Search Engine Optimization for Beginners. Boost Your Page Rank
Search Engine Optimization is actually a free advertising method that can drive traffic to your site every day of the year. You can spend money on Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) if you choose, but your first priority should be to optimize your web pages so the search engines pick up your target key words. Many organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques show results only after several months, so it is one of the first things to do when creating a new website or web page.
Here is a list of the ten factors that the experts believe to comprise Google's most important search engine algorithms. The full recipe will never be revealed, but it is well worth making sure you are using all these search engine optimization methods to ensure your site is getting the highest page rank possible, and benefit from free search engine traffic.
Recent years have brought about a revolution for search engine marketing/optimization. In an interview with SEO-Web-Consulting President Valerie DiCarlo at the SES conference in New York, she offers many helpful hints. For starters, there is a lot more to it than just the optimization/marketing aspect. One major element is the shift from organic searches to paid searches. Companies want speed which is why they prefer this method. Also, special training and education are needed with SEO, and that takes time.
Getting people to visit websites is another factor in this process. A lot of thought and planning is required with this aspect, because it is a critical part to whether or not the website is successful. You must think like the user, and act like the user to be able to prevent any problems they may encounter. If this is done in the preparation phase, then problems will never arise.
1. Use Keywords In Title Tags– Make sure that you use HTML title tags (H1, H2 etc) that reflect the key terms you want your page to be found for. Many bloggers and webmasters have speculated that title tags are less important however I still think they merit attention. The title tag will be shown in your search engine results, and you can include up to 60 characters in this tag, so make sure they are the ones that you want to show to the search engines.
Thousands of websites are wasting valuable internet real estate because they do not make use of the Page Title - this is the text you enter in the HEAD section of the page. It is common to see nothing but 'home page' or, even worse, the site URL, in the blue navigation bar at the top of the screen. This is the prime location for keywords. And it is not the same title as you would use above a shop, so we do not use whimsical titles like 'Kevin's doggie days'. Instead you will use key words such as 'dog training by Kevin the Collie'. This wording is important for the spiders and for your visitor, who will find it easy to bookmark.
2. Link Exchanges - Make New Friends
Getting listed on the major search engines and directories is just the beginning of your SEO work. You also need continual inbound links to your site. The debate is between quality and quantity of links. If your site is in a niche where related websites are happy to exchange links, go ahead. If the process is slow, then you can check out the various linking directories available. Linkreferral is a good site for quality visitors and links, and it is free . Link popularity is a huge topic, there are just two things to watch out for - never exchange links with a site whose page ranking is 'grey' (this shows in your toolbar), and do not exchange with adult sites unless you are in that market.
3. Optimise each individual page for a concise keyword phrase
It is not enough to treat all pages on your site in the same way. Each one is visited by a search engine individually so you need to use the theme - and title tags - of each page to help in competing for the top keywords. This can make the difference between competing for 'dogs' and a precise phrase like 'dog training for truffle hunting'. Once the visitor arrives, they will be able to read the rest of your site which is about.
Keep the pages on your website concise with a particular keyword or keyphrase.
4. Choose the right key word phrase
An easy mistake is to look at the phrase from your point of view, and focus on a technical wording rather than the words your customers use. You can check what people are typing in for your niche by consulting the keyword research tools, and there are many available. You can see instantly see the most popular keyword phrases and bid amounts here.
5. Optimizing Page Content
When writing page content it is easy to forget the constraints of SEO, and start writing advertising copy that has no connection with your keywords and phrases. Your page must still be written with readers in mind, and contain those vital keywords and phrases - otherwise you have wasted all your keyword research work. If you find this difficult, cut and paste your keyword list at the top of your page draft, then you can check the keyword density. Do not stuff the page with key words, and make sure that the sentence still sounds natural.
6. Why should people visit your site?
Ask yourself constantly why each page is worth visiting. What is interesting on the page - is there free offer or an incentive to return? Can they get to another area of interest from any landing page?
7. Make full use of link and image tags
Every URL and image link will be labelled and this is another chance to include keywords and phrases, both on the page and in the HTML. On the page, it is simply good writing style. Instead of 'click here', use a term like '.. more funny dog stories'. Within each URL tag the HTML code can include "alt = funny dog stories". These are two more chances to include your keywords and increase their relevance to the page, all helping your page ranking and Search Engine Recognition prospects. There is nothing 'black hat' about this practice, as the alt tag is intended to describe the link if the link is not available. Your description will not only inform your reader but also include your keywords.
8. Invite the spiders to visit
It is disappointing for knowledgeable web designers that the search engines do not enjoy Frames, reams of Javascript, Flash and HTML style descriptions - in fact they will probably choke and go elsewhere. If you must include these elements you will need to pay an SEO specialist to set up an alternative web for the spiders to crawl. Otherwise, just go back to basics: keep Javascript to a minimum, use a separate stylesheet and no frames.
9. Make New Friends
Getting listed on the major search engines and directories is just the beginning of your SEO work. You also need continual inbound links to your site. The debate is between quality and quantity of links. If your site is in a niche where related websites are happy to exchange links, go ahead. If the process is slow, then you can check out the various linking directories available. Linkreferral is a good site for quality visitors and links, and it is free . Link popularity is a huge topic, there are just two things to watch out for - never exchange links with a site whose page ranking is 'grey' (this shows in your Google toolbar), and do not exchange with adult sites unless you are in that market.
10. Search Engines are dumb but clever
Do not try to play tricks on the search engines, they will find out. If you are following just some of the SEO techniques listed here the search engines will recognize your pages and they will show up. Playing tricks will make you the loser in the end: getting banned from Google or Yahoo will cost you a lot of time and money to rectify.
11. Do not submit your site to Free For All (FFA) sites
Many websites promise to provide a top 10 ranking for your website, in which
this will actually have a negative effective to your position on the
search engine ranking pages (SERPs) on the big three - Google, Yahoo and
MSN. These are websites which promise you thousands of links to your
website, and may get you to install some code on your website to display
links. This is not an advisable method of search engine Optimisation and we suggest that you stay away from these websites: your site could also be banned from the search engines if you sign up.
Search Engine Optimization is rather like doing your maths homework - it is easy to put off but once you start it can be strangely addictive.
Getting Started with Search Engine Optimisation
These 10 SEO Tactics Bring Me Over 2000 Visitors Daily
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008
No matter how hard some people try to mystify SEO, it is
not as complicated as many would lead you to believe.
Despite all the techno jargon that many in the field will
throw at you: SERPs, SEM, PageRank, Keyword Density,
Vertical Search, Algorithms... SEO is really simple to do
if you understand some basic concepts and follow some easy
steps.
Search Engine Optimization is getting your content listed
in all the top positions in Google, Yahoo and MSN for your
targeted keywords. When someone does a keyword search in a
search engine for your particular subject or niche - you
want your site or content to be at the top of the list.
Here are 10 SEO tactics that have worked and are working
for me at this moment in time.
1. Quality Content is and always will be your number one
factor for getting high rankings and keeping them. You must
understand search engines are simply businesses that supply
a product like any other company. That product is
information. They must offer quality results to anyone
using their service to solve a problem, answer a question
or to buy a product. The more relevant, the more targeted
the search solution they return, the higher the overall
quality of their product and the more popular their search
engine will become. Providing quality content is vital for
SEO success.
2. Keywords are your number one tools for achieving high
rankings. You must understand keywords and how they work on
the web. You must know how many searches are made each day
for your chosen keywords. Sites like Wordtracker and
Seobook will give you a rudimentary number of searches.
Design your pages around your targeted keywords and don't
forget to do some deep-linking to these pages on your site.
Find and build backlinks to these interior keyword pages
and not just to your home page or domain URL. Picking
keywords with medium to low competition has worked out well
for me. So too has using the more targeted and higher
converting "long-tail" keywords been very beneficial for me.
3. Onpage Factors and site design will play a major role in
the spidering and indexing of your site/content. Make sure
all your pages are SEO friendly, make sure all your pages
can be reached from your homepage and no pages should be
more than three levels away from it - keeping a sitemap
listing of all your major pages makes the search engines
happy. Make sure you have all your meta tags such as title,
description, keywords... optimized (Title = around
65 characters, Description = around 160 characters).
Remember, your title and description should be keyword
targeted and are the first contact/impression anyone will
have of your site - make sure you use them to draw and
entice interested visitors to your site and content. Also
make sure your title and URL are keyword matched for
maximum effect. Having your major keyword in your Domain
Name also helps, using a pike | to separate different
elements of your title has helped my rankings, so too does
having your keyword in the first and last 25 words on your
pages.
4. Google will send you the most qualified traffic so
concentrate the majority of your SEO efforts on Google.
Don't ignore Yahoo! or MSN but Google is king of search so
give it the respect it deserves. With its new browser,
Google's influence will only grow stronger so you must
optimize your pages for Google. Use Google's Webmaster
Tools and Google Analytics to fine-tune your pages/content.
I also use Google Alerts to keep up on my niche keywords
and for comment link-building on the newly created pages
Google is indexing.
5. Link Building is still the most effective way to boost
your search rankings. Make sure you get backlinks from
relevant sites related to your niche market and make sure
the 'anchor text' is related to your keywords but don't
ignore the text and overall quality of the content linking
to you. The anchor text is the underlined/clickable portion
of a link. Don't forget linking is a two-way street, make
sure you link out to high quality, high ranked relevant
sites in your niche.
6. Article Marketing is a well established method of
getting quality backlinks and it still works. Writing short
500 - 700 word informative helpful articles with your
backlinks in the resource box is still very effective for
getting targeted traffic and backlinks. Longer articles
have also worked for me and I use an extensive network of
distribution, including SubmitYourArticle, Isnare,
Thephantomwriters... plus other major online sites. Don't
forget the whole element of blogging and RSS feeds in your
article distribution. And always remember you're also using
these articles to pre-sell your content or products. Don't
forget to leverage sites like Squidoo, Hubpages... to
increase your rankings and traffic.
7. Onsite Traffic Hubs have worked extremely well for me.
These traffic hubs are whole sections of your site devoted
to one sub-division of your major theme. For example, if
you have a site on Gifts, then wedding gifts could be a
separate section. This would be fully fleshed out with
extensive pages covering everything dealing with wedding
gifts - a self-contained keyword rich portion of your site
on wedding gifts. Works similar as a sub-domain, but I
prefer using a directory to divide it up, such as
yourdomain/wedding_gifts. (Most experts suggest always
using a hyphen in your urls, but underscores have worked
fine for me.) Search engines love these keyword/content
rich hubs but keep in mind you're creating content to first
satisfy your visitors.
8. WordPress blog software is extremely effective for SEO
purposes. WordPress software is easy to install on your
site even if you have no experience with installing
server-side scripts. Besides, search engines love these
highly SEO friendly blogs with their well structured
content and keyword tagging. I have at least one of these
on all my sites to draw in the search engines and get my
content indexed and ranked. I also use Blogger (owned by
Google), Bloglines and other free blogs to help distribute
my content.
9. Social Bookmark/Media Sites are becoming very important
on the web. These include a whole range of social sites
like MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter... media news sites like
Digg, SlashDot, Technorati... you must get your content
into this whole mix if you want to take full SEO advantage
of Web 2.0 sites. You should be joining these sites and
using them. It's time consuming, but it will keep you in the
swing of things. One simple thing you must do is to put
social bookmark buttons on all your pages so that your
visitors can easily bookmark your content for you. You can
use a WordPress plug-in. I like using the simple free
site/service from Addthis.com which gives me a simple
button to put on all my content.
10. Masterplan! Many webmasters and site owners forget to
develop or have an overall masterplan/strategy when it
comes to SEO. You must have an understanding of what SEO is
and what it can do for you and your site. More importantly,
you just don't want SEO - you want effective SEO. In order
to achieve effective SEO you must have three things:
Relevance, Authority and Conversions.
First, your content/site must be relevant to the topic or
niche area you're pursuing - your content must fit in and
be related to all the other sites in your niche. That's why
closely themed sites do so well in the search engines. They
give only relevant content to what's been searched for or
discussed.
Second, your content/site must be perceived as an authority
site on your subject or niche. Establish this authority
position and the search engines will love you and your
content. One way to develop this authority, besides
offering superior content, is to form links/partnerships
with other perceived authority sites in your field. Always
strive to make your site an authority site - tops in your
niche - the one site everyone has to check before drawing
or forming a conclusion.
Third, conversions should be your main goal of any SEO
efforts because you want to convert your targeted traffic
into site members, subscribers, buyers or just repeat
visitors. If you're into online marketing, conversions will
be the most important element of the whole SEO process
because you want buyers, not just visitors coming to your
site.
Most of all, you must convince yourself Search Engine
Optimization is not difficult, nor is it the equivalent of
the online bogeyman as many would like you to believe. Used
effectively, SEO can give you the targeted traffic you're
seeking. Just follow some of the outlined steps/tactics
listed above and you will have SEO working for you and your
site in no time at all.
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous
websites. For the latest web marketing tools try:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com . If you liked the SEO tips
above, why not try this Free 7 Day Traffic Course:
http://www.marketingtoolguide.com.
