The Free Beginner's Guide of Search Engine Optimization

Nowadays more and more people are getting interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As always, if there is a demand, there is a supplier. To run a quick search on Amazon.com or other online book stores, you will find tons of books cover this topic. Some of them are for beginners, others are for advanced users. Before learning advanced SEO techniques, you must have some basic knowledge first. For example, you have at least to know how major search engines work. I found the basic knowledge is important for better understanding those advanced tips and tricks. If you are interested in this topic, you may want to read the beginner’s guide of search engine optimization offered at seomoz.org. It is a free web-based content. You don’t need to buy anything or register any account to access it. As long as you get an internet access, you can read the guide online. Here is the link to the free guide: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

It contains 10 Chapters. Each chapter is focusing on one topic.
1. How do search engines work?
2. How do internet users interact with major search engines?
3. Why is search engine marketing important?
4. How to design a search engine friendly website or blog?
5. How to do keyword research?
6. What factors can influence websites’ SERP rankings?
7. How to get links and popularity for your website?
8. What are the search engine tools or services that you can use?
9. Other important aspects of search engine.
10. How to know whether the SEO of your site works?

The information provided in it may not be comprehensive, but it is useful at least for beginners. If you have time, you can read it. It is free any way.

3 Tools to Check Keyword Density and Relevancy

When performing search engine optimization (SEO) for my site, I consider to factors: importance and relevancy.

The followings are 3 online tools for checking keyword density and relevancy, which I just came across. These tools can help you find out how relevant your webpage is to your targeted keywords.

Dave Naylor's Keyword Density Tool at http://tools.davidnaylor.co.uk/keyworddensity/
To use this tool, you have to enter the URL that you want to check and several keywords. You can also try the advanced options to customize your search filter.

SEOmoz's Term Target Tool at http://www.seomoz.org/term-target
Ranks.nl Keyword Density & Prominence Analyzer at http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html
When using this analyzer, you enter the URL starting with http:// and you answer the Captcha. You don't need to register to use it.

How to Find Hidden Links on Your Website?

Hidden links can get your website banned by Google, the biggest search engine on the internet. Many people's websites got penalized by Google because of the hidden text or hidden links on their sites. Particularly, if you are using a free theme or plugins, you may have higher risk to suffer from this problem. There are many ways to check links on your site or blog. Here is an easy one: using the Google Cache function.

1. Go to google.com;
2. search for: site:yourwebsite.com;
3. on the result page, click on the "Cached"link right next to your page's url,
4. on the next page, click on the "Text-only version" link found on the top right corner of the page;
5.then you will see what google see on your website.

You can also find hidden links by analyzing all the outbound and internal links on your web sites.