Basic SEO you can do yourself...

Basic SEO is very simple and easy – all it takes is the commitment to put in the work. Once you know the basics it really is quite simple but time consuming. The content of your website is the focus of what SEO is all about. Here are the top points to think about when you’re doing it yourself.

SEO is the practise of analyzing your site and modifying it to allow search engines to read and index it more easily. SEO is all about maintaining and building websites that get ranked highly on the major search engines. After all, when people use a search engine, they generally don not look beyond the top 20 or so results. If you are really looking to make any money from your website, you need to get ranked in the top 20 out of potentially hundreds,thousands or even millions of similar websites competing in your chosen theme. It would be even more preferable to aim get your site in a top 10 ranking position.

The very first step is to start by registering a domain name, which should reflect what your site is about. Keep it short, as long as it is somehow related to your site. Being more specific can help. You could choose to name the page after one of your products or services, for example. Another method is to find a sub domain of a popular domain. This will generally help you get indexed more quickly though it will not appear quite as professional to your visitors. There is a trade off here, sub domains are quicker (and generally cheaper), but domain names are more memorable, and, in the long run, better for your indexing.

The next thing you should look at is your page’s title (i.e. the HTML title tag), which is critical in letting search engines see what the page is about, and is the first item looked at by search engines to determine your relevance. You should put your most important keywords in your title tags – you don’t need to worry about singular or plural forms as search engines account for these changes in most cases. Whatever you do, do not call your home page ‘Home’ – make the title a mini-description of the page. The two primary meta tags aren’t as important as they used to be, but the description tag is still used by some search engines to display information about your website to users and help them decide whether they’ve found what they are looking for. Not all search engines bother with this, though most will put some bearing on it (even if it is minuscule).

For very short descriptions the alt tag can be used. Alt-tags are a feature which will let you describe an image or graphic file – they are the pop-up descriptions that appear when you hover your mouse over a graphic, or when the graphic can’t be downloaded for whatever reason.
Having keyword density in all of your content is good, but bear in mind that each search engine has its own requirements when it comes to how many times that a keyword or phrase should be in the content for the page to be relevant. Somewhere between 5 and 8 percent is a roughly optimal level – but this is not always possible, and you shouldn’t force it. Don’t overdo it, or the search engines might mark you down.

Many search engines judge web page importance on the number and quality of incoming links from other sites. You should link to some related sites, but not too many. Don not overdo incoming links either, and keep them related your sites content. It’s also good to get sites to use your keywords as the text of these links.

A fast way to develop good content is to generate a series of articles or an ebook regarding your topic. These items are very powerful in the world of SEO because they provide your visitors with something to read and they allow you to conquer some key words that you normally would not be able to touch. If you are managing a website for pets, an article about cat food is more likely to generate a high position in the search results for “cat food” than your home page. Therefore, if you write articles pertaining to your subject but slightly more in depth than you can put on your home page, you will benefit drastically

If you have any questions and you do not know where to go, then check out some of the forums on the subject – just do a search for "seo forum". These people are usually more than willing to post answers to your questions, or direct you to someone who can answer your question if they cannot. Remember to be patient with yourself: learning something new takes time and effort, and SEO is no different.