Internal SEO Basics

By “Internal SEO” I’m referring to actual optimization at the website level. There are different levels of SEO which can vary
depending on opinion and who makes up the rules for the month:

Internal SEO – Also called “physical SEO” – This refers to setting up your website to follow core fundamentals so search
engines such as (and especially) Google can read your website and understand what it’s about. A poorly optimized
website can tank your rankings.

Organic SEO – Also called “external SEO” – This is everything outside of your website in regards to organic rankings you will find
below the PPC (pay per click) Ads and Google local listings.

LOCAL SEO – Also called Google Local Places or Bing Local Places / etc – Focusing on Google this is where local businesses
are rated and listed – initially – in a set of 3 (snack pack) and actually responds to different SEO techniques then Organic
SEO.

Now on to Internal SEO Basics. I’m a major believer in using “Executive Summaries” or “Abstracts” in the world of Google as
readers can research easily for more information and learn without this having to be too lengthy. The key points below are
not by any means the only modifications you can make to help with SEO but they are the most basic and therefore critical:

  • Always have your html headers optimized
    • 1 H1 header per page
    • 1-2 H2 headers per page
    • Use H2 & H3 headers to break up content sub-titles/etc
  • Use meta data – it’s not dead – Google changed their mind…again
    • Create a meta title to describe the page briefly
    • Create a meta description to include brief information about your page that will back up your keywords –
      don’t keyword stuff the meta description
  • Always – in a natural – non keyword stuffing way – use keywords and phrases that directly or indirectly refer to
    keywords you are trying to get ranked on in your content and headers. Don’t repeat the same keyword over and over
    or it will backfire
  • Make sure your content flows logically as it would for a report or article
    • The first part the page visitor sees (above the fold) should be a glorified Executive summary giving them
      information on what the page is about and how it benefits them for reading further.
    • The body should start feeding details starting with key points (multiple h3 headers) and then graduate into
      more detailed content if the visitor wants to read further
  • Content is King – Quality content that benefits visitors is always favored by Google no matter what your site is for. Make
    sure it directly applies to your industry and is not written by a foreign ghost writer that turns one line of information
    into a paragraph of awful grammatic non-sense that Google will penalize you for.

I hope this helped and if you don’t understand terms such as “H1” or “meta” … Google it! Thank god we live in the modern age
so I don’t have to write as much. As soon as I get my IBM M series keyboard replacement (broke finally) I will feel more like
typing more – maybe .

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