We’ve all heard the buzz on SEO and for most of us, who have a web site that’s just never going to be a million dollar seller, what SEO is really all about escapes us somewhat.

We’re not sure exactly what it is, or exactly how to do it, or even why we should.

If your site is a private site, made just for you and the enjoyment of your family, if its a cooking or gardening site thats small and probably isn’t going to be huge no matter what kind of time you outlay, is it worth the work to use some good SEO tactics… and really.. what are they?

SEO is search engine optimization, and its a tactic that helps your web site seem more visible to the search engines who are looking for it.

Oversimplified, SEO, or search engine optimization, is nothing more than the use of certain tactics, such as keywords and phrases, bold text or bulleted lists,  so that you can gather up attention to certain parts of your web site and make the search engines “see” them more readily.

Does it work? Absolutely. Google adsense aside and monetizing your small side out of the picture, if you’ve got something to say, and you like what you’ve done, be it scrapbooking or just crafting ideas for your family, whats the point in having said it if no one ever sees it?

SEO, that mysterious little something that everyone thinks can be done only by a professoinal, just isn’t rocket science. Its a combination of some learned techniques, some exploration and a whole lot of common sense.

Using key words, such as you might type into Google or any other search engine to find something, you put those in the text of a page that meshes well with them.

For example, you would not, of course, use the key phrase, how to cook a hamburger, on a vegan site. Likewise, you wouldn’t use the key phrase fixing your car, on a site about gardening.

Keep your articles, your content or faq’s relevant to your topic or site theme,   and keep your key words and phrases relevant to the content of your site.

If your eyes will see a certain thing better when its in bold text, chances are that everyone else’s will too, and that includes those little spider bots scampering around your site trying to find whats there. SEO friendly pages make it easier for everyone to see what they were missing before.

If your site is just a small intimate one,  and you have anything to say that might be relevant to someone elses situation or life, take a few minutes and learn something about SEO techniques so someone actually sees what you have to offer them.