In the following article, 3 simple steps that are easy to remember will reveal
just how easy search engine optimisation can be once you know how. There are
many websites that will complicate SEO by referring to engine algorithms,
page rank formulas, key-word density or what have you. This article will not
dwell anything that technical. Lets leave the theorists and bloggers to do
what they do best and argue till the cows come home. In the meantime we can
work towards getting your webpage up into the top 10 results at Google, MSN
and Yahoo.
There are only three simple steps of the SEO equation to remember:
Let's take a look at those 3 steps in greater detail.
Why..? Would you rather spin the
roulette wheel and take your chances against high-rolling competitors, who
throw tonnes of cash into professional SEO and advertising campaigns; or get
qualified traffic hitting your site now? Websites targeting the most popular
search terms are small fish in a big pond. By targeting less popular terms
with fewer possible search results, you become a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
Lets take an extreme example. Your a commercial web host and you want your
site optimised for search engines. With Google, the search phrase 'web hosting'
returns 23 million results. That's a lot of competition; small
fish in a big pond remember. How about 'commercial website hosting'? Well
you have about 9 million other pages to compete with there. The phrase 'webhosting
specials' only returns 1.2 million results. So how many other pages do you
want to compete against, 23 million or 1.2 mil?
There are a few convenient tools around for selecting your
search terms. To find how many search-result competitors exist for related
terms, check out Google's
keyword suggest.
Once you've narrowed down a list of candidates, head on over to the Overture's
site and start up a dummy account. The key-word suggest tool is invaluable
for gaining an insight to what people punch into search engines and how
many hits these terms are scoring at Overture per month. Your looking
for a sweet spot of say 5-10% of the result pages that your industry's
hottest terms return.
The most logical page to optimise first time round is your homepage. There
are factors that play into SEO which are heavily dependant on how many external
websites link to your page. The most common link you are going to score from
other sites is the default homepage, so it follows that this is the best place
to start. The most critical part of your web page is behind the scenes in the
html. Particularly important is the header and it's relationship to the rest
of your html.
Your website should include 3 important tags in the head. They include title,
meta description, and meta key-words. It's important to have the title as
the first tag in the head, with the 2 mentioned metas soon following. Stuffing
your head tags with other metas and clutter such as lengthy javascript can
only harm your search engine results page ranking (SERPs); <head>clutter
will never improve it.
So lets take a look at our web hosting site example. The beginning html for the index page should be something along these lines;
<html>
<head>
<title>Webhosting Specials</title>
<meta name"keywords" content"webhosting specials, webhosting, specials, web, hosting" />
<meta name"description" content"ACME Webhosting offers competitive webhosting specials" />
<! keep all your css external >
<style type"text/css" media"screen">@import "yourcss.css";</style>
<! get a funky bookmark icon in there >
<link rel"shortcut icon" href"favicon.ico" type"image/x-icon" />
<!get any javascript external from head tags >
<script language"JavaScript" type"text/javascript" src"externalJavascript.js"></script>
</head>
Now the header tags have set the stage for the rest of the page. The idea is
to make the rest of the html and content appear with 'Website specials' as the
most prominent topic. Search engines see tags such as <h1>, <h2>, <h3>,
<strong>, <em>, <u> and <a href> as prominent indicators
of topic relevancy. You want to make sure that 'website specials' appears in a h1
or h2 tag as close to the beginning of your content tag as possible:
<body>
<h1>Website Specials</h1><! this may be the web page title >
..snip..
<h2>ACME Webhosting offers competitive webhosting specials</h2>
Whatever copy or text content you have on the page, you want 'website specials'
to appear in bold and italic or underlined (just once will do). Don't go overboard
in repeating the terms throughout your text content over and over. Don't hide
the terms by giving them a font colour the same as the background. Just sprinkle
the term sparingly throughout the copy so that it remains easily read. Remember
you still have to sell product and no one likes to read spam; say a ballpark
of once per 100 words of content. For the first 3 images that appear in the html
from the top of the page, you want the key terms to appear in their 'alt' attributes.
..blah...<strong>Webhosting Specials</strong>. <u>Webhosting
Specials</u>..blah..
<img srcmainlogo.jpg alt"Webhosting Specials Logo" />
Look at the links on your page. "Website Specials" should appear as link text
3-6 times. Those links can also do with an additional 'title' attribute with
the terms mentioned too.
<a title"Website Specials of the Month" hrefwebsitespecials.htm>Website Specials</a>
You also want the terms to be mentioned as close to the end of the page as possible.
One idea is to have a footer with a link to an about-us page.
<a title"About ACME Website Specials" hrefaboutacmewebsitespecials.htm>About
ACME Website Specials</a>
</body>
</html>
Now for a list of Don'ts
Don't trust automatic linking software. It's far, far too
easy to get listed in link-farms and dodgy directories when using automatic
submission software. You want to ensure that you have a certain level of control
over who and how your site gets linked. The most valuable links you can get
are from highly (Google PR) ranked sites that are related to your optimised
page content. (If you haven't submitted your site to http://dmoz.org, then
do it now.)
Each time you submit a form or email for a link, keep a record. Part of a
good SEO campaign is backlink management and you'll be glad you have records
of all applications sent out when maintenance time comes round. When asked
for a "Title" of
your site, give your search term, e.g. "Website Specials", if possible. The
title in most cases is the anchor text for the link. Remember, external links
with your key terms in the anchor text are the most valuable. Be sure that
the site you are submitting to will give you a direct link, not a redirect
link. You can tell by mousing over some example links and looking at the
status bar. If you see your domain name, go for it. If their domain name
shows up with bunch of other values tacked on the end, give the site a miss.
When searching for link candidates, it's wise to have a Google toolbar installed
on your browser. If there's one available for your browser, install it.
If your worried about your privacy from Google's IE toolbar, install Firefox
and get the Google toolbar extension installed. Your main objective is
to get a link on as many pages that have a Google PR of 4+. Totally avoid unranked
pages and steer well clear of pages that register as a gray bar in IE's
Google toolbar. This is an indicator of a site being "black-listed" for exploiting
search engines.
Directories, directories and more directories. This is a good place to start.
Many directories will give you a free link without the need to reciprocate.
Do a Google search for directory + 'your business category'. Here's a list
of some high ranking directories: http://www.bestcatalog.net/seotips/directories.htm.
Start at the top and work your way down.Free
Classifieds! Search for sites that allow you to post free or cheap classifieds
with basic html enabled. Get your key terms in the classified ad as the
anchor text for the link to your optimised web page.
Discussion Forums! Start hunting for discussion forums with high ranking Google PR's. The forums
must allow for links in your account signature. When making the sig, be sure
your key terms are the anchor text for the link/s to your site. Once registered,
start posting your little heart out and be sure to enable your signature
to be attached to your post. Each post 1 external link. Join a dozen
or so forums and those links will start piling up.
Press Releases! Do you think you have something newsworthy to say? Then
write up a news story and be sure to include a link (don't forget keywords
anchor text) in the body or by-line. Submit the article to related sites
in exchange for prominent links. Submit to all the major web news sites. Each
website that publishes the article is another incoming, one-way link with
your key terms as the guiding light.
Do backlink searches on your competitors.
Back link searches are search criteria which asks for sites linking to
a page that do not include the page's domain. For example, at Google a back
link search for www.acmehosting.com would be link:www.acmehosting.com
-site:acmehosting.com. Duplicate your competitors efforts and get your site
linked where ever they've managed to.
On a finishing note, there's one important
thing to realise about Google SERPs, the "Sandbox" effect. It's theorised that
Google filters new domain names out of all searches except for their own domain
name for a period of 6-9 months depending on the popularity of the site's targeted
key-words. Google PR rank and SERPs are inter-related but are not the same
thing. Your site can enjoy a Google PR of 7 yet still be sandboxed and appear
nowhere in the results for your targeted key terms. The only thing you
can do is work on your external linkage and optimise more pages of your
site. The hard work will pay off on steady incoming traffic and high
ranks at MSN and Yahoo etc. When Google finally releases your domain,
then you'll enjoy similar SERPs to the other majors and reliable, incoming
qualified traffic.