Introduction / Search Engine Optimization for Dummies

Introduction

elcome to Search Engine Optimization For Dummies, 2nd Edition. What

on earth would you want this book for. After all, can’t you just build

a Web site, and then pay someone $25 to register the site with thousands of

search engines. I’m sure you’ve seen the advertising: “We guarantee top-ten

placement in a gazillion search engines!" “We’ll register you in 5,000 search

engines today!"

Well, unfortunately, it’s not that simple. (Okay, fortunately for me, because

if it were simple, Wiley wouldn’t pay me to write this book.) The fact is that

search engine optimization is a little complicated. Not brain surgery compli-

cated, but not as easy as “Give us 50 bucks and we’ll handle it for you."

The vast majority of Web sites don’t have a chance in the search engines.

Why. Because of simple mistakes. Because the people creating the sites don’t

have a clue what they should do to make the site easy for search engines to

work with. Because they don’t understand the role of links pointing to their

site, and because they’ve never thought about keywords. Because, because,

because. This book helps you deal with those becauses and gets you not just

one step, but dozens of steps, ahead of the average Web-site Joe.

About This Book

This book demystifies the world of search engines. You find out what you

need to do to give your site the best possible chance to rank well in the

search engines.

In this book, I show you how to

Make sure that you’re using the right keywords in your Web pages.

Create pages that search engines can read and will index in the way you

want them to.

Avoid techniques that search engines hate — things that can get your

Web site penalized (knocked down low in search engine rankings).

Build pages that give your site greater visibility in search engines.