Traditional search engine optimization

First allow us to define what traditional SEO is. Search engine optimization is the process of fine tuning (otherwise referred to as optimizing) your web site to reflect specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business. In order for you to be found relevant by search engines you must have all the key ingredients in place.

This optimization relates to a variety of elements, not only on your web site's home page, but its sub pages as well. Those elements can include things like title tags, meta tags, alt tags, link structure, link popularity and the content of the site itself.

Once your web site is properly optimized, the goal then is to make sure that each of the top crawler based search engines find your site and add as many pages as possible in their indexes. These engines will usually start with your home page and then work their way to other pages of the site. If it's a crawler like Googlebot the spider will never make it to other pages of your site during its first crawl of your web site.

This is where another important aspect of SEO comes into play - making sure the sub pages or at least the main areas of your site are accessible from the home page. It can be assumed that if many of your pages are optimized for different keywords and can be found in the search engines, they will draw traffic to your site. Utilizing internal and external links that are keywords as well will ultimately give you the best results in getting search engines to see your other pages.

Search engine optimization also involves making sure your site is listed in the major directories such as Yahoo and Open Directory to name a few. At the time of this writing Yahoo has stated that they are giving bonus ranking points to sites that are listed in the directory. They are also giving extra rank to aged url's and keyword url's. It is important to make sure you are listed in the right category and have a title and description that is reflective of the keywords you are trying to target.

Other elements of SEO include monitoring your positioning in the search engines, making adjustments as necessary to your site to stay in top position and submitting to new engines or directories that come along as well.