Aaron Zakowski

There are five primary elements to writing a quality SEO optimized website article.

1. Title tag
2. Meta description
3. Article title
4. Optimized article
5. Optimzed URL

A title tag is a short (usually 50-70 character) string of text that describes you pages content. The title that you give a web page has relevance for three reason.

• It tells search engines what your page is about and therefore has strong SEO power
• It shows up at the top of your browser window and the very top of the screen
• It is the first line (usually in blue) that the search engines show in their results. In the following Google result you can see that the title (The Importance of Website Analytics | Google Analytics | Aaron…) the the first thing that searchers see and it has a big impact on convincing them to click on a given link.

The next important element of an SEO optimize article is the meta description. The meta description is a short description that states what the page is about. It does have SEO value and therefore it should include your major keywords. The meta description should usually be under 160 characters. Nobody viewing your page will see the meta description (unless they know how to view the page’s code). However, one of it’s main values is that is usually will become the 2nd and 3rd lines in the search engine results. In the Google example above, the meta description is “Every website should have an analytics program on it. An analytics progra helps you to track things like: How many visitors are coming to your site? Where.”

The article title differs from the Page title in that it should be more focused on human eyes than Search Engine “eyes”. The article’s title should be something that tells the reader what the article is about and makes them want to read it.

There are lots of elements to actually writing the actual web article. I’ll have to write more on this topic soon because I just don’t have time now. Sorry, :^(

Many website programs allow you to state what you want the URL (aka: link; aka: web address) to be. For example, the URL of this page is aaronzakowski.com/blog/seo-optimized-content/. The first half (aaronzakowski.com/blog/) is standard on every page of this blog. I wrote the second half of the URL in order for it to be descriptive of what this page is about. This is informative to my readers and it also has strong SEO weight to help my page in the Search Engines. When using a Wordpress blog such as the you can write the personalized part of the URL the the Post Slug box.

I hope that this article is informative. There’s a lot more that I can write on this topic but this was only meant to be a brief overview. I’ll try to update this posting soon and also provide links to other sites that give good advice on writing SEO optimized content.

Here is a cool new tool that I cam across today. I uses common typos that people make using a QWERTY key board  to predict  typos that people will make when searching for the keywords that are relevant to your site.

So why do you care? Because you can potential optimize your page for the typos and have your site show up high in the Search Engine Results pages (SERPs). That will hopefully lead to more traffic for you. Give it a try by entering a keyword below.

Keyword Typo Generator Tool © SEO Chat™ Keyword or keyterm Enter Captcha To Continue To prevent spamming, please enter in the numbers and letters in the box below Report Problem with Tool.

One effective way to make money from your website is with Google AdSense. This program allows you to put Google ads on your site. Then, when a visitor clicks on an ad, Google will share the revenue that they make with you. It’s very unlikely that this method will make you rich, but it’s a nice way to make some passive income. It’s pretty is to do also.

You can sign up for Adsense by clicking this icon:

A content management system (CMS) is a system used to manage the content of a Web site. The content managed includes computer files, image media, audio files, electronic documents and web content. This content is often present on the website in an organized way that allows visitors to the site to navigate the site efficiently to find what they are looking for. It’s other advantage is that it provides an easy to use back end administrative panel that allows the website’s owner or manager to enter new data and organize the look and feel of the site (often with very limited technical knowledge).

Several of the leading (Free) CMSs for simple blogs and websites are:

• Wordpress – This blog runs on the wordpress CMS
• Drupal
• Joomla!

Every website should have an analytics program on it. An analytics progra helps you to track things like:

• How many visitors are coming to your site?
• Where are they coming from? How did they find your site?
• Which pages on you site are people look at the most frequently? Which pages do they look at for the most time?
• Where are you visitors located geographically? (i.e. where do they live)
• And much more…

Google offers a free (and very good) analytics program at www.google.com/analytics/.  If you have a website, I suggest that you go set up an account and install Google Analytics on your site now.

Your time is valuable and so is your money. Therefore, if you are developing a website, it is a good idea to hire other people to do work for you. This might sound scary but it’s really not. I hire assistants in India and Pakistan to help me with some of my website related project and I only pay them about $3 per hour. You can also hire Americans if you’re more comfortable with that (but it will cost you more).

One of the best places to find good outsourcing help is on www.elance.com

A web browser is the program that you use on you computer to surf the internet and view websites. Most computers come with Internet Explorer already installed as the default web browser. However, most computer professional agree that it is definitely not the best. Firefox is quickly becoming the most popular web browser amongst computer professionals, website managers and everybody who knows better.

A domain name is basically your website’s address.

It looks like this: www.website.com

The question is, how do you find available domain names and, if you find one that you like, how do you buy it?

It frequently seems like every good domain name is already taken. However, I am a strong believer that if you are creative and willing to keep trying different ideas, you can find good domain names that were never registered. To search for available names, you should go to a domain registrar’s website (I’ve provided a list below). They will always have a search box on their homepages inviting you to see if your domain idea is available. Don’t be discouraged if your idea is already taken. Try a new idea.

Frequently, you might find that your name has already been take as a .com, but it is still available as .net or .org or something else. I usually think that having the .com is the best option but there are times when you might want to consider something else. I’ll try to write more about that topic another time.

It also possible to buy domain names at auctions from people who already own them. This provides you with the opportunities to find great names but will usually cost a lot more. I frequently see domain names being sold for thousands of dollars. Some have even gone for millions!

Once you find an available name that you like, you can usually just create an account on the website, add the name to your shopping cart and they check out and buy it. Then it’s yours!

When you buy a domain you are really just registering it by the year. Most registars charge about $10 per year to register a domain for you. Some companies charge more, but now you know better. Don’t pay more than $10-$12 per name per year.

Here are a few reputable domain name registrars:

• GoDaddy.com  – This is who I usually use. They are one of the biggest. Costs about $10 per domain.
• NetworkSolutions.com – They are one of the biggest but I do not recommend them. They charge about $34 for a domain.
• Registrar.com

For more information on domain name registration visit wikipedia.org.

Find a good web host is a crucial part of maintaining your own website. A web host is the “super computer” that holds all your website’s files. When people type in your web address or domain into the web browser, their computer will magically connect to your host’s server. Your host will then send the relevant files over to the web surfer’s computer and they will be displayed on their screen as your website. For more info on how web hosting work you can visit wikipedia.org

So how do you find a good web host? When you register you domain, the domain registrar will probably try to get you to pay them for a hosting service. This is probably not a very good option because the large registrars charge well above average prices for hosting. Many discount hosting companies are offering very affordable hosting packages these days. In fact, you can often host an unlimited number of websites for only $5.95 per month. You will be limited by the amount of memory and bandwidth you use though (but this won’t become a problem unless your site becomes very successful and at that point you can afford to pay a little more for hosting.)

Here are a few popular and affordable hosting solutions for people who are starting of with their own websites:

• HostMonster.com – I use this company and am pleased with them so far. Their Customer Service is great.
• BlueHost.com
• 1&1 Hosting

For more information about web hosting click here.