The following is a simple guide to search engine marketing. Although it is meant for beginners, it can also be very useful for more advanced search engine marketers as a reference source. Each section provides a brief overview of the basics followed by resources for further study.

Take it one step at a time and you'll soon understand the basics of search engine marketing...

Keywords & Search Terms

The first step is to learn about the search terms that your target audience is using when using search engines. These search terms are the keywords and keyphrases that will be used to market your web site.

On this page you will learn about:

1. The importance of keywords and search terms.
2. Tools that will help you find your best keywords.
3. Search term lists useful for spotting general trends.

Search Engine Optimization
Step two addresses how to make basic web site design changes that will make your site more search engine friendly.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
2. Domain names.
3. The Title Tag.
4. Meta Description and Meta Keyword Tags.
5. Copywriting.
6. ALT Tags.
7. Site Map
8. Dealing with FLASH.
9. Dealing with dynamic pages.
10. File formats.
11. Framed sites & pages.
12. JavaScript.
13. What to avoid.
14. Getting professional SEO help.
15. Getting free help.

Search Engine Submission
After you've gone through the search engine optimization process, it's time to get your site listed in the various search engines and directories.

On this page you will learn about:

1. How will the search engines find my site?
2. Submitting your site using a free submit form.
3. Submitting to directories.
4. Paying the search engines to index your site.
5. Services to avoid.
6. Services that can help.

Link Popularity
Link popularity is a major factor when it comes to ranking well in search engines and drawing traffic to your site. In step four, you will learn how to increase the number of links to your site, how to get quality sites to link to yours, and the overall effect link popularity has on your rankings.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is link popularity?
2. Getting links to your site.
3. Checking Your Link Popularity
4. What not to do.

Paid Inclusion
If you would rather not wait for the search engines to find and index your site on their own, you can pay to be indexed faster. With step five, you will learn if paid inclusion is a viable option for you.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is paid inclusion?
2. Will it help my site rank better?
3. What are the costs?

Pay Per Click Search Engines
Pay per click search engines and pay per click advertising provides web site owners the opportunity to buy their way to better positions on search results pages. Step six looks at this form of advertising.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is pay per click?
2. Which search engines allow pay per click advertising?
3. Important Considerations
4. Pay per click affiliate programs.
5. Pay per click information resources.

Log File and Traffic Analysis
Your site's log files contain a wealth of information about the effectiveness of your web site marketing programs. With your log files, you can learn how your visitors are finding your site, what search terms they are using to find it, and which are the best sources of traffic for your site.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is a log file?
2. Why is log file and traffic analysis important?
3. Services and tools that can help.

Google's PageRank
Although Google's PageRank is but one factor Google uses to determine its search results, it is a popular topic. Step eight provides basic information to help you better understand the importance of PageRank.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is Google's PageRank?
2. How do I find the PageRank of a web page?