{"id":7707,"date":"2010-06-21T21:30:22","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T13:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=7707"},"modified":"2020-09-17T22:15:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:15:47","slug":"beginners-guide-to-seo-best-practices-part-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/beginners-guide-to-seo-best-practices-part-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginner’s Guide to SEO Best Practices (Part 1\/3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Search engine optimization is a complex subject<\/strong>, especially when you consider all the information and misinformation readily available online.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it\u2019s often hard to tell which is which. Does the latest tactic you\u2019re reading about work? Does it work for all sites? Only some sites? Or is just another crackpot theory that sounds reasonable, but will never improve search traffic to your site?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it; SEO can become very confusing. The good news is it doesn\u2019t have to be. The basics of SEO are actually relatively easy to understand.<\/p>\n

If you give yourself a good foundation in learning search engine optimization, you\u2019ll be able to sort fact from fiction much more easily, and you\u2019ll have the tools to delve into more advanced SEO concepts.<\/p>\n

This series of posts isn\u2019t going to teach you the latest trendy trick that probably doesn\u2019t work anyway. The goal of these post is to help you build an SEO foundation and point you in the right direction for further study.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through the course of this series (part I, II, and III) will look at three major aspects of SEO, each covered in one post.<\/p>\n

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  1. General Approach and Research.<\/strong> This first post will look at how you should be thinking about SEO as well as the keyword research you\u2019ll want to do prior to building your site.<\/li>\n
  2. On-Site SEO.<\/strong> The second post in the series will discuss how to build a search engine friendly site and how to write content with SEO in mind.<\/li>\n
  3. Off-Site SEO.<\/strong> The last post in the series will look at building links into your site and page and discuss analytics so you can determine what\u2019s been working and what hasn\u2019t and use the information to continue to improve your SEO efforts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How to Approach SEO<\/h2>\n

    Search engine optimization is a subset of marketing.<\/strong> It should fit into your overall marketing plan and not be your marketing plan.<\/p>\n

    You can do everything wrong when it comes to SEO, never receive a single visitor from a search engine<\/a>, and still have a very successful and profitable site. It might seem strange to read that in a post about SEO, but it\u2019s important to understand.<\/p>\n

    Ironically if you take a step back and generally market yourself well, some of the more difficult parts of SEO will take care of themselves<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s not to say you should ignore SEO, but most of us don\u2019t need to obsess over every little detail. There are many, many factors<\/a> that determine where a page will rank in search results. Obsessing over one of those factors doesn\u2019t make sense. Try to see the forest instead of staring intently at a single tree.<\/p>\n

    SEO is not a set it and forget proposition. It\u2019s an iterative process. You do what you can, measure the results, and continue to improve. You can\u2019t SEO a site in a day or month. As with marketing in general, SEO is never-ending. It also changes daily, and what works for one site may not work for another.<\/p>\n

    Fortunately, the basic principles are fairly constant, and building a solid foundation in SEO understanding will carry you much further than trying to exploit the tactic du jour.<\/p>\n

    That said, SEO can be generally categorized into five different aspects:<\/p>\n

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    1. Keyword research<\/strong><\/li>\n
    2. Search engine friendly site development<\/strong><\/li>\n
    3. On-page SEO<\/strong><\/li>\n
    4. Link Building<\/strong><\/li>\n
    5. Analytics<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Each of the above is important, and they all work together. Let\u2019s talk about each of the above in more detail.<\/p>\n