Let's talk something about SEO. I do not claim to know about this subject very much. However, whatever I have become aware of during last 2 months is this -

SEO has 2 parts. On-page SEO and off-page SEO.

Before starting out, a catch is that SEO is not very hard to explain, it is getting it done that's hard.

On-page SEO includes (This part is pretty much in control of webmasters & SEO copywriters) -

Webmasters

• Clean HTML.
• Code to content ratio.
• Simple, clean URLs.
• Simple architecture - The distance of a webpage from the homepage of a website.

SEO Copywriters

• Keywords - Use of mix of specific, generic, and long tail keywords.
• Keywords - prominence, density, & proximity. (Not much important these days.)
• Keyword to content ratio. (Also, not much important these days.)
• Keywords - Use of synonyms.
• Keywords in URLs.
• Keywords in Title Tag (very imp for Google) - "List your business name with 3 main focus areas."
• Keywords in Meta Description Tag.
• Keywords in Meta Keywords Tag - Not important for Google, but it's a good practice to follow as other search engines still consider it.
• Keywords in Heading Tag - H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 (H1 is most imp; H6 the least. Generally, we do not go beyond H2.)
• Keywords in Paragraphs.
• Keywords in Internal Anchor Text - Useful, descriptive, & relevant.
• Internal cross linking of webpages of a website with good anchor text that is useful, descriptive, & relevant.
• Keyword-rich, informative, relevant IMAGE filenames.
• Keyword-rich, descriptive, relevant Alt Text for images.
• Keywords in sitemap.

Off-page SEO includes (Natural link-building is not in control of webmasters) -

• Online Press Releases
• Online Classifieds
• Online Yellow Pages
• Online Directories
• Blogs
• Articles
• Social Bookmarking
• Online Forums
• Online Viral Marketing
• Link building (The most important factor to achieve PageRank)

Good SEO Copywriting - I am aware of the things mentioned above; however, I am yet to learn these in detail. If SEO copywriters wish to refine and hone their skills in writing, they have to learn the process of SEO, especially on-page SEO, in great depth. A suggestion is that do not be bothered by these things. I do not follow the guidelines regarding "keywords prominence, density, and proximity" & "keyword to content ratio" to the letter & spirit. If a copywriter keeps on measuring every word s/he writes, the writing will suffer. The trick is becoming aware of and learning these things and keeping on reading the quality stuff that appear high in SERPs, to program our mind to produce the similarly good stuff. If we keep on reading good authors, we subconsciously pick up their style and automatically follow good on-page SEO practices.

Link Building - Link building is a part of off-page SEO, and natural link building is not under control of webmasters. What we can do is to produce Unique, Descriptive, Informative, Relevant, Useful content that is easy to read and easy to follow. For natural link building, we need to provide a content that is linkable. And an important thing is that there's no point in trying very hard to get loads of traffic to a webpage when its content is not useful, readable, or helpful in any way.

Natural Link Building - An interesting thing I wish to mention before signing off is - If you have written an article/blog on the subject of "Recent Trends in Website Designing" that appears at no. 1 spot in google for the query "Web 2.0 design," it's because your readers have linked back to you using that keyword. That's the power of natural link building.

I will write in details about On-page and Off-page SEO some other time. Meanwhile, check out Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.