SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, as it is called, is actually the process of optimizing and manipulating web pages to make them appear more popular or more relevant than other pages in search engines.

Before embarking on a SEO project, the most important thing to do is decide on the words or keyword phrases that you will be going after. In other words, when someone is searching for your product, service or whatever, what would they likely type into the search engine to find you. Make a list of all the keywords that you think are relevant. Then find out what words or keyword phrase drive the most traffic. If you want to go after high-traffic keyword phrases, you’ll want to do some research on your competition.

Look for the following when analyzing your competition:

1. Is the site a blog or does the site have a blog?
2. Have they optimized their site? Ie. Content, HTML, sitemap, seo landing pages, etc.
3. How many backlinks do they have?
4. What words or keyword phrases are used in their backlinks
5. What sort of sites link to their site? Are they authority sites?
6. How old is their site?
7. How big is their site, how many pages?
8. If their site is a dynamic database site, do they use mod rewrite?

If you find that the competition is lacking in some of these areas, and you feel that you will have the resources, tools and the tenacity to beat the competition, then go for it. If you find that competing on the high-traffic phrases is beyond your means you may want to focus on sub-keyword phrases. For example, if you sell clothing a high-traffic keyword may be “apparel”. If after due diligence you find that your competition is out of your league you may want to go after “shirts” or “pants”. If those are too tough go for more specific keyword phrases like “sport shirts” or “sport pants”. You get the idea.

SEO involves two basic parts. The first part is site optimization. This involves designing, structuring and writing content for your site for particular keyword phrases.

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You'll want to include your keywords - in a conservative manner - in the following areas of your html:

1. Title tag:  This is one of the most important spots to make sure your keywords appear.
2. Meta tags:  Fill out the keyword and description tags. The description tag is more important for marketing your product or service then for search, but should definitely be taken advantage of.
3. Header tags: Format your page so that the main headers use a <h1> tag and any subheaders use <h2> tags. Remember to use your keywords in these tags.
4. File names: Any images or html files should be saved with your keyword phrases
5. Sitemap: Create a sitemap that has links to all your keyword optimized pages. In each link use your keyword phrases.
6. Page copy: When writing your copy just lightly pepper your content with your keyword phrases. A bold on your keyword phrase once in a while is good. It is also good to use contextual links within your copy. In other words, if in your copy you use keyword phrases that other pages in your site are optimized for, you’ll want to place a link to that page using the keyword phrase.

The second thing you'll want to do for your web page is actually the most important, you'll want to get backlinks for your web page. This means that you'll want to have other websites link to your web page.

The algorithms of the major search engines put a lot of weight on links. It works kind of like this: What other websites say about your site is more important than what you say about your site. So, you'll want to have a good strategy for obtaining links.

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Here are a few ways for obtaining backlinks:

1. Submit your site to respectable directories.
2. Submit articles or blogs to Digg, Reddit or other social sites. If your story gets picked up you can get a number of backlinks from other websites.
3. Buy links. This is a viable solution, but can be expensive. Major search engines frown upon the practice, so if you do buy links don’t over do it. I would recommend a reputable service like text-link-ads.com.
4. Link trading is an excellent way of obtaining backlinks, and if done properly, can have a dramatic impact on your search rankings.
5. Write articles and submit them to article submission sites like articledashboard.com
6. Write press releases and submit them to online PR sites.
7. Another excellent way of getting backlinks is to use an affiliate program that doesn’t use a redirect on the backlink. I would recommend using directtrack.com or fusionquest.com.

Understanding Link trades with LavaLinx™

In my opinion, link trading is one of the most important things you can do to help your site move up in the rankings. But - and this is a big BUT - it must be managed properly. In my experience, because there are no rules or regulations on link trading, and because backlinks are so valuable in SEO, there is a lot of link cheating. One of the main reasons LavaLinx™ was created was to address these issues. LavaLinx™™ checks and tracks all trades. Also, any webmaster deliberately trying to cheat in LavaLinx™ will have his account disabled.

In order to understand how LavaLinx™ manages link trades, it is important to understand that with every link trade 4 web pages are involved. If site A and B trade links here are the 4 web pages involved:

Site A

1. One page will be used to point a link to site B

2. One page will be used to receive a link from site B

Site B

3. One page will be used to point a link to site A

4. One page will be used to receive a link from site A

The trade would look like this:

A (Sending page) »» B (Receiving page)

A (Receiving page) «« B (Sending page)

Reciprocal link trades: A reciprocal link trade is just a trade between two sites. For a maximum SEO benefit it is recommended that you trade with industry related sites, or have your link placed on a web page that is industry related.

A reciprocal link trade would look like this:

A (Sending page) »» B (Receiving page)

A (Receiving page) «« B (Sending page)

Triangle link trades: Triangle trades are a great way to create one way links to your site. However, if not properly managed you can be taken advantage of by other webmasters. LavaLinx™ saves the sending and receiving page and the IP of each site and checks sending links to keep your link trade safe.

Triangle or 3 way trades require 3 websites, preferrably on different servers with different C-class IPs. With LavaLinx™ you don't need to have more than one web site to do triangle trades, but with two sites your options increase dramatically because you are then able to do both triangle and parallel trades.

A triangle or 3 way link trade would look like this:

A (Sending page) »» B (Receiving page)

A (Receiving page) «« C (Sending page)

One way reciprocal (parallel) link trades: A parallel link is basically a reciprocal one way link. It requires 4 websites. The trades are particularly effective for obtaining one way backlinks because the only relationship that exists between the four sites exists on LavaLinx™. On the web it just looks like two one way links to two sites.

A parallel or reciprocal one way link trade would look like this:

A (Sending page) »» C (Receiving page)

B (Receiving page) «« D (Sending page)

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