Why Search Engine Optimization Is Always Necessary

With a new edition of OK to Make Money Online, we are going to look at Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is just a fancy term for teaching Google about your website so it can send the best traffic your way and place the proper ads on your page.

Most web sites do not focus on keywords or keyword optimization. The website authors do not do the proper keyword research and so the pages and the site are not keyword optimized. Then when Google spiders the site what does it find? A whole bunch of keywords but very little uniformity, and if by accident there is some keyword uniformity, what is the keyword? Worse yet the keyword or long tail keywords don't even pertain to the main subject of the site.

So what is a webster to do? Take a hard look at your website or blog: what is the main subject? Do you have multiple subjects? Are the subjects related? Is your visual subject different from your textual subject?

If we look over at a cooking site, can you find the main topic? Would it be desserts, beef, American, French, or general? Now therein lies the problem: the information is too general. If we are doing a niche site, we need to be more specific. So we need to break a general site into ten or twenty sites, with each site concerned with one food group, say beef or salads. Now we are talking about a niche. Got the idea?

Now for each major topic, you will need to create a blog or website. However, first you need to research the keyword you will use for each of your major topics. This is where Google's Keyword Tool (under Adwords) comes in to play. When you use this tool properly, it will help you to focus on a proper keyword or long tail keyword.

When you have gathered your keywords, run over to Blogger or check the URLs for your keyword being available. If it's not, add a few words to the back or front to create a unique keyword, but don't use hyphens to separate your keywords. After installing your site, create your privacy page, about page and your introductory page making sure to use your keyword to make money online.

If you are working from a site that is too general, break the articles up, rewrite them using your new-found keywords, and copy them over to your new sites, according to category/keyword. Make sure to use your keyword in the title, first paragraph, once or twice in the body, and in the last paragraph.

Some articles will contain pictures. Make sure you have your keyword or keyword phrase in the description area of the picture, usually found in the HTML code. This is often the text that is displayed while you are waiting for the picture to be displayed.

However don't overdo it! Overuse was used by Black Hats to trick Google. Google now detects if you overuse a keyword, and will flag you for keyword stuffing.

Review of the rules: make sure your site sticks to one topic, make sure you research your keyword or long tail keyword, and use your keywords in every article and page on your site to make money online. Then as always, get as many backlinks to your site as you can (i.e. traffic).

Michael