There are too many different aspects to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to easily cover in one article, however, there are a few important items that anyone with a website should consider. I have put together my Top 10 SEO Tips below. If you have any questions about any of these items, please contact me today.
1. Review Your Competition
As with any business, know your competitors! Take the time to review your top competitions websites. Not just the design and content, but all the Title, Keywords and Descriptions they are using. To view the source of any website you have open, in IE, go to Page, View Source – in Firefox, Ctrl-U or View/Page Source, then look for <title> and <meta name=”description” content=”" /> <meta name=”keywords” content=”" /> These will be a great starting point for considering your own use.
2. Title
The page title is very important. It not only helps identify your website and page, but also assists with SEO ranking. Some people even put a few keywords in the beginning of their title – although I cannot verify if this helps. Title meta tag should not exceed 60 characters.
3. Description
The page description is as powerful marketing statement for each webpage. It should contain a brief summary of your business and at least a few of the specific keywords used on that page. I recommend creating new descriptions for each page. Description meta tag should not exceed 150 characters.
4. Keywords
The keyword meta tag is the most critical. I recommend that you review the keywords used by your competitors (the ones that show up on Page 1 of Google, MSN or Yahoo) when you search for the keyword phrase that best matches your website. Avoid using the same keyword multiple times, excessive use will be viewed as spamming and can degrade your websites search engine ranking. Keyword meta tag should not exceed 850 characters.
5. Keyword Saturation
What does this mean? It means that the keywords you use in your meta tag should also be used in the content of the page. Focus your keywords to match the content. Rewrite the content to add in the keywords that people might use to search for the information on that page. Try not to exceed 3 – 5% saturation (50 of the same keyword in a 1000 word article is approx. 5%). Over saturation can be viewed as spamming.
6. Content
The more articles, information and other useful information for your viewers the better! A search engine does not want to suggest a website if there is no relevant content or minimal content. They want to present their users with the best possible match for the search term, ensuring the user will continue to use their search engine. So write some “how to” or “top 10″ articles or get permission to repost articles. Do not plagiarize! The search engine robots can pick up on plagerized content and this will reduce your site ranking or worse, get you blacklisted! If you know your business, then you should be able to write a few articles about what you do or the services you provide.
7. Submit URL to Top Search Engines
After you’ve completed updated your titles, descriptions, keywords and content, then submit your URL to the top search engines; Yahoo, MSN (Bing) and Google. There are many services offered to do this for you, but with a little research and googling, you should be able to find all the links to manually submit your own domain name. I offer this service as part of my basic SEO package.
8. Images
Don’t build your website entirely out of images. For two reasons, they usually look horrible and two, if not done correctly, there is literally no content for the search engine spiders to index. If you add an image of text and do not add an Alt tag, then the spiders will only see image.jpg and none of the text used in the image.
9. Flash websites.
Despite how pretty flash websites can be, they are not SEO friendly. If you insist on building a flash site, you should consider offering an HTML version. There are other methods of making a Flash site SEO friendly. I recommend a combination html/css with flash components integrated. This is optimum for SEO.
10. Valid Backlinks
What are Backlinks? Backlinks are websites that list your domain name and link to it. There’s hundreds of options and services available for creating backlinks to your domain, however, be very careful and don’t “buy” backlinks, but instead hire a service that “creates” backlinks by article, press release and review submissions to valid websites. I offer this service, if you want more info, please email me.
One final note, old, out-dated websites with broken links will not be indexed by search engines. You must update, maintain and refresh your websites often to be considered SEO friendly.