If you are new to website ranking on search engines and search engine optimization (SEO) in San Jose, you may be looking for a simple beginner’s guide to SEO. SEO usually involves making little changes that, by themselves, don’t seem like much. However, when they are added together, they have big results in search engine rankings and increased traffic.

The first and most important thing to remember about search engine optimization is that you are not really optimizing for search engines, but for visitors. The goal of SEO is to draw in visitors that are looking for what you offer.

• Keywords. Since search engines serve search results to people based on the terms for which they are searching, you need to know your target audience and their terminology. If people are looking for “cheap widgets,” you will likely not draw them in if your keywords are “affordable thingamabobs.”
• Quality content. Both search engines (with their new algorithms) and visitors are looking for useful, unique, quality content. If all you have is a list of keywords, or if you have the exact same information as every other site about your product or service out there, there is nothing to make a visitor want to choose your site over theirs.
• Unique titles. Your pages – whether one or three hundred – need to have specific, descriptive titles. Your visitors will appreciate knowing what the pages are, and search engines can better list your pages appropriately when it is clear what is displayed there.
• Description meta tags. While the keyword meta tags are rarely used these days, the description tag is still used by most search engines for the description of your site within the search results. Be sure this is an accurate description of the page on which it is located. Use keywords here, but not *only* keywords – make it a simple, concise summary of what a visitor will see. This description should be different for each page.
• Friendly URLs. The URL of each page – the address – should be clear and make the page’s content more apparent. Instead of using strings of random characters (such as domain.com/directory1/2938tu9/av98eja/apv.htm), make the folders and page names reflect the content (such as domain.com/products/usefulwidget.htm). This will help visitors – and search engines – to be able to see if the page probably is what they want. It also makes it easier for visitors to remember, making it easier for them to share.
• Site map. Having a site map makes sure that all pages of your site are accessible to both visitors and search engines. It also makes it simpler for visitors to find the page they need, instead of having to click through many pages to find it. Most visitors will give up after a few clicks if the information they want to see is not where they expect to find it.

These are some of the basics of search engine optimization for San Jose websites. Putting these tips into use on your site will improve your results.