Search Engine Optimization: Getting Your Site At the Top In the Search Engines

by Scott Clark

September 01, 2009

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

The first question you may have is, what is Search Engine Optimization (hereafter referred to as SEO)? SEO is the task of making changes to your website in order to have it appear in the top listings of the search engines when people search for specific topics or articles. While you may have already done such things as using keyword and description metatags, titles, etc., there are many other important aspects to proper SEO. In this article we'll refer to a fictitious site called WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com, a site that sells collectible vinyl records (remember those?).

Keyword, Description and Title Metatags

The first thing you'll want to do is to ensure that you are using the proper keywords and metatags that we mentioned above. You'll want to be specific--the more targeted your keywords and descriptions are, the more visibility your site will have in the search engines. For instance, for our site, WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com, we'll want to use very accurate words so people can locate our site. Since the site is about collectible vinyl records, here are some of the words that we would use for our keyword metatag:

• albums
• vinyl
• LPs
• music
• vinyl records
• music collectibles
• rare music
• out of print music albums
• music memorobilia
• records
• WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com

Our keyword metatag would look like this:

<meta NAME="keywords" content="albums, vinyl, LPs, music,
vinyl records, music collectibles, rare music, out of print
music albums, rare music, out of print music albums, music
memorobilia, records, WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com">

Next we would move on to our description metatag, which would be something like the following:

WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com is the premier online music album
collectible store!  Buy music albums, vinyl records, lps,
and music memorobilia. Vinyl records, LPs, rare music
albums, and out of Print Albums. Find rare and hard to find
music albums, including new, used, and out of print albums. 

The metatag would thusly look like this:

<meta NAME="description"
CONTENT="WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com is the premier online
music album collectible store!  Buy music albums, vinyl
records, lps, and music memorobilia. Vinyl records, LPs,
rare music albums, and out of Print Albums. Find rare and
hard to find music albums, including new, used, and out of
print albums.">

Of course, the Title tag is also very important to SEO projects. It should use the title of your site, as well as some of your most important keywords. For our website, we would use something like the following:

Buy collectible music albums, vinyl records, lps, and music
memorobilia at WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com. 

Our Title tag would look like this:

<title>Buy collectible music albums, vinyl records,
lps, and music memorobilia at
WhenRecordsWereVinyl.com.</title>

It is important to include your site's name at the end of the title, rather than the beginning of the title. This includes inner pages on your site--the site name should appear at the end of the title, rather than the beginning, as it makes it easier for the search engines to accurately list your site's content.

Search Engine Optimization
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