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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not hard. To be effective you must be strategic and
have patience. It is a process that takes time. Before you start, make sure you have the correct Web site structure for
SEO.
The search engines must see the content on your site in order to place your pages correctly
in their databases. Do not allow your Web programmer to develop a site in frames. Content in this
structure is not visible to the search engines.
Also be careful with dynamically created pages from a database or a content management
system. If you are building a database driven Web site, just ask questions about the
SEO-friendliness of the code.
Finally, avoid putting all of your critical content in graphics or flash
Here is the process we have used quite successfully to reach a top Google ranking for many,
many Web sites, some lasting for years at the top:
Step One: Research Your Keywords
Start with good, thorough Keyword research (see our Internet Marketing Best Practices Page for details
on keyword research). Keywords will define the themes for your SEO campaign.
Step Two: Identify the SEO pages on your Web site.
You do not need to optimize every page on your site for search marketing. Select the few
that will carry the SEO campaign. For your SEO-targeted pages:
- Include the SEO phrase in the file name, if possible. Example: mysite.com/keyword.html
File naming is not critical, but it helps. Use a dash “-“ and not a “_”underscore in the file names.
- Use the keyword in the page title. A browser shows the title in its top bar.
It is a behind the scenes code. Most of your viewers will not notice the title on your page, but the search engines will.
- Write the page as you normally would, then optimize the content on the page for SEO. By writing it for viewers
before you optimize it, you keep your writing style consistent throughout your site.
To optimize the content:
- Include the search phrase in the headline
- Sprinkle the search phrase throughout the text, especially the beginning and ending paragraphs.
Do not overuse it or you risk getting bad marks from Google. As you know Google rules the search world,
so we recommend you stay in the system’s good graces
- Use the keyword phrase in the anchor text of the links within your site to the SEO page.
Step Three: Register with the Top Directories
After you write and launch your pages, register with the two main directories. We recommend dmoz and yahoo’s directory (dir.yahoo.com). Choose the category that best reflects your SEO focus.
If you have a large site, develop an XML site map. You can also point the XML site map to your “robots.txt” file. You can find many free tools online for creating an XML site map.
Do not register your site with the search engines and certainly do not pay anyone to do it. Google works best if it finds you. If you build your Web site correctly, the google.bot will find you.
Step Four: Launch a Link Building Campaign
Google considers the quantity and quality of in-bound links in determining the ranking order on the search engine results page (SERP). The SERP is the page searchers see after they submit a search.
One tactic for increasing in-bound links (other sites linking to your site) is to use online public relations for SEO. Inbound links help with search engine rankings and increase traffic to your Web site.
Develop a listing (by keyword focus) of the Web properties, blogs, e-newsletters, etc. that you can approach to gain visibility by posting a comment, placing an article, or providing information on your e-books, etc. Identify the top relevant blogs and obtain their audience demographics (age, income, print materials they read, resident countries, etc).
For more information on this, visit our page on best practices for online PR.
Step Five: Evaluate Your SEO Success
About a month after you complete your initial SEO campaign, start checking your your search results — on a weekly basis.
Check for:
- The number of your pages in Google's database. You can see your Web site pages in the Google index by entering “Site:myurl.com” in the Google search box. Google will typically index a new site in about 30 days. It can take a little longer and it may not index all pages on the first pass.
- The number of new visitors coming to your site. Pay special attention to your referrer report. This tells you keywords and properties the searchers used to find your site.
- Watch your bounces. A page that gets a 100% bounce frequently indicates visitors are not finding the information they are seeking on that page.
Step Six: Adjust
After your SEO pages are online for a full month and the search engines are bringing traffic, start adjusting. You can start by make changes to page titles that are not working as you hoped.
Also add or replace any content based on the traffic you are seeing or the traffic you are not seeing.
You could also build more links with another round of article placements, blog postings etc.
To ease some of the management chores of search engine optimization, you should can use several tools.
Visit our page on the top Internet marketing tools to find the best ones for you.
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