Most of the people who are just starting with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) know very little about it. However, there are various ways and methods that one can use in order to achieve results.

Search engine optimization is mostly very expensive, but there are certain methods that are not really complex, and that can be done to boost search engine rankings.

Hiring someone isn’t always a very affordable idea, but in most cases it is a normal process which is needed to achieve better results. One should look at it as an investment.

However, before hiring a professional, there are certain things that one can do on their own:

1. Using Google Analytics

One of the first things that one interested in SEO should do, is get an account at Google Analytics. There, one can find many useful information about traffic and performance, depending on the content one publishes and the changes that are made to the site. This is probably not the most critical part, but much canbe learned by just examining the charts related to web traffic.

2. Joining the DMOZ project

DMOZ is known as the open directory project, and it is important in search engine optimization because of the fact that Google and some other search engines use links listed at DMOZ as proof that a site has quality content. Google adds value to these links, because they are actually reviewed by humans. By submitting ones site to DMOZ, one can achieve potentially excellent improvement in search rankings.

3. The Keyword Tool from Google

This tool is one of the most useful tools that can be used for free. Basically, one can enter an URL, and as a result, one can get very interesting information about what keywords in terms of content, are the most important ones.

4. Using Wordtracker

Wordtracker is another helpful tool that can help discover important keywords. However, this is not a cheap tool, so one should experiment with trial versions in order to see if it works as one would like it to work.

5. Do you have any BackLinks?

There are various tools that can be used for exploring backlinks that lead to a specific URL. Open Site Explorer is one of them. It doesn’t just display sites that are linking back to you, but it also shows the page authority of these sites, and information related to the type of the links (whether they are followed, nofollowed, and so on). This type of tool can be very helpful when starting with SEO.

6. Invest Wisely by Buying The SEO Book

SEO Book a very important resource in form of a live website, that is full of useful information that anyone can understand and implement. By investing in such ways, one can get familiar with the basic methods and know what to do in order to become an expert

7. Using Pear Analytics

Using PearAnalytics provides a set of various tools from Alexa web resource. Thereby one can obtain information like the site age and directory listings, page ranks, inbound links, and many other useful information. They also have various tools, some of which are not free, but they mostly offer a trial version for free.

8. The All In One SEO Plugin

Sites that are running on WordPress can additionaly benefit by using various SEO plugins. One of the most often used plugins is the All In One SEO which can be customized according to ones needs. It can be obtained for free, but there is also a professional version which is unfortunately not for free, but costs only $39.

9. Thesis (DIY Themes and similar)

Thesis is one of the strongest SEO optimized WordPress themes available nowadays. It allows the precise optimization of various options per each page or post. All details are shown on the dashboard which is very easy to use even if one is not a programmer. This allows less time spent on technical problems, and more time spent on writing quality content.

10. ScribeSEO Software

The mentioned software is one of the most recent works done by Brian Clark from CopyBlogger. At the moment, it is based on WordPress. To sum things up, it basically adds features to the dashboard that allow one to improve the search performance of a site greatly. The guesswork should be taken out when it comes to copy writting. This is exactly what this software does. It is not free, but it is worth a try if one is seriously interested in SEO.

11. Follow Some Search Engine Experts

There are many experts in the field of Search Engine Optimization, but only few of them are mentioned as the best. With the help of people like Lee Odden and Michael Gray, one can learn many new useful facts related to SEO.

Some Final Tips…

One should not expect to get on the first position, or even on the first page of search engine results fast. This is a long process that requires a lot of work. Although there are many SEO methods that one can do on their own, we wouldn’t really recommend it, especially if one already runs a business on his own. SEO takes a great amount of time to learn properly, and it should be taken as a whole and separate business venture.

	Saurabh Dutta
	Saurabh Dutta is the founder and author of TechChai. He writes on useful technology tips, tricks, tutorials, articles and interesting technology updates on various websites and blogs online.
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