I’m going to start with the basics here. The following are ten things everyone with a website should know to gain online visibility in search engines. These are the basics of the basic and when applied will give you a firm basis to start a long term Search Engine Optimisation campaign. The structure of your website is important, just as much as the structure of your link building campaign. I know these may seem rehashed, but they are the building blocks for a good SEO campaign.
1) A Keyword Rich Domain. While not always possible, when setting up a new website, consider setting it up on a domain that contains the sites main keywords. Search Engines give considerable weight to a website with keywords in the URL. Never use a keyword stuffed domain (ie. www.your-key-word-here-and-another.com)
2) Title Tag.
The title tag on your page is the most powerful on page factor you can control as a webmaster. Use it wisely. Carefully choose which keywords are going to go in here and remember that it will be read by humans as well as search engines. Never stuff keywords into your title. It only devalues its weight and makes you look spammy.
3) Heading Tags.
The second most important on page factor you can control is the heading tags. Not only are they useful for search engines to determine the context of your document, it is semantically sound HTML practice.
4) Bold, Strong and Emphasis Tags.
While there is no set answer to which carries more weight, assume that both are the same. Emphasize keywords in bold using the BOLD or STRONG tags. Search engines give more weight to keywords if they are emphasized.
5) Keyword Rich Text.
It is always possible to rank for search terms when they are not on your page but using them sparingly will only help increase your search engine visibility for these keywords and
6) Structured Navigation And Correct Internal Navigation.
Make it easy for search engines to index your entire site. Use a text link navigation. I this is not possible, use a sitemap or second text navigation in the footer of your site.
7) Keyword Rich Internal Links.
Use your sites main keywords in the anchor text when linking to pages within your site. This not only describes the link to your visitors, it also lets the search engines know what content is on the page being linked to.
8) Avoid Flash.
While some search engines claim that they can index some flash content, it is still in its infancy. An entire website does not need to be built in flash. Use it wisely and make sure any text that is output by flash is rendered as HTML text so search engines can see it. If possible, avoid flash completely.
9) Avoid Duplicate content.
Search Engines do not like duplicate content. Make sure all the content on your website is different on all pages. Many navigation elements, headers, footers etc. is the same, but make sure that each page has marginally more unique content. Some search engines give a penalty for duplicate content, while others just ignore it. Just make your content unique. If anything else, it benefits your site visitors.
10) Keyword Rich, Relevant Inbound Links.
A relevant, keyword rich inbound link is the holy grail of online marketing. There are many ways to get quality inbound links to your website. Directory Submissions, Article writing/marketing, Press Releases, Posting in forums and blogs, Link Exchanges. Obtaining inbound links is the undisputed king of SEO tactics.
We will be going into more detail on each of the above methods over the coming weeks. Am I missing any? What other basic SEO tips are essential to today’s SEO?
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Online Marketing For The Solo SEO
14:04 by Joe Spyder · 0 comments
Being in the SEO industry, I have developed habits of using certain SEO tools, certain market research tools and certain keyword research tools. All of which I can say I am very happy with. I cannot remember the last time an online marketing tool actually made me step back and take notice.
Throughout my daily trawl of the goldmine of online marketing advice offered over at Marketing Pilgrim I noticed a review of a little service offered Michael Jensen. This service, SoloSEO, absolutely blew me away. Don’t let the simple interface fool you, this tool has absolutely EVERYTHING needed to manage an organic search engine optimisation campaign.
The first thing I noticed was the simple “Step By Step” guidance approach. This tool takes you through the the very basic SEO campaign management steps one by one explaining why each is important and providing checkmarks along the way to make sure you have not overlooked a particular task.
The feature that impresses me most about the SEO Project Management Tool is the Keyword Finder tool. I really like the DigitalPoint tool but it leaves a lot out when it comes to Wordtracker results. The SoloSEO tool has a really cool feature that lines up results from Wordtracker (Complete results), Overture AND Google Adwords Management. Viewing them side by side allows for tremendously simple analysis.
A couple of issues I would like to see addresses are the keyword duplicates . First of all, when adding the keywords to your “keeper List” the tool does not tell you that you have already added it from another source. Second of all, I would love to see the duplicates for upper and lower case words eliminated. It would also be wonderful to dee the daily or monthly search volume next to them. I would also like to be able to edit keywords inline in the keyword list.
The next feature I really liked was the Link Search Tool. This allows you to find links that your competitors have and links accepting submissions for your niche. And it gives a LOT of options and methods to search for links.
Among the plethora of other tools, there is one more that really shines. The reporting feature. Although a little slow for larger reporting queries, the results are displayed in wonderfully simple way that you can export and download. Wonderful for printing off and showing results.
After testing this tool for well over two weeks, I can safely say that I will be ditching many of my tools in favor of SoloSEO. The simple approach, unique tools and very modest approach makes this a tool really worth considering. Weather you use it for a single Search Engine Optimisation campaign, or use it to manage many in-house projects, I am sure you will find SoloSEO has a lot to offer.
Throughout my daily trawl of the goldmine of online marketing advice offered over at Marketing Pilgrim I noticed a review of a little service offered Michael Jensen. This service, SoloSEO, absolutely blew me away. Don’t let the simple interface fool you, this tool has absolutely EVERYTHING needed to manage an organic search engine optimisation campaign.
The first thing I noticed was the simple “Step By Step” guidance approach. This tool takes you through the the very basic SEO campaign management steps one by one explaining why each is important and providing checkmarks along the way to make sure you have not overlooked a particular task.
The feature that impresses me most about the SEO Project Management Tool is the Keyword Finder tool. I really like the DigitalPoint tool but it leaves a lot out when it comes to Wordtracker results. The SoloSEO tool has a really cool feature that lines up results from Wordtracker (Complete results), Overture AND Google Adwords Management. Viewing them side by side allows for tremendously simple analysis.
A couple of issues I would like to see addresses are the keyword duplicates . First of all, when adding the keywords to your “keeper List” the tool does not tell you that you have already added it from another source. Second of all, I would love to see the duplicates for upper and lower case words eliminated. It would also be wonderful to dee the daily or monthly search volume next to them. I would also like to be able to edit keywords inline in the keyword list.
The next feature I really liked was the Link Search Tool. This allows you to find links that your competitors have and links accepting submissions for your niche. And it gives a LOT of options and methods to search for links.
Among the plethora of other tools, there is one more that really shines. The reporting feature. Although a little slow for larger reporting queries, the results are displayed in wonderfully simple way that you can export and download. Wonderful for printing off and showing results.
After testing this tool for well over two weeks, I can safely say that I will be ditching many of my tools in favor of SoloSEO. The simple approach, unique tools and very modest approach makes this a tool really worth considering. Weather you use it for a single Search Engine Optimisation campaign, or use it to manage many in-house projects, I am sure you will find SoloSEO has a lot to offer.
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