeted visitors. Search engine optimization otherwise known as SEO can help you accomplish that goal.

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If you have a website to promote,SEO 101 Articles you would probably like more traffic. Who wouldn't? Search engines are a fantastic free source of traffic. SEO other wise known as Search Engine Optimization can help get more search engine traffic.

A search engine searches the web for information on relevant topics found on web sites. Searches on the internet are done using keywords. The search engines keep an index of keywords and where they found them. As an example, if you search for vitamin, the search results will contain sites with the word vitamin in them. The search engines sort through infinite amounts of data to help searchers find exactly what they're looking for.

In order for a search engine to be able to provide relevant results it has to find the information for itself. This is done using what are called web robots or spiders. These spiders constantly "crawl" the Internet looking for new content. Once they find this information it is organized and indexed into a list. The spiders generally start the search for new information on popular sites. Then they follow each link on the site. They index the words on the web sites and in the links keeping track of where they were found.

At optimal levels the spiders are very fast covering about 100 pages per second. The spiders review web pages behind the scenes from left to right top to bottom just like we do. Keywords close to the top of the page are given more weight. As are keywords in bold, title text, underlined, italicized or highlighted in some way.

In addition to the text you see the spiders also read the meta tags on the site. Meta tags allow the webmaster to select key words and ideas to help index the site.

After the information is located and indexed, it is organized for the use of searchers. Included in the index is the keyword or phrase, URL, and the number of times the keyword appears on the site. Giving searchers the most relevant result is the search engines job, so keyword density is important on the site.

The specifics of how the search engines work is a highly guarded secret. It is important to understand some of the basics of how the search engines work in order to optimize your page for the search engines.

If you want more traffic from search engines, then you must practice good SEO. There are many resources and information available like articles, eBooks and even free SEO courses.