Search Engine Optimization or SEO, which it is often referred to as, is the process for increasing traffic to your web site from any of the search engines though natural or organic search results for keywords specific and relevant to your industry and products or service  offerings. The higher up in the organic     results your web  site ranks, the more clicks, visits and     traffic your web site will receive.
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Many clients of Bayshore Solutions are new to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and there is a period of time that we spend educating them on the importance of SEO and all the time and work that goes into it.
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I like to explain Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a puzzle.  Each puzzle is different and has many pieces you have to keep rotating until they all fit.  The only difference is that Search Engine Optimization is an ever changing puzzle.  Just when you think you got it right, search engine makes updates to their algorithms and the puzzle changes.  Having a dedicated and experienced SEO expert manage your campaign will ensure your optimization is staying up-to-date with the newest industry trends; doing this on your own can be timely, stressful and sometimes ineffective.  Here are some SEO basics to get you started:

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Optimization for Individual Web Site Pages

• Do thorough Keyword Research using a program such as Word Tracker
• Choose enough keywords or phrases to cover your entire product line or service offerings: Keyword Phrases generally are less competitive than single keywords and are more relevant to the consumers searches
• Only optimize each page for 2-4 keywords or phrases
• For each page create keyword rich Title Tags, Description Tags and Keyword Tags: search engines are putting less weight on the keyword tag, but I recommend this step because you never know when Google will do another dance and it may shift the weight.  This way, this step is done no matter what and it should not hurt your rankings
• Optimize the content on each page with the corresponding keywords; roughly 250 words per keyword, using each keyword or phrase 3-5 times throughout, with most important keywords closer to the top
• Utilize your keywords in H1 and H2 tags on optimized pages
• Utilize your keywords in image Alt tags with corresponding keywords
• Include keywords in the Anchor text for internal links

Optimization for Entire Web site

• Create an HTML site map and have a text link to it in your web site’s footer
• Create an XML site map and submit it through Google Webmaster Tools, you can create an xml site map at http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ or another similar site.
• Manual Search Engine Submission: Manually is always the best and safest way to submit a web site
• Link Building: This key step carries a lot of weight in Search Engine Algorithms for which they rank web sites.  Check back next week for a more in depth guide on link building..

Search Engine Optimization is always evolving.  Using these SEO basics to start optimizing your web site will go a long way.  However, there are many online strategies to take into consideration when planning an internet strategy:  Press Release Optimization, Paid Search Campaigns, Email Campaigns, Landing Pages, Blogging, AB Testing and more.  Planning out a complete internet strategy and implementing it will allow your web site the get the most exposure, traffic and conversions