Search Engine Optimization 101

In an effort to help online marketers increase their understanding of search engine marketing, Marketleap has created these SEO 101 articles. These articles are an explanation of the core concepts surrounding search engine marketing. As new topics emerge that we believe will be helpful, we'll add them to this section.

Content, Content, Content
If you are creating a website or working on a site you've already created, the content of the site is one of the most important factors for successful search engine marketing. The pages you create should provide valuable information that references very specific terms and concepts that are unique to your website.

Titles and Meta Tags
In the early days of search engine optimization, marketers focused on meta-tags as the primary way to attract search engine traffic. Meta-tags are HTML tags that help describe the document they are located within. Today we know that search engines not only look at meta-tags, but a site's content, internal link structure and link popularity.

Keyword Market Analysis
What is a Keyword Market?
In short, a Keyword Market is the total number of unique searches on the Internet that are relevant to your website. A Keyword Market is defined by the top-level or root keyword that is generally most relevant to your business. Top-level keywords may contain thousands of vertical keyword markets.

Everything You Need to Know About Link Popularity
The number of websites that link to your website is one of the factors that help search engines determine your relevancy for a search term. Link popularity and gaining new links from outside websites to your website have proven to be a popular concept for people seeking to improve their search engine rankings.

Link Architecture
As the Internet has become more popular, websites have turned to new technologies like dynamic HTML and Flash or well designed graphics to improve the user experience. Good navigation through your website isn't just important to your users. Search engines use the links within your website to crawl and index the pages those links point to.

Dynamic Sites and URL's
As websites have grown larger and more complex, companies have begun using dynamic publishing systems to help them manage sites that contain hundreds or thousands of web pages. Popular programs by companies like Vignette, Microsoft, and Broadvision turn a website into a database driven application capable of publishing and managing large amounts of content. When websites use dynamic publishing, a web page isn't built until it is requested from a user, guaranteeing that the content is up to date.

Search Engine Submission Links: Free Submissions
These search engines and directories provide a free submissions page where you can submit your website and a few pages of your website to be included in their results. Marketleap recommends that you read the search engine's submission guidelines and not submit your website unnecessarily or excessively.

Google Search Engine Placement
A Google Answers researcher provides some information that will greatly improve your chances of listing with Google.