Blue Curve Search Engine Optimization - SEO Research

Keyword selection -
Choosing the right keywords to optimize is crucial to an SEO campaign. To find the best words and phrases for your business, use a keyword research program, such as Wordtracker. Also, it is important that the keywords being optimized are specific to your business and not general words that fit your industry. You will have much more success picking targeted keywords, increasing the amount of hits your site gets, as well as more sales.

Writing keyword rich copy -
One of the most important aspects of obtaining high rankings in the search engines is having 'keyword-rich' copy on all of your pages. It is wise to have at least 200 words on a page (250 to 300 words is optimal). When writing your copy, be sure to include the keywords that are being optimized for the page as many times as you see fit. NOTE: simply sticking keywords in your copy will a) distract your visitors, and b) hinder your rankings. Simply put, search engines are looking for information on your pages that is of high quality and not spam.

The < title > tag -
The title tag is one of the most important tags and places to optimize on your site. When someone performs a search in a search engine, a list of results will be displayed with links. The words in the links on the page are weighted heavily by search engines. This means, you must include the keywords you are optimizing for a specific page, in the page's title tag. However, do not simply list your keywords. Several factors must be taken into account: 1. To increase brand awareness, include your company name in the tag, although it does not necessarily have to be the first word(s) in the tag. Also, do not use extra words that are not necessary. For example, don't write "and" in the tag, instead, use the symbol '&'. NOTE: The title tag should have up to twelve words in it, describing the page and including important keywords.

Increasing your site's link popularity -
Link popularity is based upon how many other sites are linking to your pages. This is a crucial part of the optimization process, and therefore it is important that this is done carefully. You will first need to contact websites that are a good match to your site. For example, If you are selling products A, B, and C, it would be wise to request that a site that mentions or talks about products A, B, and C link to your site. NOTE: Make sure that the site you are interested in linking is be a high quality and important site. To distinguish between a good and bad site, look at its pagerank. Only request links from sites that have a pagerank of 5 or above. (Maximum is 10). To see a site's pagerank, download the google toolbar and click on the Options tab. Check the 'PageRank' selectable box. One the google toolbar, there will be a PageRank bar that automatically shows the PageRank of each site you vist.

Patience is a virture -
Do not expect instant results after you have finished optimizing your site. If your site is already indexed in the search engines, it will take a minimum of three weeks for it to be re-spidered. If your site has never been spidered, you will need to wait longer. Also, resist the urge to re-optimize your pages all the time. This should be done every few months, if necessary. What you should do is continue to add relevant content to your pages, add new products, etc.

SEO ARTICLES
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