Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves increasing the visibility of your website in search engine results. What does that mean? Lets say you own a sushi restaurant in New York City. Modern consumers often use the web to look for reviews or to find the closest location. Thus, when your prospective patron Google’s “Sushi NYC” the ultimate goal is to have your business come up first in a search engine’s listings. That’s where SEO comes in…

Basic SEO Tips

1. Pay attention to the placement of keywords. Your restaurant, The Raw Fish Hut, has decided that it’s main keywords will be “Sushi NYC.” You need to make sure that these keywords appear in your source code; in the Title tags, and Meta description. In addition, keywords should be a part of your domain name. That means instead of www.rawfishhut.com, your URL should be sushinyc.com.
2. Make sure to use ALT tags describing images used on your site. Also, file names should be utilize your keywords. A photo of your weekly sushi special platter could be, “tuna-sushi-nyc.jpg.”
3. Utilize keywords in your H1 and H2 headings. In addition to helping users navigate your site with ease, they are weighted more heavily by search engines.
4. Create a sitemap. This will help “spiders” crawl and analyze your website.
5. A.B.U.  – Always Be Updating! Search engines prioritize sites that best meet users needs. By providing fresh and unique content, not only will you be adding more keywords to your site but you will increase the chances of better placement in search engines.

Far from a comprehensive list, the tips listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t be discouraged if initial results are slow. Start with these basics, and through time, research and experimentation, you’ll be sure to find the winning combination.