An Introduction To Search Engine Optimization

An adult webmaster article...

Written by Tom from Tom's Newbie Booster

Search engine optimization (often referred to as SEO for short) is the process of altering your webpage so that a search engine thinks it's worth showing to the people who are doing the searching. The whole idea is that places like Google.com (a huge search engine) have large numbers of surfers visiting them each day. Those surfers type in all kinds of words and into the search engine's search box. Many of them will be adult terms.

One of the very best search engine resources (better than any book) - and it's FREE! Is Search Engine Watch. Add that to your list of SEO bookmarks today.

Keyphrases - each one a possible sale.

Surfers will either type one word, eg. 'sex' into a search engine or they will type more than one word, eg. 'kinky sex'. They could type something far longer into the search box. The most common combinations are 1, 2 or 3 word 'phrases'. The idea behind SEO is that you make an educated guess at the phrases surfers might search for, and then alter your page so that the search engine thinks that your page is all about that phrase. If the search engine thinks your page is 'relevant' to what a surfer just searched for - it will add your page to the list of results that the surfer is shown.

The closer to the top of that page of results your page is listed - the more traffic you will generally receive.

The more people that search for that phrase, of the more 'popular' it is, then again - the more traffic you will receive.

A free tool to help you find keyphrases that people really ARE searching for is Overture's keyword suggestion tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ - tap in 'black sex' and see what comes up.

Is there money in search engine optimization?

From my experience search engines send what you might call the 'best' traffic. That is to say that it is easier to get more people who come from a search engine to a page to buy something than if they can from say a link list to my site. If you get one good listing - it can mean a lot to your business. It's weird to think that one page listed well under a popular phrase can make you a good number of sales. Adult webmasters optimize their pages in a range of ways. Some are casual optimizers - looking for a little extra traffic. Some are far more serious - relying a great deal on SE traffic for their bread and butter.

Search engine traffic is not magic - it must still be handled in the right way. Once a search engine surfer is on your website - you must try to sell them something related to what they just searched for.

Many of the search engines charge money in order to list you these days. But it's important to remember even now that you can get a free search engine listing for your page or website. Take a look at:

Search engine traffic without spending
http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/search-engine-traffic-without-spending.html

Which parts of a page should you optimize?

Optimizing a page simply means altering it or writing the text in a certain way. Your overall goal is to give the search engine direct hints about what a page is about. You pick a phrase for each page, and then repeat that phrase in all the places where the search engine is likely to look. Different parts of the page are more 'important' to the search engine. For example the <title> </title> tag at the very top of an HTML webpage is very important to most search engines. Whatever you write in there will be read very carefully and give serious clues to the search engine as to what the page is about.

If you'd like to learn more about the most important parts of a page then take a look at the search engine magic sheet: http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/search-engine-magic-sheet.html

Don't be fooled into thinking that the only thing you have to worry about with search engine optimization are the 'meta tags'. Take a look at this article for further notes on this misconception: http://spider-food.net/meta-tags.html

All search engines are programmed by different people, in a slightly different way. Part of your job as a SEO is to learn as much as possible about what makes each search engine tick.

Here are two links which will help you get an idea of how search engines work:

Anatomy of a Search Engine: Inside Google
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/02/sd1030-in-google.html

How Internet Search Engines Work
http://www.howstuffworks.com/search-engine.htm

Search engine spiders

Search engine spiders are an important part of search engine optimization. The search engine is actually made up of a number of parts. Search engine spiders are the worker bees which come out and visit potential websites before they are included in the search engine. If you want to get seriously into search engine spiders, learn how to check your referrer logs in order to track which search engine spider has been visiting you.

Here are some links to help on that:

Spiders and referrer logs explained in brief:
http://www.adultwebmasterglossary.com/search.php?phrase=spider&from=0&to=10

Identifying Search Engine Crawlers
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles2/search-engine-spiders.htm

The magic of Google.com

If you've been on the web for even a short time, you'll no doubt have heard about or used the mighty Google.com. Over recent months google has come out of nowhere and grown into the largest search engine on the web. It's still currently 100% free to get into Google and anyone, new or advanced, has a chance of being added in the next index. Google adds sites with regularity (sometimes every month or more...) and has massive traffic. Many companies and individuals (mainstream and adult) rely partially or completely on google for their income. Like a lover, google can build you up or cut you down - but it's undeniably the greatest of all search engines on the web.

Here's about the best Google resource that you'll find on the web - http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/google/index.php - which takes you from an easy introduction into some of the more advanced aspects, such as PageRank.

Taking your share...

There's a lot of competition for the search engine traffic out there - but that's no reason not to claim your share. While it's highly unlikely that you'll attain a number one spot for the phrase 'porn' (or be able to keep it for very long if you did...) - there's still a lot of money to be made on more obscure and 'niche' phrases. Use overture's tool to find special phrases and then build either pages or sites around them. If you're a TGP player - give your gallery a quick bit of optimization before submitting. Why not take advantage of what is at the end of the day free traffic?

OK - final link today is a link to a stack of daily news about the search engines. It helps you keep up with the changes and the 'who's who' in the search engine world...
http://www.marketposition.com/news.htm

Good luck and happy SE clicks to you.

TOM ^"^