Teach Yourself VISUALLY Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The perfect guide to help visual learners maximize website discoverability

Whether promoting yourself, your business, or your hobbies and interest, you want your website or blog to appear near the top when your customers search. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is increasingly essential to businesses. This full-color, step-by-step guide demonstrates key SEO concepts and practices in an easy-to-follow visual format. Learn how to set up your website and what to implement to help your business or product make a great showing in search results.

• Helps visual learners understand and practice important SEO concepts
• Uses full-color, step-by-step tasks to teach the elements of SEO
• Provides information you can quickly and easily implement to enhance your site's search engine rankings
• Demonstrates how to make your site attractive to casual web surfers as well as to the algorithms and spiders used by Google and other search engines

Teach Yourself VISUALLY SEO will demystify search engine optimization, helping you boost search engine rankings and improve the visibility of your website.

Note: Per the Penguin Policy 2.0 update, some of the tasks in Chapter 6 may present a risk to Google page rank. Please read the latest policy update from Google to know fully what will work best for increasing and maintaining Google Page Rank

Chapter 1 Understanding the SEO Process

Introducing Search Engine Optimization 4

Consider SEO Techniques 6

Discover Search Engine Optimization 7

Understanding How People Use Search 8

Using Different Types of Searches 10

Understanding the Search Page Layout 12

Explore Different Search Engines 16

Set Up a Default Search Engine 18

Chapter 2 Preparing Your Website for SEO

Find a Website Niche 22

Analyze Topics and Trends 24

Understanding Web Hosting 26

Choose a Web Host28

Choose the Website Domain 30

Create a Privacy Policy Page 32

Create Website Forms 34

Check Browser Compatibility 36

Check Your Website with Adobe Browser Lab 38

Check Your Website with Screenfly 40

Chapter 3 Building an SEO Friendly Website

Plan for an Optimized Website 44

Create a Website Sitemap 46

Create a Robots.txt File 48

Using the Nofollow Attribute 52

Build an .htaccess File 54

Protect Website Images with .htaccess 56

Redirect Non-WWW Traffic to WWW 58

Work with 301 Redirects 60

Scan Errors with W3C Markup Validation 62

Chapter 4 Mastering Keywords

Understanding Keywords 66

Analyze Keywords with SEMrush 68

Analyze Bing Search with SEMrush 72

Analyze Keywords with Keyword Discovery 74

Compare Keywords with Yahoo Clues 78

Work with the YouTube Keyword Tool 80

Analyze Your Website with Web SEO Analytics 82

Chapter 5 Building On-Page SEO

Build an HTML Document 86

Add a Page Title Meta Tag 88

Add a Page Description Meta Tag 89

Add a Page Keyword Meta Tag 90

Add Author and Copyright Meta Tags 91

Save an HTML Document 92

Optimize Image Filenames and Alt Attributes 94

Optimize Your Website Content 96

Chapter 6 Building Off-Page SEO

Find the Domain History 100

Review Website Backlinks 102

Gather Website Information 104

Compare Traffic for Websites 106

Check a Link Partner’s Page Rank 108

Submit Your Website to a Link Directory 110

Submit to the Article Directories 112

Get Paid Backlinks 116

Write Guest Posts 118

Submit Press Releases 120

Submit Your Site to Link Exchange 122

Request a Link Exchange 124

Chapter 7 Working with Content

Build Optimized Content 128

Check Duplicated Content 130

Compare Website Content 132

Check Content Grammar and Spelling 134

Check Keyword Density 136

Create a RSS Feed with FeedBurner 138

Create a Feed Subscription Form 140

Work with Professional Writing Services 144

Chapter 8 Working with Google Analytics

Create a Google Analytics Account 148

Install Google Analytics Code 150

Create a New Analytics Account 154

Add a New Property Website 156

View Website Analytics 158

Add Multiple Users 160

View Real-Time Statistics 162

Exclude Traffic from a Specific IP 164

Set a Conversion Goal 166

Find Website Keywords 168

Chapter 9 Using Search Engine Webmaster Tools

Add a Website to a Google Webmaster Account 172

Verify Your Website for Google Webmaster Tools 174

Submit a Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools 178

Configure Google Webmaster Tools Settings 180

Check for Google Crawling Errors 182

Preview Your Website as Googlebots 184

Submit a Website to the Bing Webmaster 186

Use the Bing SEO Analyzer 190

Chapter 10 Working with Social Media and SEO

Understanding Social Media Marketing 194

Create a Facebook Page for Your Business 196

Create a Google Plus Business Page 200

Create a Twitter Account for Your Website 204

Manage Social Accounts Using HootSuite 208

Work with Social Bookmarking Sites 212

Chapter 11 Working with AdWords

Create an AdWords Campaign 216

Create an Ad Group 220

Using the Keyword Tool 224

Using the Traffic Estimator Tool 226

Using the Contextual Targeting Tool 228

Work with Analyze Competitions 230

Chapter 12 Applying SEO to WordPress Blogs

Understanding WordPress CMS 234

Install the W3 Total Cache Plugin 236

Configure the W3 Total Cache 240

Set Up the All in One SEO Plugin 244

Set Up Permalinks 248

Install the SEO Friendly Images Plugin 250

Chapter 13 Monetizing Your Website

Explore Advertising Revenue Types 254

Consider the Advertising Formats 256

Create AdSense Ads 258

Modify Existing AdSense Ads 262

Block AdSense Advertisers’ URLs 264

Block Ads Using the Ad Review Center 266

Position AdSense Ads 268

Create Chitika Ads 270

Work with Commission Conjunction 274

Work with BuySellAds 276

Chapter 14 Building and Managing an SEO Team

Find the Best SEO Companies 282

Hire an SEO Expert on Elance 284

Post a Job on Elance 288

Hire an SEO Expert on oDesk 290

Post an SEO Job on oDesk 292

Create a Freedcamp Project 294

Index 298