The vast majority of web traffic comes from search engines. That means the most important thing you can do to increase your website's traffic is to improve its search engine ranking. To do that, you have to understand both the art and science of search engine optimization (SEO).
In this course, you'll gain the knowledge you need to boost your website's visibility. By the end of the course, you'll have mastered proven, step-by-step SEO strategies that you can implement right away.
Mike Orsega has a Bachelor's Degree in Physics from Pennsylvania State University and a Master's Degree in Applied Math from the University of Georgia. He is currently working on a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Tennessee. Mike teaches programming both online and in the classroom and has more than five years of online teaching experience in subjects ranging from basic computer literacy to C# and Alice programming.
The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.
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Lesson 1
In the lesson, you'll learn about the fascinating history of search engines. You'll discover the differences between search engines and directories, and you'll find out which ones you must get your Web site listed in.
Lesson 2
Today, you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at how search engines actually work. This fundamental knowledge is essential for you to obtain the highest search engine rankings possible!
Lesson 3
Developing a keyword list is one of the most important things you can do to get your Web site listed with search engines. This lesson includes step-by-step instructions for creating astounding, comprehensive keyword lists that are second to none.
Lesson 4
In today's lesson, you'll learn how to perform a pre-submission analysis of your Web site. You'll learn the determining factors in keyword effectiveness. You'll also learn about an online tool that you can use to determine the Keyword Effectiveness Index of any keyword!
Lesson 5
In this lesson, we'll focus on highly important HTML tags that greatly affect search engine optimization. You'll learn which tags to use, where to use them, and which parameters to include.
Lesson 6
Today, you'll learn how the layout of your Web site content can greatly impact your search engine rankings. You'll master the ability of developing the portions of a Web page that are heavily scrutinized by search engines. You'll also learn about the importance of using content related keywords.
Lesson 7
In this lesson, you'll find out how domain names and file naming conventions can positively affect your search engine rankings. You'll learn which naming conventions work, and which characters to use when separating words within a filename or a domain name. You'll also discover how to develop gateway pages, which function as alternate entrances to your Web site.
Lesson 8
Today, you'll learn about spamming techniques to stay away from. Many novices accidentally use some of these techniques, and their use is often detrimental to search engine rankings. You'll also find out how much keyword usage is acceptable, and how much can be considered over-usage.
Lesson 9
This lesson is all about the ins and outs of submitting your Web sites to search engines. You'll find out about a free service that enables you to submit your Web site to 12 major search engines all at one time.
Lesson 10
After you submit your Web site to a search engine, you'll need to monitor your success. Today, you'll discover how to do this in a post-submission analysis. You'll learn how to determine your rankings and how to view server log files to obtain information about your visitors. You'll also find out about referral logs, which can show you where your visitors are coming from.
Lesson 11
Today, we'll explore powerful online promotion techniques that can dramatically improve your search engine rankings. You'll discover how newsgroups and e-mail signatures can play a powerful role in marketing your site. You'll also learn how noncompeting site links can add validity to your site and improve your rankings.
Lesson 12
In our final lesson, we'll discuss how you can improve your search engine rankings through offline promotion. We'll examine affiliate programs that can be highly beneficial. Finally, you'll learn how to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
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