I do not think it matters how much you use your Adsense account or how many times you run a website with Adsense placements we all can sometimes use a bit of a refresher course.  And since I have taken a few days off and have forgotten more than I EVER knew the best place to start is with SEO.  For those of us just into the game SEO is Search Engine Optimization and is the methods you use to get Google’s (and other search engines) recognition of you to a higher level of respect.  After all would it not be better to be on page #1 with just a little bit of effort?  And of course most of this is stuff you don’t have to put out $97.00 for the “new” answer to instant wealth.

Easy to define…Search Engine Optimization is nothing more than designing your web content so that your site ranks as high as possible in search engine results.  Higher results will usually equate to a higher number of visitors to your web page.  Fact is, when people start a search they are usually in a hurry and want their information RIGHT NOW!!! When was the last time you viewed numerous search result pages looking for exactly what you want? Yep, me too.  If I get to the third page it is because I am bored or lazy  and just want to waste a bit of time.  With this point of view (lazy people or people in a hurry) it is quite easy to see why Optimizing your site for the greatest return in vistors is critical to the life of a website.

So how does the search engine know about your fabulous content?  Sneaky little devils that they are they send “spiders” out fetching documents. (I imagine this is like the duck dog jumping into the unknown depths of water to fetch a duck for the shooter).  Of course this guy is searching for something that is not already in the system—-hence the usual hint that we always need to update our content to keep ahead of the game.  When the spider returns to the “web” from which it was launched these documents are fed into an “indexer” program which disects the contents and indexes them appropriately based on content of each document.

Each search engine uses its own spiders and indexers and there fore must have its own specific results that will rank you high (or not).  In comes the almighty “algorithm”.  The word itself can put a cold sweat on the brow of the most experienced marketer.  While an algorithm is simply a step by step program for the computer to accomplish whatever goal is desired.  The fear of an algorithm is that search engines (read “Google” here) all have their proprietary algorithms and they are usually an in house secret.  Therefore we all guess that amongst other items they are looking for quantity of content and quality of content.  The quantity of content is easy to solve..most agree that a page with at least 100 words is easily indexed so we should aim our content to a minimum of 100 words on any/each page.

Now we get to the quality of the content. Read any article writing guide or purchase any marketing program from one of the “gurus” and you soon find that quality is equated to “keywords” in your content. Of course, how silly of me, if must be keywords because if you write an article on “horses” you surely are not seeking visitors with a main interest in “birds”. Enough sarcasm, keywords are the tools you insert into your website content in order to catch the attention of both the (1) spider and (2) visitor and proper use of them is essential to growth and sustainability of your Internet product.

Keyword density is the watch word here. This indicates the percentage of your content that is comprised of the keywords important to the subject. Quick calculation would be a 500 word article containing your keyword 25 times would have a density of 5% and falls within the range considered normal (about 3%–7% for main keywords).

The common school of thought is that your keyword density should be higher than other pages. This density makes it more attractive to “spiders” and some of the smaller engines normally index no more than the main page. Problem here is that if you get carried away with your writing and think the more keywords you throw in the better your rankings will cost you. Your visitors come to you looking for information regarding the keywords they do not pick your website so they can see their search word repeated 500 times on each page they visit. Do this and you will have that visitor exactly ONE time and then off they will go for real information.

Well, off to a Thanksgiving meal….might be family time but three dozen people in a 2000 sq ft house is not exactly attractive to me today. However it is for my wife_____and she IS exactly attractive to me so off I go!!