Traditional search engines are the searchable results of automated programs that index the web using multiple “spiders” or “bots”. The web marketer should optimize for these bots by knowing how spiders read a page, index it, and rank it. Marketers should know how to read the SE results and glean optimization ideas from them for basic SEO techniques. Spiders need a path to follow in order to find pages. This is why inbound linking is so crucial to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines, that “sniff out” a site from multiple quality links, will rank that site higher in link relevancy.
Stress link quality not link quantity.
Search engine optimizing no longer means maximizing. In the past, web marketers would create mirror sites on similarly-named domains that all pointed to a system of ad pages. Web marketers would also create a formidable volume of interlinked “doorway pages”, the theory being that this improved their chances of being spidered by the big search engines.
Doorways and mirror sites are no longer in the wise SEO arsenal of basic SEO techniques. Multiple sites with low relevancy linking to a site may give a site a temporary boost, but for long-term results, quality links are necessary for the website to be well-ranked. The marketer will also want to stay away from scripted methods that attempt to masquerade as blogs or similar quality sites to the search engines.
In large part due to all the spamming, Google eventually downgraded the value of link quantity in favor of link quality. For instance, Google places much greater emphasis on “trusted” links or “content-rich sites”. Yahoo.com is a “trusted link“. Modern examples of “content rich links” might include one-way links from blogs, lenses, information hubs, content articles, and similar sites. It is also beneficial to remember, in light of basic SEO techniques, that Twitter is a search engine and will be more and more in play in days to come.
Keywords ARE important in basic SEO techniques.
Gone are the days of keyword stuffing (filling a page or tags with keywords. Keywords are still vital, but they must be placed in the text, and in proper context with relevancy to the site itself. Relative keyword density is now the important factor. There are many excellent keyword search utilities on the web, even a couple of free ones. There are many theories on keyword choice. Some web marketers prefer less-popular, more targeted keywords. Others say it is better to rank #192 on Google for the keywords “free stuff” than #1 for “free eyeglass cases”, for instance.
Domains.
If a domain has been around for more than two years, its “ranking karma” is improved. Domains are a great help with basic SEO techniques. Purchasing domains from the drop list (the list of domains that have expired and are no longer held by the database), with more than two years of history, may be one low-radar way to improve your site’s Google credibility. A domain with keywords that match the site’s is also helpful.
Who is your visitor?
In order to find the right traffic, it is important for the web marketer to know what type of traffic he seeks. Who is your customer? To whom must you market? From which types of sites are they more likely to come? Has the site been listed in high relevancy directories? Can you post your link to forums and blogs that deal with the topic of your site?
The best basic SEO techniques include search engine optimization for the future.
A marketer who builds the best site possible, with regularly updated unique content, and thereby has other sites linking to them, will not have to do a lot of optimizing. The site will optimize itself.
