awesearchenginemarketing

[awesearchenginemarketing]

How to choose the best WordPress hosting

Choosing the proper WordPress hosting service can significantly increase a website’s SEO and revenue.

How to choose a web host

To choose a web hosting service, consider your requirements and the features available from different providers.

You should determine whether you want managed or unmanaged hosting, expertise in CMS scalability, data storage capacity and disk space availability.

It is also important to think about marketing tools that are offered by each service provider. The hosting plan will determine how many e-mails, bandwidth and disk space a hosting plan includes.

When choosing a WordPress Web Hosting service consider the following features:

Support for PHP, MySQL – While most servers run PHP as their default scripting language, some providers can optionally use Perl or Python. The only downside of this is that many Web hosts will not support more than one or two of these languages, so you should be certain that your WordPress site is coded in PHP.

CPanel (or Plesk) – The most popular scripts like WordPress run on Linux servers, and both CPanel and Plesk are very popular graphical interfaces for configuring them.

It’s critical for a small business to choose a reliable website hosting company. The features of the different providers and the cost of their services change over time and be aware that some companies will offer a heavily discounted first-year rate. Therefore it is important to make your own investigation before choosing which option will work best for your business.

What is shared hosting?

Shared hosting is the most common type of web hosting. It refers to any type of server that uses its resources (CPU, memory, storage, bandwidth) to host many different websites at once. The benefit of shared hosting is that it’s much more affordable than other types because the costs of running the server are shared between many clients.

When you choose a shared hosting plan, you don’t have to worry about the number of sites it can handle as sharing resources means there is plenty of power for your website. The cost per site is very low and the server will only experience an increase in activity (Bandwidth) when many people visit all at once such as after a marketing campaign or new product launch.

If you’ve never used a WordPress hosting service before, we would recommend starting with shared hosting as it’s the most affordable option and the one which provides the best results for most small businesses.

What is managed hosting?

Managed hosting is a type of shared web-hosting that includes support from an expert team that can monitor the server and website for problems. Managed hosts provide security updates and provide a wide range of other services such as automated daily backups, firewall protection and site uptime monitoring.

Managed hosting is more expensive than shared hosting but it provides better value for money when your business needs 24/7 support from a team of experts who can resolve any problems quickly and efficiently.

If you’re already experienced with WordPress hosting or if your website is important to your business, we would recommend choosing a managed WordPress hosting service such as SiteGround Managed WordPress Hosting package.

What is VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting?

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting provides the features of shared but with a few important differences. A VPS server is one that has been split into several virtual servers where each one of them has its own CPU, memory and operating system.

VPS hosting works in the same way as shared hosting but it provides increased performance because you don’t share resources with other clients. The downside is that it’s more expensive than shared hosting, but it is still very affordable for most small businesses.

We would recommend that you use VPS hosting if your website experiences a high number of visitors on a regular basis or if underlying system resources are essential to the performance of your site.

What is dedicated web hosting?

Dedicated hosting provides the ultimate control and performance for websites that experience a large amount of traffic. It is like VPS hosting in that it has its own dedicated resources which means you don’t share CPU power, memory or bandwidth with other clients.

If your website receives thousands of visitors every day then you should use dedicated WordPress hosting because it provides the best performance.

What is WordPress hosting?

This term refers to any type of web hosting service that uses WordPress in its backend. This includes shared, VPS, dedicated and managed hosts that use the WordPress software for powering your website.

What is Email hosting?

Email hosting refers to any type of web hosting service that keeps all your email accounts and provides a website to access them from. Email can be very important for small businesses because it keeps you in touch with customers and prospects through newsletters and campaigns without costing too much money.

We don’t offer website hosting as a service but we can recommend Siteground as a reliable and easy to use web hosting service provider. If you need a new website, then it might be time to consider a change of host too. Get in touch with us at AWE Search Engine Marketing to discuss more.

The post How to choose the best WordPress hosting appeared first on AWE Search Engine Marketing.

Originally published here: https://www.awe-studios.co.uk/seo/how-to-choose-the-best-wordpress-hosting/

[awesearchenginemarketing]

Why You Should Consider Using Google Ads

10 Reasons Why You Should Use Google Ads

If you are a business interested in leveraging Google traffic then you should consider using their Google Ads platform. Doing so will give your website a near-instant traffic boost, and is much quicker than organic SEO or social media activity.

The platform used to be called Google AdWords but it rebranded to just Google Ads in 2018, so if you hear people referring to Google Adwords or Google Ads, it’s the same thing.

Why use Google Search Ads?

There are many reasons why people choose to use Google Ads for their online advertising. Some of the most common include:

A desire to monetise web traffic with advertising

To gain visibility for a new product or service, i.e. market validation

Increase site revenue per visitor

Raise brand awareness

Lack of existing visibility in the organic search engine results page

Run alongside existing marketing efforts

Compliment your visibility in the organic search results

To receive more phone calls to the business or visits to the business’s physical location

The above list is certainly not exhaustive and there are many more reasons why people might choose to use Google Ads.

Why should you use Google Ads?

If you’re a business interested in increasing your website traffic then using Google ads is a great way to do so, because it’s going to give your site a small but near-instant boost. This will be noticeable as soon as you start, be it more enquiries received or sales made. If your website is new and has no other source of traffic then using Google Ads will give it much needed traffic. You’ll need a Google Ads account to get started. There are a whole plethora of types of ad campaigns you can create too, including those for Google Maps (Google My Business), YouTube, Display Network and Google Search.

How do Google Ads Campaigns work?

Google Ads has a pay per click model. Advertisers search for specific keywords/search queries in Google and make bids on these same keywords. The bids you make are called “maximum bids” – the maximum you can pay for the advertiser. Google compares the bidding amount to a quality score. Your Quality Score combined with your bid amounts created your Ad Rank – the spot that the ad appears on Google’s search results. And when an audience sees an advertisement and clicks on it, the advertiser pays for this click. Your ads are created in an Ad Group, which contain the ads and keywords you want to target. You can create multiple ads and run split tests, to identify which one performs the best.

How do I use Google Keyword Planner for my ads?

Google Keyword Planner is Google’s free keyword tool for choosing the keywords that your business should target. The keyword planner will provide insights into these keywords in addition to asking how many times they are searched for on a monthly basis. From here, you need to decide which keywords are right for the type of Google Ads campaign you’re running. This can include brand awareness and conversion campaigns.

Why do you need to use Google ads?

The use of paid ads is beneficial for any business that wants to increase its website traffic from search engines. If you run a new website then using ads will give it the boost it needs. It’s also important to mention that results can be seen within days of starting out, whether this is through increased enquiries received or sales made. Another good reason to use Google Ads is that your competitors are probably already running Google ads too. With more optimised Google ad campaigns, you can not only appear above their ads but also pay less per click. (Google Ads isn’t about who pays the most to appear at the top)

Google Ads Terms to Know

Below are some important terms to understand before starting out with any Google Ads campaign.

Quality Score – this tells Google whether your advertisement is relevant and useful for each keyword.

Cost Per Click – this is what your business pays for each click on an ad, be it either text or display based. Each ad click will reduce the daily budget set in your campaign.

Conversion Rate – the percentage of visitors to your site that takes action after clicking on an ad. To maximise conversions, you should target keywords that are relevant to your business, have a high search volume and are easy to convert into leads.

CPCV – Cost Per Completed View – this is paid by advertisers of video ads on YouTube for every 1000 views

CPLV – Cost Per Lead Value – This value is determined based on the quality of leads generated via an advertisement and can also be used to measure lead generations.

CPA – Cost Per Acquisition – This is how much it costs you to acquire a customer and can be calculated by multiplying your total ad spend with the conversion rate of visitors from ads

CPM – cost per thousand impressions – this is what advertisers are charged for every 1, 000 times their ad displays.

CPC – cost per click – this is what advertisers pay for every time a visitor clicks on their advertisement, resulting in a conversion

Conversion Rate – the percentage of visitors to your site that takes action after clicking on an ad. To maximise conversions, you should target keywords that are relevant to your business, have a high search volume and are easy to convert into leads.

Ad Rank – this is an advertisers position on Google search results. Advertisers with higher quality scores and relevant keywords have a better chance of appearing in the top positions, with their bids taken into consideration when assigning this rank

How much does Google Ads cost?

The most important reason for using Google ads is that you can completely control the cost of ads. When you set a budget you cannot exceed the price when your ads show. The cost per click depends on the competition for each keyword, but also on your Ad Rank. Google determines this based on the bid, the Quality Score and the Ad Rank thresholds. The cost of using Google Ads varies greatly, depending on many factors. We can work with budgets ranging from £250/mth and above.

What are the benefits of Google Ads?

Google search advertising has a few advantages that many users don’t realise. Here are just some of the big advantages you receive when using Google Ads.

1) Earn more conversions

By driving quality traffic to your website or landing page, you’ll increase the number of conversions. The key point here is you’re attracting qualified traffic to your offer – people who are actively searching for what you sell or provide.

2) Build brand awareness

The Google Ads Display Network allows you to prioritize brand awareness by choosing to show your ads to more people than focus on clicks or conversions.

3) Bring any budget to the table

You can also decide how much you want to spend every month and adjust the budget based on the performance. When ads perform well you are able to increase the number of ads placed to get the desired reversible result. It helps decrease Google Ad spend on underperforming advertising. You’re allowed to control everything from the maximal bids of an ad to the daily budgets of a campaign. You have the option of how much time you spend per ad every month.

4) Get faster results than with SEO

Depending on the competitiveness of your market, it could be several years until one of your web pages gets placed on the first spot for broad keyword searching. When you begin using Google Ads, your ads can show up near-instantly (and at the top of Google – prime position)

5) Keep full control of your campaigns at all times

Google ads give you the power to control and optimize your advertising, making it more effective. You can easily adapt to any changes that occur in Google or your competitors’ strategy with just a click of a button. Every change you make is logged so you can view the history of changes made over time. You can also set up negative keywords – these are keywords for which your ad shouldn’t appear – and these will help minimise wasted clicks through better targeting.

6) Harness intent-driven searches

If you’ve ever used Google search, this one will make a lot of sense. When you enter a keyword into a search, it’s because you have an intent to find something. You’re not just browsing for the sake of browsing – there is a purpose behind every search. Google Ads allows you to place your website right in front of the person with that intent.

7) Google’s massive reach

You also have the ability to reach your target audience on Google, all of Google’s partner sites and over 75% of the web through the Google Display Network.

8) Capabilities that allow for a range of targeting

Bidding on broad keyword searches like “accounting software” will present your ad to prospects in the later stages of the product research process. Another great way to build your list is using long-tail keywords. They generally are less expensive and it’s worth it for you to attract people that are seeking exactly what you offer. Most times people looking for a long string of specific keywords have a higher intent. And intent is what makes ad sales so valuable.

9) Maximize ROI with different bidding strategies

With Google, you can decide how much or how little you want to spend on clicks. You can either set your CPC bid yourself or leave it up to Google. It’s very useful for maximising your return on investment (ROI). If the bids are low and visitors aren’t converting well, just raise them until they do.

10) See results in an easy-to-understand format in Google Ads

The Google Ads dashboard has been well designed so you can understand where your ad spend is going and what ROI you’re getting. In addition to this, you can also create your own feature-rich custom reports in Google Data Studio, especially when combined with your Google Analytics data.

In conclusion, Google Ads provides a lot of opportunities for reaching your buyers. It’s a very cost-effective medium and, if you know what you want to achieve, it can be used to gain valuable insights into the market. If you would like to explore Google Ads for your business, get in touch with us to discuss more.

The post Why You Should Consider Using Google Ads appeared first on AWE Search Engine Marketing.

Originally published here: https://www.awe-studios.co.uk/google-ads/why-you-should-consider-using-google-ads/

[awesearchenginemarketing]

Why You Should Use WordPress for Your Website 

The most appealing aspect of WordPress is that it is simple to use and adaptable enough to create a variety of websites. WordPress runs over 30% of all websites, according to a recent Internet industry poll and I’m sure this figure will grow as more realise the benefits of using it. WordPress is used by several well-known corporate brands, including Time Magazine, Facebook The New Yorker Sony Disney Target and New York Times.

Why do I need to use WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source content management system so getting started with it is very low cost, even free! WordPress can either be self-hosted (you sort out your own web hosting) or hosted by WordPress.com. It’s easy to use and there are lots of tutorials on blogs and YouTube on how to get started.

How do I choose between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

The main difference between WordPress.org and .com is that with WordPress.org, you have to pay for web hosting whereas with WordPress.com it’s free but you are limited in terms of the features available to you.

Is there support available if I need help?

Yes! The community around WordPress is very helpful so post your questions there or just search on Google. If you are good with computers why not have a go yourself, it’s very easy to learn.

How to use WordPress

WordPress allows you to easily create the website you’ve always wanted. People often find WordPress simpler to use, but getting started can be somewhat overwhelming. A new WordPress installation comes with a default theme which is fine for most newcomers, as it provides the flexibility to customise the appearance to how you want it. Once you’re more comfortable, then you may want to use a page builder theme like Divi or Elementor to take your website building to the next level.

 It’s not expensive to use

WordPress does not charge for either a business or a personal website. This is because WordPress is open source and free of cost – you can easily improve its source code to create a more professional website experience with its functions and look.

Security. Is it safe?

The increased popularity of WordPress attracts more hackers to the platform. WordPress’s team updates the site on a regular basis, adding new plug-ins. Users, of course, must exercise caution and only download plugins from trusted sources ideally while logged into WordPress. As a measure to ensure the site’s security, the WordPress team has routinely updated CMS in line with current coding standards.

Search engine friendly

WordPress sites do rank well on Google. But it’s not that Google is giving preferential treatment to the platform, it’s just that WordPress make it easy to send the right signals to the search engine crawlers. Whether it’s the setting of URL names, page title and description or sitemaps, WordPress makes all of this easy to do, for even the novice of users.

Mobile friendly

Having a mobile-friendly website is essential as more and more people are using their smartphones to access online content. Google has a mobile-friendly check tool and will penalise sites that don’t perform well on mobile devices, by lower positions in the search results. All of the modern default themes available in the WordPress dashboard are already mobile-friendly and will pass the Google check, so it’s something you don’t have to give much attention to when building your first website.

Multimedia support

WordPress is great at supporting multimedia content such as video embeds, images and animations. All of which helps to create an interesting and visually appealing website. Keeping your visitors on your site is an important aspect of user engagement and this is something that can be tracked in Google Analytics.

Integration

There are many 3rd party platforms that will integrate with WordPress, with thousands of plugin developers providing an almost endless list of functionality to add to the website. Examples include plugins to create membership sites, directory sites, build email lists and eCommerce stores.

The most popular CMS

With over 75% of the CMS market, WordPress reigns supreme as the go-to choice for CMS platforms. Other CMS platforms include Joomla, Drupal and Magento.

You’re not committed to one hosting provider

If you decide to self-host your WordPress site, then the choice of web hosting provider is entirely your own. If your current host is having issues or hikes the price up to a level you’re not prepared to pay, then it’s possible to migrate your site to a new hosting company, giving you the flexibility to vote with your feet. This is the advantage of WordPress over website builders such as Wix, Square Space, Weebly etc. Once you’ve built your website with them, your hosting, email AND website are all tied in and moving away is less easy.

Conclusion

WordPress is a free and open-source CMS that may be used to create any website from a simple personal blog to a fully functional eCommerce store. It’s easy to get started with and get your website up and running. If you need any assistance with building your first website or crucially, getting found in the search engines, then get in contact with AWE Search Engine Marketing.

The post Why You Should Use WordPress for Your Website  appeared first on AWE Search Engine Marketing.

Originally published here: https://www.awe-studios.co.uk/wordpress/why-you-should-use-wordpress-for-your-website/

[awesearchenginemarketing]

SEO – How it can help your website

If you are looking for a way to get more people to visit your website, then SEO is the answer. Search engine optimisation has many benefits: it can help your site rank higher on Google, give your site an improved user experience with easier and faster loading times, and pay off over time as long as you start sooner rather than later. In this blog post, we will talk about SEO, some of the benefits, and things to consider regarding SEO for your website.

Search engine optimisation can help your site rank higher on Google. Since Google is the most popular search engine in use today, it’s important to make sure your site ranks well on its list of results. An SEO company can help you do that by optimising your website content and making corrections for errors or issues with loading times so that they are fast enough to load quickly.

The more time you spend optimising your site, the better it will perform in search results. It’s an investment that pays off over time so don’t be afraid to put in a little work up-front to get better results later!

Optimised websites are easier to read and navigate for users.

SEO is an investment that pays off over time – the earlier you start, the more benefits you’ll see over time.

Investing in a professional SEO expert may give you better results than trying to do it yourself. Experience does count when knowing what to change when it comes to SEO.

You can use analytics to track how well your site performs on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as other places online where people might find your content (blog posts, videos).

Inbound links from other websites can help increase your search engine rankings. Not all links are equal, but some can help to increase your site’s trust and authority.

Optimised websites are easier for search engines to index – this means they will be more likely to appear in results. Having a well organised and structured website will help search engine crawlers determine the topical nature of your site much easier. In a separate blog post, we’ll talk about how siloing your site’s content is beneficial for improved web visibility.

SEO can help improve your site’s loading speed and performance. This is called Technical SEO and is focused on improving your website’s performance, so it loads fast and gives the user a good experience.

You will be able to track your website’s progress over time by using analytics. With the information you gather through webmasters tools, Google Analytics and other services, you can determine how well your site is doing for various keywords that are important to you. This way if something isn’t working as expected or desired, it gives you an idea of what needs to be changed.

If you would like to discuss how SEO can help your website, get in touch with us at AWE Search Engine Marketing for a free initial chat.

The post SEO – How it can help your website appeared first on SEO Leamington Spa.

Originally published here: https://www.awe-studios.co.uk/seo/seo-how-it-can-help-your-website/

[awesearchenginemarketing]

Why is keyword research important?

Keyword research is the process of discovering and analysing search terms that people use when searching online. Research into keywords may also reveal which questions are best suited for a website and how popular these query questions are. Such research might also reveal their ranking difficulty. Relevant keywords are typically used as the foundation for search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns.

Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo (other search engines are available) are used by people all day, every day, all around the world to find things. Getting your website listed in the results of these search engines for the right keywords is crucial if you want to attract new search traffic, be it from organic or pay-per-click listings. This blog post will discuss why it’s important to choose the right keywords and where to find them.

PPC and SEO

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an aggressive strategy for getting traffic to websites. Here, as the name suggests, you are paying for every click through to your website. PPC ads appear right at the top of the search results pages (SERPs), in the prime position where minimal, if any user scrolling is needed. For an instant source of traffic, PPC can be a good way to drive traffic to a website, but may not be sustainable over the long term, due to cost, poor ROI, regulations (some terms you can’t bid on), and increased competition. SEO is one of the organic ways to attract visitors to the site – from the natural search engine results. Here, there is no cost per click overhead, so whether you get 10 or 10,000 clicks from the organic results, there won’t be any cost associated with that traffic hitting your site.

With PPC, you can add negative keyword lists to weed out useless traffic. For example, if you sold alloy wheels for cars, then you wouldn’t want your PPC ads to show for terms like ‘toy car wheels’, so adding ‘toy’ as a negative search term will help to prune your keyword targeting and avoid paying for unnecessary clicks, from uninterested searchers (people DO get bored and click around!)

SEO and PPC research can be tailored depending on the target audience of each search term and on what the search intent is. Understanding the intent of the searcher is tremendously important so presenting the search with exactly what they’re looking for is key. Testing is the easiest way to get the keywords right for you. Google’s Search Console will give you a heads up on what terms your website is showing up in Search for, so it’s well worth signing up for.

Keyword Research Tools

There are many keyword tools available, but here are some of the most popular (and free) tools you can use. New keywords are being searched for all the time, so it’s a good idea to make keyword research a regular part of your SEO campaign. When you perform keyword research, two of the most important measures are keyword difficulty and monthly search volume. Having sight of both of these metrics will give you a really good indication if you’ll be able to rank a page of your website for relevant search terms. Generally, high search volume keywords will be more difficult – advertisers and existing website owners will have already realised their value, and will be positioned well for them in the search engine results.

Google Trends

Google Trends is another free tool that you can use to analyse keyword trends. It allows you to compare searches for keywords and monitor seasonal trends. Results from Google Trends can be sorted according to a real-time emphasis (last seven days) or a specific range (from 2004 to 36 hours ago) and by country. This is a really useful tool to find the seasonality of demand. To view this point, here is the Trends graph for the term “Christmas meal ideas”:

Answer The public

Answer The Public is a free keyword tool that makes use of Google’s Autocomplete data. It provides ideas for content and is particularly good at identifying topics and subtopics to match Search User Intent. Tools like this are a time-saver, particularly when checking search results (SERPS – ‘search engine results pages’) with specific keywords using certain words. Keep in mind that your goal is a complete dictionary of traffic-generating keywords in which you must gather insights from various tools including Google Ads Keyword Planner- see below.

Google Ads Keyword Planner

Google Ads Keyword Planner is Google’s own free keyword tool. It had an original goal of helping identify pertinent keywords for PPC campaigns but anyone can use it, even if you’re not running Google Ads. To use this tool you’ll just need a Google Ads account (free to sign up). It’s best to filter your searches by the country or the search volumes shown by Google will be significantly higher than the real number of people who see your site using those keywords. Side note – once you’ve got a Google account, you’ll also be able to use Google Analytics to track visitors to your website.

Keyword research process – don’t guess, use a keyword tool!

The first foundational pillar of web optimisation is doing keyword research. You can brainstorm keywords just using your brain but to perform more comprehensive keyword research, then software is the answer. It is essential to conduct research that will also tell you the volume of search per week (or month) plus the strength of competition you are up against. If you don’t consider these measures then, then you’ll be targeting the wrong keywords. Website owners often underestimate the challenge that lies ahead in generating traffic to get it off the ground. This is especially true of some eCommerce business owners, where a large proportion of the start-up budget has been consumed by the initial build of the website. Sadly, the ‘build it and they well come’ approach doesn’t always pan out. I always like to use the analogy of a website without traffic, is like a car without fuel. It’ll be nice to look at, but won’t be taking you where you want to go. So if you’re considering building a new website, don’t overlook how you will attract traffic to the site, once up and running.

Where to get keyword ideas?

Choosing keywords isn’t difficult as long as you understand how to discover them. If you’re stuck about where to find the keywords your website ought to be going after, then the approach I always like to use is the reverse engineer method. Here, I’ll take a selection of competitor sites and check them in my AHREFs account. This will give me a list of keywords that the competitor sites already show up in Google for. Not only that, it will provide the ranking URL and search volume for the keyword(s).

This helps to easily build a list of keywords to also target. It helps to identify new target keywords that I’d never have considered too. The best keywords will also depend on the type of visitor you’re looking to attract. If you’re selling blue widgets for example, then you might think that “buy blue widgets” is the ideal term, and whilst that may yield sales for your site, you should also consider informational keywords which will help widget buyers make the right decision. So in this case, targeting a term like “blue widget benefits” can also be beneficial down the line once the searcher has made their decision, and by that time, you’ve had the opportunity to get in front of them with your brand and offer, thanks to content that matched their search intent previously.

Related Search Terms

You can also find keywords & ideas straight from the Google SERPs. If you look at the bottom of the search results, you’ll see a section called Related Searches:

These are terms that Google already has in its database, which have been searched for by other people. You can use these related searches in your research to give you some other keywords to create website content around and drive your SEO strategy.

Long Tail Keywords

If your website is brand new then I’d recommend focussing on long-tail keywords. Typically, these are longer in length (3+ words), have lower competition, and lower search volume phrases but still provide relevant traffic to your site. Such low competition keywords provide a better opportunity for your website to rank for them, so you can scoop up traffic that bigger competing sites have ignored. From here, the key is to keep building, going after even more longer tail keywords until eventually, your website will have gained enough authority in Google’s eyes for it to go after more competitive, broader keyword opportunities.

Wrapping Up

We hope you enjoyed this blog post on keyword research. Doing it right will help your website show up for relevant searches and connect with your target customer. If you would like help with your SEO and keyword research, then we can help. Whether it’s national or local keywords you want to rank for, our team at AWE Search Engine Marketing has the SEO tools and experience to get your website found online and win more traffic.

The post Why is keyword research important? appeared first on SEO Leamington Spa.

Originally published here: https://www.awe-studios.co.uk/seo/why-is-keyword-research-important/

[awesearchenginemarketing]

Link Building for Search engine optimization SEO

Search Engine Optimization. Big words. Sounds Important. What is it? If you do a search in google for the web definition of search engine optimization, you get a lot of different results. Some simply say that search engine optimization is the generic term for making sure your site is optimized to appear as one of the top ranking web sites on a search.

Others get more detailed with their definition and say search engine optimization is the term used to describe the marketing technique of preparing a web site to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken.

A number of factors are important when optimizing a web site, including the content and structure of the web site's copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process.

Is it important?

That also depends on which definition you believe and who you ask that question to. If you ask someone who runs a business and charges for search engine optimization, they will tell you it is the most important thing you will ever do for your website.

At each SEO website, they will tell you they are the number 1 SEO company on the web, even though each of them has a completely different method of optimizing your website.

If you ask many self-appointed webmaster gurus in some of the webmaster forums, they will tell you the same thing, then each one will tell you a different way to do it and they will all disagree on the most important aspects of search engine optimization.

So the confusion continues for the average user and the SEO companies love it that way. If the consumer doesn’t understand what you are doing, you don’t really have to do very much and just say you are doing a lot. Most of them would never work on your website on a contingency payment plan, one based on actual results and performance. Some say money back guaranteed, but read the fine print.

A lot of these businesses are based on the fact that people who are new to the web and even some of those who have been online for awhile do not know what search engine optimization is. They know that with more and more people coming onto the web for the first time, their business is secure. They can continue to tell people that without their service the website will fail.

I’m not saying all search engine optimization companies are rip-offs. Some of them really do their best to get good rankings for their clients and know what they are doing. A lot of them still really believe that search engine optimization is the key to success on the web.

It isn’t. How’s that for a statement? I know a lot of web designers will disagree. I know a lot of SEO companies will disagree. But simply put, search engine optimization of your WebPages is not the most important thing you need to do to succeed on the web.

Let’s break down some of the things that are included in the phrase search engine optimization.

Metatags are one of the things these gurus tell you is important. Metatags are all but dead. Search engines, especially google, ignore metatags for the most part.

Having them in does not hurt you, but go do a search on any topic besides web design or search engine optimization, etc. and you’ll find that IF the websites at the top of the search results have metatags at all, they usually only have the description and keywords metatags.

Well they also have the title tag, which is sometimes referred to as a metatag, but it is actually the only metatag you need to have.

Keyword Optimization is something the gurus will tell you is very important. Some will tell you they know the exact percentage of text that should be your keywords. Yes, keywords are very important. Do they know what percentage the search engines will want to read for the best results? No.

When writing copy for your website, you must be conscious of the keywords you wish to promote. Don’t pick too many keywords and try to optimize each page of your website for twenty different things. If you do, it will not be relevant for any of them. That isn’t guru talk, that’s just plain old fashioned common sense.

Remember that search engines crawl web pages, not web sites. If you choose just one or two keywords per webpage that you wish that page to be optimized for, then you can optimize the page easily and write text the user will want to actually read.

Write your sales text the way you would with only the user in mind and with making sales in mind. Then go back and reread the page.

Find places where you can add in your keyword without destroying the flow you created when you wrote the text in the first place.

Now, do you need to hire an SEO company to do that? Do you know your product? Do you know how to sell your product? Then you need to write the text. If you do not wish to write the text, then hire a writer. You still don’t need a search engine optimization guru.

Some search engine optimization experts will tell you they can increase your link popularity. They use a variety of methods. They create websites where they put all of their clients website links so you will have links to your website. The search engines call these link farms and discount any value they may have had in the past.

Those methods, along with many others, are simply tricks that temporarily work. Alot of search engine optimization companies all keep up with the latest tricks and shortcuts. They may even get you some good results in the short-term. But what happens when the search engines catch onto the trick?

I’m glad you asked. They stop letting that trick or shortcut work. They may even penalize the websites that used it. They penalize you, the customer, not the search engine optimization guru who used the trick and charged you for it.

Whenever one of these companies tells you it has “inside information”, “ex-search engine company employees”, “guaranteed search engine placement”, guaranteed top 10 placement”, or “secret methods”, a red flag should go up in your mind right away.

If you start a business offline, like a restaurant or a store, you know that besides the money you will have to put up, you will also have to work to make it a success. It is no different when you start a business online. You have to work at it, if you want to be successful.

If search engine optimization is not the most important thing you can do to become successful, what is? Again, I’m glad you asked.

Promotion. Do not depend solely on being found by the search engines. Search engines are fickle creatures and what is today’s #1 can be tomorrow’s #100 just because they decided to change the way they give relevance to websites. Continually chasing this dream is a total waste of time.

There are other sources of traffic out there. Would you rather have 1000 hits from a search engine for one of your minor keywords or have 100 hits from someone who read an article you wrote and came to your website because they liked what you had to say?

If you chose the thousand hits, you don’t get it yet. Out of that 1000 hits you might convert 2 of them into sales. Out of the 100, you may get as many as 20-25 people who want to buy from you. Conversion rate is more important than how many hits you get to your website.

Write articles about your website, about your products, about relevant topics to your products or services you wish to sell. Distribute or submit those articles to article submission websites that provide free content to webmasters.

You may write one article like the one I am writing now and have 100 webmasters want to use it as content for their website. That would mean there is suddenly 100 other websites on topics related to your product that now contain a link to your website.

That increases your link popularity without the need for a company to optimize you. Just by submitting your article to several article submission websites, you increase your link popularity, but when those webmasters start to republish your articles, you will see a huge increase in your page rank and the quality of your traffic.

Some people write one article per month and others write one or more per day. It depends on you. How fast do you want your website to grow?

How much time do you have to invest? If you are not good at writing articles or do not have the time, hire a writer to ghost-write them for you with your byline and your links in the footer.

So that we are clear. Search engine optimization is necessary, but by no means the most important thing you can do for your website to make it successful. I would not pay a lot of money for this service. Promoting your website IS the most important thing you can do. Articles are just one of the methods you can use to promote your website.

Advertising, buying links on relevant websites,use Backlink Software, posting in forums and blogs with related topics, putting your link in your signature line, are some of the other ways you can promote your website.

My Checklist:

1. Be conscious of the keywords you wish to target with each webpage you build. Write your text for the reader, then go back and add your keywords without destroying the flow of your text.

2. Make sure the website is easy to navigate and user-friendly. Don’t assume the customer knows the web site as well as you do. Make it simple. Make it easy to find the buy button!

3. Once the website is built, quit worrying about the newest search engine trick or optimization technique as some like to call it.

4. Search for blogs and forums with related topics and sign up for them and participate in discussions with your link in your signature line.

5. Write articles about related topics and submit them everywhere or buy a service like isnare.com that will do the submissions for you. If you cannot write the articles, hire someone to do it for you.

6. Don’t do link trades with websites that have less traffic than you do. Buy links on websites that have more traffic than you and are on a topic related to your products or services.

I hope this helps you :)

Source: Link Building for Search engine optimization SEO

Here is a video about link building that you may find helpfui: