The masters of search engine optimization (“SEO”) also tend to be the masters of the Web. So, if your business is online, understanding SEO is critical to your success. This is because the first result in a Google search tends to absorb a third or more of all traffic. For keywords that are searched very frequently, this can mean hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of visitors. In the meanwhile, the sites that are at the bottom of just the first page of search results only get a few percent of all traffic. Sites appearing on later pages get a vanishing percentage of the remainder.

So, how do you avoid this fate, and ensure that your business’s website enjoys a healthy search ranking? Well, in order to maintain the integrity of its search engine, Google does not release the exact algorithm it uses to determine page rankings. Certain basic guidelines have emerged, however, that are tested and true. Follow these SEO fundamentals listed below, and your site will have the greatest chance of ranking up and becoming visible to the majority of the traffic online.

Links
One of the main determinants of your website’s search ranking is the number of links to it found elsewhere on the Web. Each time your site is linked to, especially from credible, well-established, highly-ranked sites, your own rank goes up. There are many easy ways to earn these “backlinks.” Check out the short guide found here for a good list of common methods.

Keywords
The other main determinant of your website’s ranking is the relevancy of it to particular keyword searches. This is not a simple case of using a keyword more often than any other page. That’s called “keyword stuffing,” and Google wouldn’t be a very successful search engine if it couldn’t filter stuffed pages out in favor of quality ones, right?

Anyhow, the first step is to figure out which keywords you want to target. Google offers some tools that can help you out here. Remember, the more popular the keyword, the more competition you’ll face for it.

Then, the next step is to create pages that target that keyword. This guide is very well done and will give you more than you need to get started.

Social
Don’t underestimate the value of the many social platforms you have access to. There are lots of them out there, and each one can give your main website an SEO boost. Stay active, drop links, and also make connections. Those that you meet via social media can also provide you with further backlinks, making social media an SEO bonanza if you play your cards right.

Content
Once you’re done addressing all of the technical points, you need to spend time crafting quality content – articles, posts, and pages that others find useful (as this post hopefully is to you!). With quality content, others will not only gain value from your site, but they’ll perform SEO-boosting activities by linking to it where they can. A really good piece of content can go viral, getting shared by others, who then share it further with more people, and so on. If that happens, congratulations! Your SEO work is pretty much done.

Have any questions or tips? Leave them in the comment section below! SEO is a massively complex topic, and once you dig in, there’s no telling what you might learn.

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