In the field of SEO (search engine optimization), there are a myriad of things you can do to affect rankings in search engines.
While its basic premise is simple (content + links), you cannot pick up strategy and tactics in a weekend or two. A long term committment is needed, and you need a combination of technical, entrepreneurial, design and marketing skills and certainly – copywriting skills.
But, with those writing skills, you can get started today!
Last week, I was introduced to a company and their current website. Like most serious businesses, they wanted top rankings for some related keyterms (which is good). When I did a more in-depth keyword research (this is where you must start) – it revealed none of their selected terms were used online (not good). You should still consider those related terms and test them via PPC & SEO. Monitor trends in your server and anlytics logs for performing keywords, and continue keyword research.
Keywords with search counts with at least 100-200 searches per month (try the Overture Suggestions Tool) could form a good starter strategy.
Try first to lift your rankings in MSN & Yahoo. However, do the competitive research and get metrics out of those comparisons, since every marketplace is different. Y & M favor content and care less about links – whereas Google cares about both.
This post is a reminder to look at quality content – always. That means your on-page factors need to be applied correctly.
Here is an onpage SEO list to (re)consider:
- After solid keyword research, make sure to include searched keyterms/phrases on your page, early and often – without being repetitive. Thinks about using synonyms and permutations to describe your content, and don’t worry too much about keyword density.
- Make sure you place those keywords in the TITLE of your page.
- Use 1-2 keywords per page and no more than three. We want to make sure the page reads well. You also don’t need to write a thesis either. Folks scan on the web, and it’s good to break content into more pages than just a monolithic one. Test with varying word counts, but 200 words on a page is definitely good.
- Place your keywords inside H<x> tags, and while H1 tags are important, you can also use H2 to help support your topic. Use CSS stylesheets to blend into the page and/or graphics.
- Use internal linking strategies to emphasize anchor text links and make sure the receiving page matches that keyword / topic.
- Optimize directories and filenames with keywords you are targeting. If you have an existing structure developed already, use 301 redirects or mod rewrite to get them set up right. Google highlights keywords in their results pages, including directories and URLs – which can make your listing stand out as well.
- Think users, then search engines – not the other way around, and don’t spam.
This is an example of an on-page optimized page, related to “corporate blogs”.
Content on your page with keywords and links can get you ranked higher in search engines.
The only way a search engine can know what your page is about, is via keywords.
Make sure you apply these techniques, and continue to build external link profiles as well using the same link strategy.
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 6:33 pm and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “What Everybody Ought To Know About SEO”
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ULTIMATE Guide to Search Engine Optimization
September 24th, 2007 at 5:51 am
[...] World Jon Rognerud publishes both great overviews and in depth [...]
September 24th, 2007 at 11:38 am
This is certainly true – Most of the SEO process is pretty basic once you get the hand of it – like the article mentioned its all about quality – make sure you have something that is easy on the eyes, not too lengthy and interesting. If your doing this on your own and grabbing a hold of SEO I would recommend that you become familiar with the submission and webpage standards that are set by Google, Yahoo,MSN etc…
For one, you want to stay away from Hidden Text – Google frowns on thsi and although it may trick the Google Bot spiders that crawl your page for some time and although this will help increase your ranking – its only a matter of time before google and the major search engines Sandbox your site. AVOID THIS BY ALL MEANS.
Great article!