| |
| |
|
SEO Information |
|
|
|
The 7 Points of Do-It-Yourself SEO
Ever felt intimidated at the convoluted, jargon-ridden information about Internet marketing for small businesses available on the Net? Ever been horrified by the huge fees the experts charge, putting search engine optimization beyond your own means? Ever thought: What exactly is search engine optimization anyway, and can I do it myself? The answer is: Yes, you can! The basics of search engine optimisation in applied web marketing are simple. It's all to do with the keyword content of your text copy, and can be summarised in seven points. 1. Register a good domain name which reflects what your site is about. Even if you are an established business, don't register www.FredJones.com if you make widgets. Rather, you want to register something like www.BestWidgets.com because that would inspire confidence in people looking for quality widgets who would not necessarily have heard of Fred Jones the widget-maker. 2. Name your page URLs based on reasons similar to the above for your web promotion, except now you can be more specific. Search engines like to know what your page is about. Name a page after a product (BigYellowWidgets.htm) or a service or action (Buy-Widgets-by-Post.htm) on one of the sales pages. 3. The text in the title tag is crucial in letting search engines know what each page is about. Put your important keywords in your title tags, using both the singular and plural versions (people will search for both) and make these tags different and specific for each page. For example, "Widgets and After Sales Widget Services". Whatever you do, don't call the home page "Index", but treat it almost as a mini-description. 4. The other tags (at the top of the html page) between the two "HEAD" tags are not as important as the title tag, but the description tag is still used by some search engines in displaying what you would like web users to see when they scroll down a page of search results. Some search engines don't use the description tag at all; others, like Google, sometimes use part of it together with part of the main body text surrounding prominent keywords on your page. So you may as well treat the description tag seriously; make it brief (about 25 to 30 words) and as comprehensive as possible in the short space allowed. Make sure you have your popular keywords included within your description tag. The ALT tag is used for a very short description of an image or graphic file, and is what is displayed if you allow your mouse pointer to hover above a graphic. These days it is not considered important for search engines. The COMMENT tag is never displayed on the body page, and is used by coders and designers as an instruction or reminder to themselves about what that section of html coding should be doing; in the past, some webmasters in their quest for website promotion and search engine ranking used to stuff keywords in the comments tags, but now it is generally acknowledged that the main search engines pay little or no attention to these. 5. Keyword density. Each search engine has its own preference as to how many times a keyword phrase appears on the page in order to signify the relevance of that keyword phrase (in other words, in order to help the search engine understand what the page is about). Around 5 to 8 per cent is a rough guide as to the optimal level. Don't overdo it, otherwise it will be seen as spam or keyword-stuffing. Also use your keywords in the headings tags H1 and H2. There is an H3 tag as well, but it is doubtful whether search engines bother with that, as it is perceived as less prominent on the page, therefore less relevant to what the page is about. 6. Don't forget good linking in your website marketing. Search engines will judge the importance of your web pages to some extent on the number and quality of incoming links from other sites. Ask other webmasters with sites on similar themes to yours for a link, in exchange for a link back. These sites should not be in competition with yours, but should be similarly themed. You may occasionally be asked by other webmasters if they can link to your site. If this is so then have a look at their site; make sure that their site is relevant, that it has at least some Page Rank, and that it just "feels" good, and has no nasty surprises like redirects or unexpected popups. You don't want to be associated with a "bad neighborhood"! 7. Make sure that important keywords are included in the anchor text within inbound links from other sites. This is crucial to search engines when they try to figure out the relevance and importance of your pages. The inbound link from the other site should take the form of something like this (I'm using normal brackets instead of angle brackets so as not to use compromising html): (A HREF="http://www.Yoursite.com")your important keywords included here(/A). You should definitely avoid something like (A HREF="http://www.Yoursite.com")click here(/A), which tells search engines nothing except that your site is about "click here". Be careful! Gordon Goodfellow is an Internet marketing consultant and practitioner He lives and Works in London, UK, and has helped companies in many industry sectors with clients worldwide. His main site, http://www.applied-web-marketing.com is an introductory resource on Internet marketing for small businesses.
MORE RESOURCES:
SEO - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Keep Your Web Site Content Relevant Visitors and search engines love content-rich web sites, but just having a lot of content on your web site is not enough. It all has to be relevant to a main topic with each page or section of the web site having a specific theme (And yes, this includes any resource or links pages the site may have). Optimze Your Web Site on a Shoe String Budget Let me start off by saying I'm not a marketing guru or work for a fortune 500 advertising company. I don't even have a marketing background. Good Content: The Key To Search Engine Ranking Good Content: The Key To Search Engine RankingWhat drives visitors to your website and keeps them there? Good content.Content is KeyGood content is key to website promotion success. Paris Hiltons Reputation is SHOT! Hows Yours? With apologies for the cheap trick of mentioning Paris Hilton to get your attention, coming to grips with the idea you're about to discover is critically important to your success with search engines!Because while it's true that there are many factors that determine how well a page ranks in Google - did you know that one stands out above the rest? It's link text. (Also known as anchor text?)So much so, link text can be the deciding factor when chasing top rankings for extremely competitive keywords. Guide to Search Engine Optimization What is Search Engine Optimization?Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short is modification done in the web site design, coding, content and/or structure of a web site in an effort to achieve the higher ranking within search engines. Search Engine Optimization are done to attend the highest ranking in the search engine results for some targeted keywords or key phrases. Do It Yourself SEO Internet surfers use search engines more than any other tool to find things online. Search engines rank their results using a complex formula that considers web page content, link popularity and other details. Effective Search Engine Use The Internet is a wonderful place full of resources that can be really helpful for us.The best way for finding information is through a virtual search engine. Search Engine Optimisation - Getting Targeted Traffic Getting SEO right is an art and it's based on theory and best practice. The search engines don't publish their algorithms so getting it right is like finding the exact formula for Coca Cola. Do-It-Yourself Keyword Optimization The first step in a search engine optimization campaign is to choose your keywords or keyphrases for each of your web pages. Keywords are the terms that search engine users type in the search box to conduct a query. Search Engine Ranking... Oh, the Mystery! Rankings, Rankings, Rankings!How do you get your website ranked well by the search engines? Well, it isn't as hard as you think, but it may not be as simple either. It takes patience and an ongoing commitment to making search-engine ranking a long-term investment in your website. Going To Market: Keywords and Backlinks, Part 1 As I waded into the 'Make Money Online' waters on the Internet, I felt I needed to do some research on what keywords might help me generate traffic for my websites. I am very, very new to this whole Internet marketing arena but at the simplest level it seems that the keys to generating income are:Blog >>> Choose Target Keywords >>> Write Articles Incorporating Keywords >>> Create New Pages For Articles >>> Link Article Pages To Blog >>> Link Article Pages To Each Other >>> Populate All Pages with PPC Links >>> Submit Articles To Outlets >>> Submit All Pages To Search EnginesDid I say it was simple? As I said, I am new to this area so there may be a step or two (or 5, or 10, etc. Google, Yahoo! and MSN Line up More Goodies for Internet Users Internet users have never had it better what with Yahoo!, Google and MSN planning to roll out more goodies. Yahoo! is launching its Yahoo! 360 and Google has already made its beta version of the Desktop Search tool widely available for anyone to download it for free to enable one to search e-mails, book marked web pages, or content from your desktop with the use of keywords in the stored Microsoft Word or PDF files. Optimum SEO Keyword Density - A Real-Life Case Study So you've built your website, you know what keywords you want to target (i.e. Optimizing Your Website Search Engine Optimization, optimizing your website for it to be visible in the search results of a search engine's query or in a search result of a directory.Basically, SEO is a marketing strategy for your site. Search Engine Optimization for Beginners If you are confused about terms like "search engine optimization" or having a "search engine friendly" site, then listen up! I am here to help.Depending on how long you have had, or considered having, a website online, you have heard terms thrown around like the above or even worse, acronyms! SEO comes to mind. Answers Count - Matching Keyword and Phrase Density What's more important to your business success - the question or the answer? Certainly, you want your questions to reflect what you are trying to find out. Obviously, your questions should be easily understood. Get Personal With Google Anyone who's been on the net any time at all knows that Google has been the search engine of choice for many for a while now. Whether that continues remains to be seen, but for now, with MSN still in development and Yahoo going through some growing pains, many still feel that Google is the leader. Analyzing Googles Backlinks Is Close To Worthless The Power of Topic Specific Search What are Topical Search Engines?Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. Wordtracker Wisdom: Common Keyword Questions and Answers One of my favorite subjects to teach on at our live SEO Mastery Workshops is that of keyword research and the behavior of a specific target audience using my all time favorite research tool, Wordtracker.For those who have not heard of, Wordtracker it is a Web based service that will help you discover which keywords and phrases will be most effective for attracting the right audience to your Web site.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
