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Are you still lost? For the benefit of the confused, SEO or search engine optimization is the process of improving the traffic of a web site from search engines’ results. This usually involves editing the content of a web site to the extent of HTML coding. Okay, I said HTML coding but don’t freak-out. I assure you, this is as easy as synching your iPod to a computer.

Another important term that we must consider is keyword. A keyword in the SEO context is a term that contains the essence of a webpage or a topic. It is important to remember that quality traffic from search engines are triggered when prospective visitors enters a specific keyword on search engines.

1. Substantial Content

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   Having substantial content on your web site is a must. It must be the end goal of anyone who wants to put up a site. Nobody wants to read junk right? Everyone who visits a web site considers the contents. This does not only include people but search engines as well. Yes Google loves content-rich web sites. Achieving this means updating your web page regularly. Treat your web site like a pet, feed it regularly and you’ll see it grows. Search engines also love fresh contents!

2. Keyword Density

   Okay, this is not Physics or Calculus. This only refers to the number of times a keyword appears on your content against the total number of words on the content. Keep the keyword density to the optimum range which is from 2% to 5%. This means that if you have a total of 100 words in your content, make sure that at least two or five of these words are the keyword.

3. Backlinking

   Ever heard of PageRank? PageRank is Google’s measurement of the relative importance of a webpage. The higher your web site’s PageRank is, the more likely it will appear on the first page of Google’s search results for your targeted keyword. One way to boost your PageRank is through backlinking. This is the process wherein similar or related web sites link your web site. There are a lot of ways to achieve this. From the traditional way of asking the webmasters of the related web sites to link your web site to directory submissions.

4. Domain Canonicalization

   No, it’s not a tongue twister. It’s a SEO issue that must be addressed. It means that you must be explicit about the canonical form of your domain. We know that http://website.com, http://www.website.com, http://website.com/index.php, and http://www.website.com/index.php points to the same location. Unfortunately, search engines don’t. So select whether you like your domain with or without the www and redirect the other to your preference.

5. Use Header Tags

   You can increase the visibility of your keywords to search engines by using header tags properly. Header tags are the HTML tags that range depending on size. These header tags are very helpful in informing the search engines what your webpage contains. Header tags must be placed properly within the content and must not flood the content.

There you go, master these five steps and you are good to go to your journey on making your website appear on the first page of Google’s search result! There are more on the list of SEO tips but these five tips are among the most important a webmaster must know.