News: SEO - Ugly Vs Popular - Just Like Highschool!

Learning the basics of SEO

In this tutorial I will go over the basics of Search Engine Optimisation. The "white-hat-way" ("black-hat" SEO is tricking Google and other search engine providers, this will get you into trouble quick!).

To watch the free SEO video tutorial click here and start understanding the basics of on-site SEO. (If you don't have a clue what on-site, or off-site SEO means, please keep reading the Ugly kid story)

What you will learn in this article

• Pretty, Clicky and Sticky (Basics of on page optimisation) 
• Make Google understand what you mean (no tricks)
• Tool shed (webmaster tools, webceo, and other usefull tools of the trade)
• Links, links, links

Ugly vs Pretty (Highschool principles of being cool!)

The internet is becoming more and more like a social playground and a lot of the same rules that apply when interacting with people in real life (school, at work, or your circle of friends), apply to the internet as well! 

Search engines like: Google, Yahoo and Bing, all try to pick out the best websites to represent a specific keyword or topic. Now nobody really understands exactly how the Google algorithm works (not does anyone know the secret recipe to Coca Cola). However, you need to try and understand what Google thinks is Cool!

Be Cool (according to Google)

• Keywords - Use the right keywords in the right places, but... 
• Sometimes less is more - Do not spam!
• Don't be annoying (cloaking, hiding black keywords behind a black background, using loads of ads, having a very slow loading site)
• Don't be scruffy - Google likes your code to be tidy
• Speak with 2 words - Use your meta-tittles, meta-descriptions, meta-tags correctly.
• Hang out with the right crowd - Or in other words, you need links back to your site!

Now if you think about it, if you stick to these rules, not only google will like you, but so will the people that visit your website or blog.

Now all you need is some really good original content!

Free stuff - Check how Cool you are!

Below are some of the basic resources that you can find on the internet for free, that really work.

• Webmaster tools (free from google, this is a must!) - look for the html suggestions, this is hugely important!
• WebCEO - To watch the free SEO video tutorial click here , it shows the basics of using WebCEO for analysing your site
• Chrome page souce - Use google chrome and check out your competition using the right mouse button.
• Open Site Explorer - See how many links you have compared to the competition.

Stay up to date!

• You should have a good base to start from now. We will follow up with some more detailed SEO tips in our next blog, so please make sure to Follow us!