Search Engine Optimization - How to Start the SEO Process

The information presented here should not be considered complete by no means. Generating a good search engine optimization plan requires hard work and plenty of time. There are a lot of great resources such as websites and books and I strongly encourage you to educate yourself as thoroughly as you can.

Getting Started

Choosing Keywords that Match Target Audience
The first step is to choose the keywords that you believe your target audience will search for. There is no use obtaining top search engine placements under terms that are not being searched.

Here are a few simple keyword tips to keep in mind:

• Visit the site of a competitor who you know is doing well online (try using a search engine to find appropriate sites that are already ranking well).

• Make note of your competitors page titles and determine which keywords that they have chosen.

• Look at the source code of your competitors pages (Internet Explorer: click “View” then “Source”) and copy and paste their META tags into a word processing program.

• By finding your competitors page titles and the META tags you should be able to determine with reasonable accuracy which keywords are a good match for your target audience.

• Use a search engine keyword suggestion tool, such as the one found at Overture.com, to help find keywords that will produce results.

Making It All Happen

Optimizing Page Content
The text on your homepage is crucial to maintaining the attention of your visitors as well as search engines and directories. Keep your main focus on the keyword that you have chosen while you write your page content. The most important text, keywords and features on your Web site should be visible above the fold.

Making a Good page title
Your page title should contain your most important keywords and keyword phrases. The title should accurately reflect the content of your web page. Unless your company is well known, avoid using your company name within the title of your pages. All title-tag text should be unique, because every page of your Web site contains unique content.

The title text is very important in terms of search engine visibility. Your title is considered primary text by all search engines. Your title is also the first text shown in the search results. Your title also helps visitors easily identify your site once it has been bookmarked or put into their favorites list.

Avoiding Spam In Your Content
Is crucial that your page does not use any of ‘tricks’ that a search engine may consider to be spam. Hidden text, such as using colored text that is the same as the background color, is considered spam. Also avoid tiny text and hidden links.

Make sure that all the sentences on your Web site make sense when you read them out loud. You may be guilty of keywords stuffing, which is a form of spam, if you try to pack too many keywords into your content. Finally, make sure your websites actual content benefits your target audience or it may be considered spam.

Is Your Content Relevant?
Using content that is not relative just to boost your ratings in the search engines is considered spam. As a general rule, if you are not using a keyword or keyword phrase on the visible content of your pages, do not place unrelated words in your meta tags, titles, or alternative text.

The Description META Tag
META tags are located in the source code of your web page. Not all search engines use META tag content, so you should consider them secondary text to help enhance your site, and your search engine results.

The META tag description attribute should not be overlooked. You should spend more time writing a good description than in writing your keyword and keyword phase list. Some search engines even use the descriptions at the results of a search query.

When writing your META tag descriptions, use your most important keywords based on your keyword research. Try to eliminate filler words, but make sure that your sentences are still readable. Using keywords in your description that you do not use on your page content is considered spam by many search engines.

Navigational Links
Link components are considered one of the most important components of a successful search engine marketing campaign. The way your pages relate to each other and the way your Web site is link to other websites has a major impact on your sites search engine optimization results.

If you use graphical links or JavaScript in your navigation, be sure to provide plain text hyperlinked navigation at the bottom of your pages. Some search engines have trouble spidery a Web site that uses graphics and JavaScript. In addition, if you have a site that uses bread crumbs as a navigation scheme, try to use keywords consistently in them.

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