SEO in Ten Easy Steps

(or just one..contact us and we will do it for you!)

 

How to make Google and visitors, LOVE your site.

If you are at all serious about succeeding online we highly recommend following these steps to optimize your online presence.

Based on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, these ten fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization actually work.

It is important to listen to what Google says about the importance of implementing their guidelines as they outline some best practices that can help you avoid common pitfalls and improve your site’s ranking.

Following these 10 steps will not only improve your ranking in Google, they also work well for Yahoo!, Bing and most other search engines.

These steps will also make your site more user-friendly for your visitors, and in the end, much more successful.

1. XML Sitemap Submission

Submitting an XML Sitemap, also know as a Google Sitemap, is the best way of being sure search engines will discover your entire website. XML Sitemaps have replaced the older technique of “submitting to search engines” by filling out a form on each search engine’s submission page. Instead, an XML Sitemap containing detailed information about each page of your site is submitted directly to each of the top search engines, giving them detailed information about each page of your site.

Properly creating and submitting an XML Sitemap is the best, fastest and only guaranteed method of informing Google and the other top search engies about every page of your site.

Whether your site is old or new, large or small, we highly recommend submitting an XML Sitemap as it lays the foundation for powerful SEO.

Regular updates of your Sitemap by resubmitting it on a monthly or weekly basis will increase its effectiveness even more. It’s also important to be sure your allocated Sitemap size is large enough to include all of your pages.

2. Building Quality Links

One of the most important strategies (of the more than 200) that Google considers when ranking your site is the number and quality of links pointing to it. The general idea is that the more sites indicating that your content is valuable by linking to it, the better. As long as these links come from sites deemed to be of quality or authority (high search rank), the better your own search rank will be.

**WARNING!** Never buy links. Never. You can be penalized for buying links, participating in paid “link building” programs, or having links from sites that Google has blocked, such sites involved in link selling or any sort of criminal activity, or sites containing viruses.

A common legitimate link building activity is directory submission. Submission can range from just your name and homepage URL to an extensive business profile. Always make sure any content you post to directories is unique, easy to read and human friendly, i.e. never submit strings of comma-separated keywords that will be seen as spam content.

It is always best to list your site only in the most important, authoritative and reputable directories. Avoid the “list your site in thousands of directories” offers. Most are a waste of time. Not all directories are equal, and many to the hundreds or even thousands of directories that some online services offer to post your site to are completely useless, or could even be on Google’s black list.

There are many other ways to quickly develop high quality links that work, including:

• Professionally syndicated press releases
• Syndicated verified business listing services
• Submitting articles to blogs and forums
• Commenting on blogs and forums
• Starting your own blog
• Getting local government (.gov), educational (.edu), or business association links by working with those organizations
• Submitting product reviews and answers on sites like Yahoo! Answers
• Writing submissions in related forums and user groups
• and of course…
• Participating in Social Networking activates such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

THE BEST WAY, however, is to get quality links to your site is to write good content.

If your content is original, informative and interesting people will want to link to it.

If you haven’t got the skill or time necessary to write great content there are professional, SEO savvy content writers available to fit just about any budget. IMPRESSIONS provides a professional content service as a good low-cost alternative to writing your own. Content can be an investment that really pays off. Click here to contact us and learn more.

 

3. Eliminating Broken Links and Error pages

Broken links that produce “Page Not Found” or “404” error messages are harmful to your site. They reduce search engine crawling efficiency and accuracy, which means that some of your content may not be listed (or indexed) in search engine databases.

These broken links also “dilute” your site’s overall page rank. Not to mention they are also one of the easiest ways to lose potential customers. Broken links and error messages create a highly negative and unprofessional impression to visitors, frequently causing them to leave and not return.

Regularly check your entire site for error pages.

Create a Custom 404 Error Page A good 404 error page advises visitors that they’ve hit an invalid URL and then provides other links to direct help them to their intended destination. This helps retain your customers and provides at least a professional impression.

If you move or rename pages, you can use 301 redirects to automatically transfer them from the old page location to its new permanent home. This redirect is anonymous to your site visitor.

If you can’t implement custom 404 pages or 301 redirects, contact your web developer for assistance.

 

4. Make Your Site Easy to Navigate

Have you ever visited a website and just couldn’t find what you were looking for? It can be very frustrating and disappointing.

By adding a HTML navigation site map and “search” box to you site your users experience will be improved.

Surprisingly, this not only helps convert visitors into customers and helps keep them coming back, but it results in higher search rankings. Google rewards sites with good navigation because they want their users to have a good experience when they click on a search result. It’s in Google’s best interest to promote sites with good navigation to their users and so it’s in your own best interest to be one of those sites.

 

5. Choose the Right Keywords or Target Key-Phrases

Within your business there are some very specific and even obvious key words that relate to your industry and that customers would type-in to search for your service or product online.

Choose two or three highly targeted keywords or key phrases for each page of your site, including your Home Page very carefully because keywords you think might be perfect may not be what people actually search for.

For example, never use general keywords such as “travel” or “vacation.” Very large, well-known sites usually rank the highest for general words such as these, and are extremely difficult, if not, impossible, to compete with for search listing rankings.

You can achieve better results by targeting less popular, more specific and narrowly targeted keywords or phrases.

Google’s kindly provides free keyword tools that are a great way to discover content keywords that may be worth targeting in your industry.

It’s so cool you can even enter the URL of a competitor’s page or simply one of your pages to analyze the contents of that page and give you a list of potential keywords along with traffic and competitive information.

Google’s Adwords Keyword Research Tool

 

6. Learn Some Basic HTML Code

Website Designers have been known to say that “Code is Poetry”. It is certainly a “language” that must be appreciated as it is what is used to dynamically format web pages.

Many important SEO techniques require only very simple edits to your website’s HTML code.

Knowing what to change and how to adjust your HTML code has a huge effect on your SEO and search listings.

Learning the basics of simple HTML is not difficult. If, however, you want to leave it up to a professional web designer or developer to implement these simple changes to your site, keep in mind that they are just that: simple. They should not take too long to complete and should not cost you an arm and a leg as long as you have effectively communicated exactly what you want to achieve.

 

7. Publish Fresh and Unique Content Incorporating Your Keywords

Creating keyword-rich original content is absolutely crucial to ranking highly. Transform your list of carefully selected keywords into pages of at least 200 words of unique text, incorporating one, two, or at the most three of your chosen keywords into the copy of each page. Your home page may have less content, but should target your most important two or three keywords.

What does unique text mean? It means that you produce original content. It means you haven’t simply copied verbatim from other websites or blogs. If you don’t have enough of your own ideas about content look at what other have written, then re-write it making it better. You can make it shorter and more concise, or longer and more detailed. Just don’t plagiarize.

Search engines read your pages of keyword rich copy on your to properly classify or “index” your site.

The frequency of keyword usage is also important. For best results repeat each keyword or phrase, or variations of the phrase, 2 to 4 times within your copy (depending on its length).

Be sure to put your keyword at least once in a headline using the <H1> or <H2> HTML code.

In this case, less is best. Too rich a keyword density can often cause search engines to penalizing your site.

Never use “invisible text” or text on your Web pages that is the same color as the background. It will also result in search engine penalties.

Your website content should be written first for real people, and second for search engine spiders. For your website to be successful you need to keep both in mind. Keywords are important for both audiences. They help real people skim your page and help the search engines determine what your page is about.

Writing marketing copy for your website doesn’t need to be fancy and it surely doesn’t need to be lengthy. If you keep three simple things in mind, along with your keywords, your copy will practically write itself: Benefits, Benefits, Benefits!

Emphasize the value of your product or service and how it can help solve your customers problems. Highlight what it will do to make their lives better, easier, safer, more important. If it saves them time, improves results, etc. – tell them that, and briefly tell them how. Show the Benefits, not just the features.

Always be honest. Make your website copy sizzle and make it sell, but if its intentionally misleading, your profits and your business are going to be short-lived. It may be the world-wide web – but it’s a small world at times and your customers, in particular, dissatisfied customers have the freedom to comment and post about their experiences.

Always proof read your copy, read it out-loud to yourself or someone else. Typos, misspellings and inconsistencies can be distracting.

 

8. TITLE Tag Optimization

HTML title tags are critical for search engine categorization and therefore ranking. By using descriptive words and phrases in your title tags you help both people and search engines better understand the focus of your page.

Include your most important keywords in this tag. Space is limited (use a maximum of 60 characters) so don’t include your company name unless you really think it needs to be there for brand equity.

Don’t waste the opportunity to optimize your title tag by displaying irrelevant information such as “Home Page.” Get creative and include keywords that users would likely search for to find your product or service or other information on your page.

The title tag is the most important tag to optimize on your webpage because:

• Search engines weigh heavily the words used in the title tag when determining your page ranking and keyword indexing.
• They are used as the title for your search engine results listings, giving a critical first impression to potential customers.
• They are automatically used as the bookmark headings when someone bookmarks that page of your site.

Title Tag Cheat Sheet:

Begin the title with your most important and relevant keyword or phrase for which you are trying to get high rankings. Ensure that the same keyword is used frequently (but humanly) throughout the webpage reinforcing the relevance of the page as a whole.

Insert a hyphen or double-colon to separate the initial keyword from your next prioritized keyword or phrase to help make the title more readable or to provide extra context.

Then describe the webpage in five words or less. Don’t be afraid to use all or part of your target keyword or phrase again.

 

9. META DESCRIPTION Tag Optimization

The Meta Description Tag is the next most important tag, since search engines use it to identify the theme and relevance of your content. How you describe your page appears as the descriptor text underneath the highlighted Title headline in search results.
Meta Description Lengths Displayed in Search Engines (including spaces) is on average 160 characters, so you have to describing your webpage in 15 to 20 words. Be concise, succinct and punchy.
Think about when you are searching for something…notice how a well written description tag increases the chance that you will click on that listing. You may skim the top rankings but if a particular description elaborates on the point and uses language that is relevant to what is actually being searched for, then it is more likely to be clicked on.

How to optimize your meta description tags:

• Create a unique meta description tag for each page that uses its keywords.
• Create informative description tags that accurately describe the page and product to search users and respect the character limits noted below.
• Include words that users would most likely search for to find the product, service or information on that page.
• Finish off the description tag with a “teaser” to entice the reader to click on your link to finish off what was being said.
• The keyword should be used no more than two times in total.

If you are serious about increasing traffic and ranking highly in search engines, at least take the time to write good Title and Description tags. They are a fundamental requirement for optimal search ranking.

Note: The Keyword meta tag is not given ANY consideration at all by Google or the other major search engines and should not be used.

 

10. Incorporate as many HTML strategies as possible

Don’t foregt other HTML code elements to extract a little more love from the search engines. You can boost your rankings and drive traffic by providing more information in your HTML code. Boost your search engine rankings by implementing these techniques:
Use text headings (using heading tags <H1><H2><H3>) Text placed within a heading tag is used to briefly describe the topic of the section of a page it introduces. The use of text “heading” tags is important to the user as visual clues, but they are also used to indicate the importance of the words or phrases to the search engines. It allows search engines to navigate and make better sense of the words and phrases on the page in a way that changes in font size doesn’t. Some sites don’t use them because they don’t like the way they look, but heading tags can easily be made to look any way you like by including them in your style sheets.
Use Image Alt Tags Alt tags (Alternative Text Tags) were developed so that if an image is unavailable, you can still see an alternative text description of it. Alt tags are also an additional type of content, in which you can display information to visitors and search engines by using the alt and title attributes. Note that search engines will index the both the alt and title content, but usually prefer the title content if available.

 

11. Bonus Tip: Patience

Don’t expect results immediately. Using these simple methods will undoubtedly deliver more traffic from Google and other search engines, but it takes time. Once you start implementing the above steps, your site’s ranking will eventually rise. While you should start seeing results within weeks, big improvements usually requires a little more time and effort.

Take the time to keep implementing the Google Guidelines. Google rewards sites meeting their guidelines with higher placement in search results and quality traffic.