How Does Search Engine Optimization Work?

SEO Part 1 - What Does SEO Stand For?

SEO is the common abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization.  This is the art of building or changing your website so that it is likely to achieve high rankings in search engine results.  In other words making it search engine friendly.  Search Engine Optimization is a huge subject, and this is one of three pages covering the most important aspects of SEO. As this is part of an art related website some of the references are particular to artists, but the principles of SEO are exactly the same for any website about any subject. This page only covers one main aspect of SEO, so please ensure you read the other two in order to get a better understanding of how search engine optimization works.

How Does Search Engine optimization Work:
Why Is It So Important?

Whether you are an artist or in any other type of business, it is practically impossible to operate effectively without a website. Even if your website is just for fun or information, you still want people to see it, and if you attract a reasonable number of visitors, you can earn money from it whatever it is about. If you already have a site, or are planning to create one, you will need your website to show up in the search results when someone is using a search engine to find whatever it is your site relates to.  If it doesn’t, then you will either have no visitors, or have to pay for advertising in order to get visitors.
If you are an artist, for example, then unless you happen to be famous enough for everyone to search for you by name, you need your site to show up when people search for 'wildlife paintings', 'glass art', 'portraits in oils' or whatever other phrase your potential customers are likely to type into Google.
When I first set out to build a website, I knew nothing about how to create a site or how to get it to show up in search engine results.  My site now ranks inside the top ten out of over three million for my main keywords, but by building my site before finding out about search engine optimization, I ended up having to completely re-do most of my site each time I discovered a new piece of vital information.  For this reason, it is infinitely preferable to design your site from the start with an understanding of how search engine optimisation works.
It is said that if your site does not show up on the first three pages of Google search results it may as well not exist, and I have certainly found this to be true. My visitor numbers increased dramatically once I reached the top ten on Google. There is an enormous amount of rubbish on the web about magical ways to zoom straight to the top of the search engines. Please be aware that there are no great secrets that will achieve results overnight. There are some fundamental aspects of SEO which you cannot avoid addressing if you want to achieve high rankings, though there are various tools out there that can help to make the job less arduous and time consuming.

How Does Search Engine Optimization Work:
Lesson One - Content Is Everything

There tend to be two main approaches to SEO – one is known as 'black hat' and basically involves trying to fool the search engines into ranking your site high up by exploiting loopholes in the algorithm (the formula that search engines use to work out rankings).  The other is using 'white hat' techniques, which is doing what the search engines actually want you to do and providing good quality websites.
Apart from having no interest in adding to the mountain of crap that already exists on the net, I think black hat techniques are counterproductive anyway.  For one thing, you can't fool the search engines for long, they will rumble the ruse, maybe ban your site, then you have to start again and find the next trick, which is never ending. Are you really smarter than the people at Google?? Doing it properly in the first place means that you create a site of quality which will continue to rank highly for years, even if you do nothing else to it.
I'm going to stop talking about 'search engines' and simply say Google, because in reality that is all that matters.  It is so far ahead of the rest in terms of users, and if you get it right for Google, you can be pretty sure you will do OK in all the others.  I'll just get a couple more terms out of the way here – ‘spiders’, ‘bots’ or ‘web crawlers’ are the automated programmes that scan the web looking for web pages.  They use this information to create an index of websites that are then used to produce the results when someone searches for a term. 'GoogleBot' is Google's own particular scanning programme.
Content is everything. What Google wants is an internet full of quality websites, filled with interesting information.  That is part of what it is trying to judge when it ranks websites.  Websites need content - information – meaningful words.  This can be a disadvantage for artists as a large part of our content is in the form of images.
When GoogleBot looks at your website is does not see how pretty the design is or how clever the Flash images are.  If you want to see an example of what Google thinks is good web design, look at their home page. Keep it simple.  Do not bother with Flash or anything fancy, it will only hinder your SEO efforts.
Your site structure too should be logical, so that GoogleBot has no problem finding all your pages.  Start with your home page, then have several links to different sections from there.  Each of these sections can then have several more links, so you build a tree-like structure.  If you go deeper than three layers of pages search engines may struggle to index the deeper ones.
Whatever stage you are at now will obviously determine where you go next with regard to search engine optimisation.  If you already have a website, I truly hope it is ranking well and attracting many visitors. If not, you may wish to consider what would be involved in a serious overhaul, or whether you might be better off just starting again.

How Does Search Engine Optimization Work:
Where Do You Go From Here

If you want to understand the basics of search engine optimization, please ensure that you also read the other pages on this site covering the two other fundamental aspects of it, which are links and keywords.
If you are quite new to building and promoting websites, you may feel a little daunted by some of the information on these pages, which believe me is just the tip of the iceberg. Search Engine Optimisation is a MASSIVE subject, but you simply cannot ignore it if you wish to get traffic to your website. Unless you are wealthy enough to pay an SEO company to do this work for you, this means that there is a lot of work that you need to do yourself.
The good news is that there are a number of SEO tools available that can help save time with the main aspects of search engine optimization. You can find thousands of software programmes that claim to work miracles. It is very easy to go wrong with these and waste your money, so be carefu

How Do Websites Make Money

If you have ever wondered exactly how people make money online just by setting up a website, let me help you find out. The great thing about an income generating website is that you do not even need to sell anything directly yourself, which makes things so much easier; no stock, no shipping, no after sales issues, no online payments or any of that stuff. The other great thing is that your income continues to come in even if you are asleep or on holiday! However, that does not mean it does not take a lot of work - beware of anything you come across that suggests you can get rich quickly with no effort. The only people getting rich are the ones selling you this fraudulent idea.

How Do Websites Make Money - The Basic Principle

OK - here is the basic principle behind how websites make money:
You create a website about any subject you want, you attract loads of free visitors to it from search engines, some of whom will click on adverts and links to other sites. You get paid either for every advert click or whenever someone buys something from one of the other sites you provide a link to. You have to understand that this is a drastic simplification, but it sums up the mechanism for how you get your income from a site that sells nothing at all directly.
Your website really can be about absolutely anything, though you should be aware that some subject areas can be more lucrative than others, depending how much competition there is for advertisers and what products or services are available to be sold in that particular niche. By the way, niche is a word you will come across a lot in the field of online business. In order to succeed, it is quite important to find a niche market that is not being targeted by millions of other websites. It is easier to get to the top in a small field of competitors than one full of businesses with lots of money and expertise to throw at the problem of getting visitors.

How Do Websites Make Money - There Are No Magic Short Cuts

It is easier if the subject of your site is something you know a lot about or feel passionate about. The subject of your site is less important than the fact that you can find plenty to say about things relating to it. It is of course perfectly possible to research a subject you know little about and this is a great way to learn more about new subjects you are interested in. You need to set up a relatively simple, well structured website with lots of pages of information, advice or guides. This should be genuinely useful information that will be of interest to your target niche market.
There are no short cuts here. The only way you will get any income is if you get lots of visitors, and the only way you will get lots of visitors is to create a site that offers people interesting and useful information. Make no mistake, no matter what your website looks like, or what adverts and links you have on it, your income will only ever be in direct proportion to the number of people who actually visit your site. Ranking highly enough in search engine results to get visitors to your website is a big subject in itself (search engine optimization), but making sure your website is full of useful and unique content is the first step in this process.

The 3 Basic Steps To Building Your Own Website

This website currently gets about 1,200+ unique visitors every day from search engines. This traffic costs absolutely nothing and is achieved by targeting words and phrases that I know for sure people are searching for every day. Keyword research is the absolutely essential first step when you are trying to build a website that will attract visitors. Remember, unless you get lots of visitors you will make no money at all. You can create a wonderful looking site providing lots of great information, but unless your pages are targeted at what people are actually looking for, your lovely site will go unseen.

1. Keyword Research Tools

The only way to know what people are searching for is to use a keyword research tool. A good tool will tell you what words and phrases are actually being searched for on the search engines and it will tell you how many searches per month are being done on each one. It will also show you how many other websites are competing for those phrases. You can use this information to identify keywords with enough traffic to make them worthwhile targeting, but not so much competition that you will never achieve top rankings in search results.
You need to identify lots of words and phrases that you will optimise your pages for, which together will allow you to bring lots of free traffic to your site. There are only a few really good tools out there. I use one called Wordtracker, but a good alternative is Keyword Discovery. Without the vital information that these tools provide, anything you do on your site could be a complete waste of time. I tried to manage without them when I first started, but learned the hard way after getting to the top of Google for keywords that I then found out no-one was actually searching for. A keyword tool is one of the best investments I have made.

2. Domain Name And Web Host

Your domain name is the unique URL of your website, such as keithgarrow.com, and it is best to use your keyword research to find one that will help you get traffic. There are hundreds of websites you can use to find out which domains are available and to register one, but you can usually get one free when you choose a web host for your site.
The easiest approach is to find a good web host that will include a free domain name and you can register it when you sign up for hosting. All web sites must be hosted somewhere. A Web host provides powerful computers where you can store the pages of your website. They are stored on robust servers and that is where all visitors to your site are directed when they click on links to your pages. There are thousands to choose from and there are plenty that offer perfectly good hosting for very little money. However, you do need to take care

Make Money Online with Google adsense /adwords

What is AdSense?

Google.com earns most of its revenue by allowing other website owners to advertise on their search result pages. All this is managed through a program they call AdWords.
Now you can earn a share of the revenue that Google earns from AdWords by displaying these same text ads on your site.  In other words, you're helping Google advertise and they pay you a percentage (roughly 60%) of what they earn.
This program is called AdSense.
Every website owner should at least consider the program.  Even if your site is just for information purposes, you can still participate and make decent money with AdSense -- or at least enough to fund your website.
So if you are one of those people that doesn't like the idea of paying for a site, this is an excellent way to earn your money back and then some.

How Much Can You Earn With AdSense?

The commission you receive per click depends on how much advertisers are paying Google for the particular ad. You will earn a share of that amount.  I've heard of earnings anywhere from 2 cents to $15 per click.
So it is logical to believe that keyword phrases like debt free, employment, make money, mp3, sex, etc. will earn you more per click since these are highly competitive keywords that are searched for quite a bit on the web. 
Advertisers generally pay more for popular terms because they are searched for more.
Even though Google will not reveal how much you are earning for each ad that is clicked from your site, you can still login to your account at any time and see the total amount of revenue you've generated that day, week, month, year, etc.
For example, if you see that you've made $12.60 today from 9 clicks then you can calculate that your average click-thru commission was $1.40 per click.  That's as detailed as their stats will get.  Also remember, that's only an average.  You won't know how much each specific ad brought in.
The amount you'll earn also depends largely on the amount of targeted traffic you receive to your own site, how well the ads match your audience's interests, the placement of the ads on your pages, and of course the amount you receive per click.
Ideally, you should create a site on a topic you know a lot about.  That way you'll have a much easier time creating a generous amount of content on that subject. 

Creating Your Website for AdSense

Before you even begin your site, make sure you've come up with a topic that you feel you know plenty about.  That way it will be easiest to write a lot of content. 
The more content you have, the better chance you have getting accepted into the program.  Also, the more content, the greater the earning potential.  AdSense is nothing but a numbers game.  If you want to make a lot of money, prepare to write a lot of content.
Now let's talk about building your website.  There are two ways you can approach this:
1) Do it Yourself (DIY) from scratch
2) Use Site Build It! (SBI!)

The Do It Yourself Method

I've actually used both methods for building my site and there are advantages and disadvantages to both.
If you use the DIY method, you will have to go and register a domain name (yoursite.com) and then sign up for a web host and build your pages.
Decide if you want a static website like this or a blog. If you don't know the difference, this article will help you out.
Averaging between $7 and $15 per month, the DIY method is usually the most cost friendly of the two but you are mostly on your own in terms of learning how to create your web pages and adding the AdSense code to your site. 
Web hosts are generally there to house your site.  They don't specialize in helping you market and optimize your site for the search engines to help you get traffic.  So don't expect a lot from them in terms of helping you market your site and making money with Google AdSense.
This is

How to Join AdSense

Once you have 10-15 pages on your site, go to http://adsense.google.com/ to apply.

When you are accepted, simply copy and paste the provided HTML code into any page that you'd like to show the ads. If you've done a good job of defining the content on your web pages, the ads that show should be relevant to the content of your page...increasing the chances of click-thrus by your visitors.
You can either display the ads vertically along side the page like Google does or in a banner-like formation horizontally across your pages.  The placement is up to you.  You can even customize the colors to match your site's theme.

Tips on Succeeding With AdSense

Here are some tips for achieving success with Google AdSense.
1.  Create a website with your (YourSite.com).  Don't try to use a free web host because your site will likely have banners and pop-ups and get rejected because it looks unprofessional. Not to mention, a free web host will give you a website address like this:

http://www.thefreewebhost.com/yoursite/member1234/home.html

instead of...

http://www.yoursite.com

Start by registering your own domain and then select a web host.
2. If you don't know web programming or have no desire to learn it, buy Artisteer (for blogs and static websites.)
Keep in mind you can't use the software alone.  You must have a web host that will allow you to publish your site to the Internet.
3.  If the main goal of your site is to make money with AdSense, be sure to choose a topic that you know a lot about so you can write lots and lots of content.
4.  Get traffic. Once your site is up and running you'll need to learn how to get your site listed in the major search engines and use social media. 
And while you're waiting it's important you build up as much unique content around your theme as possible. Google loves large sites with useful content centered around a specific theme.
Don't create a hodgepodge site with topics on everything under the sun. Stay focused and make sure your site has an obvious theme.
 not necessarily a bad thing.  I had to learn how to build this site on my own and it wasn't very difficult.