Web 2.0 – the post-dot-com Internet burst – has demystified the Internet. The esoteric knowledge that kept the gurus of Web 1.0 in business – the pre-dot-com Internet burst – is no more a mystery to the average surfer. Creating a web site, designing a stunning banner and having a cool design for the web site are no longer exclusive; every Joe knows the tricks of the trade. The Internet has leveled the playing field; its tools, techniques, knowhow and expertise are public domain now.
The democratization of media and knowledge is creating some exciting opportunities. More and more people are going online to meet their financial, social or informational needs. In the process, many of them also create web sites, blogs, forums, etc. This indeed is an exciting time for them; creating web sites, managing contents, overlooking design elements and technical parts, these all make them feel in control. They are in control, indeed, but the control-bubble pricks when they find that despite their best efforts visitors are not pouring in! They created intuitive designs, original content, and breathtaking graphics, but still no one is coming to appreciate the work. They understand the fact that it is not possible to call everyone personally and invite each of them to their web site. But the question still is how to pull the visitors to the web site you have created? Well, the answer is SEO. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in to play. SEO is so highly spoken of because this is the mechanism, which you can use, to make other know about your web site.
Like other things on the Internet, SEO is also not something to be feared about. In the bygone days, the things to fear about were Photoshop and HTML and if you have mastered them successfully, you can master anything. It is just the hoopla around SEO that makes it sound impossible or very tough for the common user. This series will take you through the entire process of Search Engine Optimization, and in the process we will also bring the so-called gurus down, in the sun, from their air-conditioned suites of the metaphorical Ivory tower.
The process of SEO begins with defining the purpose of your web site. The objective of your Internet venture should be clear in advance, because the idea of a proper domain name will stem from there only. The knowledge of the objective of your web site will help you in searching appropriate keywords, for which your web site will be optimized in the later phase. Once the objective is clear and keywords finalized, the third step in the process is to find a good domain name that should ideally include one of the main keywords.
We will again return to keywords once the domain name is purchased. This time we will do keyword ranking and write content using the keywords we finalized earlier. In the process of content creation, we should focus not only on keyword density but also on keyword frequency and keyword proximity. The next step in the process will be HTML optimization and adding meta tags, and we will conclude our onsite Search Engine Optimization journey by submitting our web site to search engines and various directories.