How to Rank Better in the Search Engines, SEO Tips

If you're new to writing online, SEO means Search Engine Optimization. It includes techiniques used in your writing, so that it is easier for the search engines to find your pages. SEO is easy once you've used it for awhile. Your pages will rank better in the search engines if you do.

This article will give you some hints and tips about SEO, especially for the Google Search Engine. Getting to the #1 spot on Google is going to take some hard work though and some real thought about coming up with the right keywords.

Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is the name of the game. If you haven't already discovered the Google Keyword Tool, check the phrase you are thinking about using and how popular the keyword you are thinking about using is with advertisers. It is called a keyword tool, but what you want to use is a 3 or more word phrase that someone might use when searching.

Check how much traffic your keyword phrase gets. Don't grab the phrase that has the highest traffic. There is usually just too much competition. You can check it in a search, but many times the top ranking site has thousands of sites linking to it. That is almost impossible to beat. If the page is poorly written and doesn't rank high, you may want to try the phrase anyways.

I checked for the term SEO. I see there is a huge number of people searching for that word. Now I need to check for phrases. The most searched for phrase is SEO services and it has a decent number of advertisers too, but high competition.

Next you'll want to click on the upper left hand side on "Traffic Estimator." It will let you know how much the keyword phrase usually pays. The amount shown is not what you will earn, but what the advertiser will pay Google, but it does give you an idea whether a keyword is a high pay keyword or a low paying one. You will receive just a percentage of this amount.

Now go to the Google Search Engine. There are over 20 million results. I don't want to use this term because that is just too much competition to ever get anywhere near the top.

This has to be the hardest part of writing for the internet. Coming up with a good keyword phrase is hard. You need to use your imagination and come up with something millions of people aren't already writing about. This isn't a profitable topic to write about, because there is too much competition for any phrase about SEO. But I will use it and share some secrets with you anyways.

At this point, I can try a different phrase and see if I can come up with something with less competition or I can go on to my next idea.

When writing your article, you need to use your keyword phrase in the title and in the url. It is also a good idea to use it in one of the first sentences and in the last sentence. Never stuff your article with the same keyword phrase over and over. Some writing sites say not to use the keyword phrase more than 4%. Google frowns on what is known as keyword stuffing. You can however use other related keyword phrases and you'll be surprised what words or phrases a search engine will pickup.

Make the text of your keyword phrase in bold text. This will let the search engines know that these words are important. Bolding keywords just once or twice is plenty. Don't overdo it.

Look at the first few sites that appear in the Google Search. If they have good articles, it is going to be hard to beat the competition, but if you follow the points below, you may arrive at the top some day. If the other articles are of poor quality, write a better one and you'll rise to the top quickly.

1. You want your content to be the best available. See that you cover the subject better than anyone else. Most articles should be at least 500 words in length. Many say they should be 700 - 1000 words. One of mine has 1700 words.

Yahoo Search does seem to like the longer pages. Most of your traffic will come from Google. Yahoo just doesn't seem to be used as much.

2. Another approach is narrowing down the topic. Zero in on a smaller subject within the topic.Instead of writing about hostas for instance, narrow the topic down to just planting hostas. This is just an example.

Try a long article about the topic and then do a smaller one. No copying, write new content. Experiment and see what works best for your niche.

3. Organize your writing so it follows a logical sequence. If it is an information article, use subtitles. Subtitles also make it easier for your visitors to find the content they are looking for. The subtitle might show up in the search.

Don't go off on a tangent about something else. This confuses the search engines and the reader both.

4. After writing your artlicle, edit it once. Let it rest for a few days and then edit it again. You want all punctuation and spelling to be perfect. Make sure that you use complete sentences. If English isn't your first language, have someone that speaks good English edit it for you.

Read it aloud to yourself and this will help you catch mistakes and find out if it flows properly.

Summaries help search engines find your page. Use your keyword phrase in your summary and maybe a similar one. Make the summary just 2 or 3 sentences long. The search engine will use this to describe your page .

Bookmarking

Links back to your site or page make the search engines look at your site as important. They figure that your page must have some worth if someone links to it. My first advice about links is never pay for them.

If you are patient let other's link to your site and just let it happen naturally. Let people find your article and link to it on their site. Some writers do no linking themselves at all.

My advice is to get all the help you can and do some linking yourself. If you wait for all your links to come from others, it will take a long time to get them. Be careful which sites you place your links on. Some links will actually make the value of your page go down. These are called Black Hat sites. You'll be able to spot them when you see them.

There are many directories where you can post a link. Be sure not to use the exact title that your article has. For instance, a title like "How to Make Money on the Internet" could be changed to "Make Money Online."

Here is a list of sites that allow bookmarking that have done well for me.

1. RedGage - You won't earn a lot of money at Redgage, but you will get good traffic from there. They also let you post photos there to earn.

2. InfoPirate - You can't earn money at InfoPirate at the present time, but I do get good traffic from them.

3. Stumble Upon - I haven't gotten a lot of traffic from this site, but it does give a good link back to your site.

Social Sites

Facebook - I have a Facebook page for one of my sites. You can create one for different niches that you have. I also share my writing with my personal friends, but only when I think it will interest them. If you share every article you write, you'll end up being ignored.

Twitter - Share your links with your Twitter friends.

Article Sites

Sites that are a lot like Hubpages such as Squidoo, Bukisa, etc provide excellent links. You will need to write another article, but you can earn money from them at the same time. Just use a different slant than you did here. Don't copy anything. Be sure the article is different. Most sites will allow you to add your link from Hubpages. The extra work is worthwhile.

Forums

Forums are a good place to post your pages. If your article is about gardening for instance and it answers a question someone is asking in a forum be sure to post a link. Don't spam forums. People will start ignoring your posts and you may get banned.

SEO changes all the time. After doing all of this work, you need to keep updating your pages to keep up with the times. The Google Panda of February 2011 was a good example.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Write for different sites and link articles together that fall within the same niche. Most of all be patient. Sometimes it takes time to rise in the search engines.