There are two things that you need to start a site.  The first is a domain name, which is the URL of your site.  Google.com is a domain name, as is Wikipedia.com.  A domain comprises both the website’s title and the top-level domain (TLD) extension, such as .com, .org, .net, .info, .us, etc.  Unfortunately for budding webmasters, all of the simple domain names were registered more than a decade ago, so domains nowadays must be very unique.  Once someone registers a domain, it is theirs until they transfer it, cancel it, or forget to renew it.  Don’t count on someone ever forgetting to renew a domain name you are eyeing; if there is an already taken domain that you want, consider contacting the owner and offering to purchase it.  Be aware that high quality domains can cost thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars, so it may be cheaper to spend $10 and get your own original domain.

The second piece of the puzzle is hosting.  With just a domain, you have no server to store content on, and that is where a hosting firm comes in.  For a small fee per month, they lease you servers for space and bandwidth, and they also provide you with website building and analysis tools.  Some hosters feature what is known as cPanel, which is an all-in-one control panel for managing and updating your website, and it is much easier to use than an FTP client.

Building a website is much easier than getting people to come to it.  With billions of web pages online, no one is going to stumble across yours by accident.  In order to coerce visitors in to coming and staying on your site, you need to have a consistent stream of high quality content.  You also need to create links to your website, which serve a dual purpose of advertising and strengthening your website for search engines.  With an established website, you can make tons of easy money online through advertising or affiliate programs.

Within search engine optimization, the field can be broken down in to two parts.  The first is on-page SEO, which is all of the content on the website itself.  The next, equally important part is off-page SEO, and that comprises mainly of link building and promotion.

On-page optimization is the easiest thing to do since you have complete control over your website.  The first thing any webmaster needs to do is identify keywords they want to rank on search engines for, and then put those keywords in the domain, title, and body content of the website.  A keyword density of around five percent is ideal, but small fluctuations do not make much of a difference.

One of the biggest mistakes webmasters make is targeting the wrong keywords.  You need to find a keyword or keyphrase that is not very competitive but has a fair amount of search volume.  Determining what keyphrases you want to target is the ultimate goal of keyword research, which is a whole topic in itself.

Other than the keyword research and continuous content updates, there is not much to on-page SEO.  The real work begins with off-page SEO, when you start to build links to your website.  The amount and strength of links pointing to a website is a significant factor in how Google ranks web pages.

There are many ways to build links.  This includes writing and distributing articles, purchasing static text links, participating in link exchanges, and commenting on other people’s blogs.  If the content on your site is good, you can also gain links naturally, as webmasters are naturally prone to link to quality content they find online.

Many people feel they do not have the time or expertise to effectively rank a website themselves, or the keywords they are attempting to rank for are very difficult.  If all else fails, there are hundreds of SEO firms online that will do the work for you, as well as consult you on how to best continue work yourself.

Over time, once your website ranks well, you will have a solid stream of traffic that will continuously make you money online.  The fruits of SEO labor are long-lasting, so by putting in a lot of work now, you will have rewards that last for years.