Learn how to build a basic website before diving into SEO techniques it is important to know the basics of web development. The following tasks will develop the necessary web development skills needed to become a successful SEO:

Learn how to code a basic website without using a WYSIWYG editor – Don't fear the word code, writing HTML is much easier than you think. If you can make a sandwich with two pieces of bread and put something in the middle, you can write HTML. For help, check out this excellent tutorial. Remember, don't worry about SEO techniques at this point. Focus on learning how to build a website first.

Code a website that contains the following:

          o All styles with CSS. No Tables!
          o Homepage has 3 unique paragraphs about you
          o 3 pages total; homepage, contact and portfolio

I have created a sample for you using my information, Danny Dover. Feel free to use it as a guide but don't copy and paste my code or you won't learn anything. You will likely have to scour the internet to learn how to fill some of these requirements. This is useful because it improves your searching skills. (Note: I have purposefully not SEOed my example website. You will see why in a little bit)


CheckboxPick You Keywords - Pick keywords that are uncompetitive. This is very important as the words you choose will become the center of your SEO efforts. I recommend using your name. Go to Google and search for yourself. If a small amount of low quality websites show up, use your name as your keywords. If your name is competitive to rank for, find a variation of your name that is easier. Ex. Danny Ben Dover.

Register a domain name and find hosting - This is not nearly as difficult as it sounds. I recommend SuperbHosting or SiteGround as good options. However, there are literally thousands of choices. Use your best judgment, but remember you shouldn't be paying more than $7.00 USD a month and the domain name should be included for free. Your only requirement is that your host can't have immovable ads. These could be crawled by the search engines and ruin your rankings. For your domain name, use your keywords from above. Ex. dannydover.com or dannybendover.com. If your keywords are not available as a domain name, choose different keywords. (Note: In this exercise, the keywords you are optimizing for and your domain name should be the same. Although this is not always the case in the real world, having similar keywords to your domain name makes SEO much easier.)

Upload your website files to your new hosting account -  The easiest method is to use FTP to drag and drop your files. See your hosting provider for details.

Sign up for Google Analytics and verify your website – This free tool will allow you to track visitors to your website. Installation instructions are included by Google.

Wait a week and search for your keywords in the big four search engines – I generally use the rank checker tool as a shortcut. It is alright if your website doesn't show up. That is what SEO is for. If you do find your website ranking (even if it is not on the first page), record how it ranks in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live, and Ask) in a spreadsheet.

Wait two weeks to allow search engines to find your site and for Google Analytics to gather data.

For information about applying SEO to your website visit SEOmoz