Optimizing a website to improve search ranking requires a lot of patience and effort. Here is a list that I have summarized as a guide to search engine optimization (SEO).
Tip 1: content is king
On any content-driven website, rich authoritative content is key to driving traffic. It is important to select the topic that interests you the most, because passion moves everything. The search engine optimization journey begins with a topic. And it has to be rich and authoritative along the way.
Tip 2 – Keywords
Once the content has been written, it is important to identify the important keywords for keyword research on the Internet. Wordtracker, at http://www.wordtracker.com, is an excellent tool that calculates keyword search frequency on the web. Remember to choose keywords that your market segment will use, not technical terms they are unfamiliar with.
Tip 3 – Spice up your LINK popularity
Having inbound links in both quantity and quality beats most SEO techniques. If you could establish just 5 inbound links from sites that have at least a PageRank of 4 (PR4), your site’s Google PageRank will improve. Another good way to improve your link popularity is to submit your site to directories of at least a PR4 and submit your articles to EzineArticles. Install the Google toolbar and you will be able to determine the PR value for all websites and pages.
Tip 4 – Meta tags
Two of the most important meta tags are the title tag and the description tag. Set the values of these tags that correspond well with the information in the page content. Keep all unique title tag values for each individual page.
There are many FREE tag analysis tools on the web that you can test your setup with. You can try such a tool at http://www.seomoz.org and http://www.submitexpress.com.
It will also be useful to insert the ALT tag for images and photos. Structure your headings and subheadings using H1-H6 tags to help the spider get a clearer understanding of your site.
Tip 5 – Things to AVOID
Spider cannot interpret Flash and Javascript. To the best of your ability, avoid the following:
Tip 6 – Marketing
Marketing is truly an art and there are 101 ways to do it. The most popular include:
- ads and classifieds
- electronic newsletter (mailing list)
- blogging
- participation forum
- article submissions
- business networks
- Press releases
Again, it is important to offer rich and authoritative content in all marketing strategies.
Tip 7 – Traffic monitoring
The Google Analytics tool is an excellent tool to monitor all the traffic information and conversion rates.
