Articles: Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Getting to the top of search engines is not easy, usually takes time, and can get pretty expensive if you decide to hire a search engine expert. There are however a few basic things that every website owner or designer can do to get a good start.

1. Pick keywords wisely

Select a few keyword phrases that you want to target. It is generally a better idea to be a little more specific when choosing them. For example, "Carpet Cleaning" is better than "Carpets"; "Online Web Design Training" is better than "Online Training" and so on. By choosing more specific keywords, you will get better search engine placement on those phrases since the competition will be less saturated. The traffic will also be more targeted.

It's also a good idea, if applicable, to consider localization when picking keywords. For example, some businesses offer services only within their own region or state. Adding their city or state to the keywords can be a great way to reach their intended audience effectively.

The most important factor is to make sure you pick phrases that people actually search for. There are several tools on the web that help you choose your keywords, such as Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker.

2. Use your keywords strategically

Once you have selected your keyword phrases, make sure that those words are actually used within your web pages, particularly in the header tags (h1, h2, etc.), in the first paragraph of your content, and in other often ignored tags (alt tag in images, comment tags, etc). Placing them only in the keyword meta tags will not get you far on most search engines.

Be careful not to overdo it. If every third word in your code is your keyword, search engines will see that as spam and might penalize your site.

3. Optimize different pages for different keywords

It's practically impossible to optimize one page for dozens of keywords. The best strategy is to see each of your pages as a potential entry point to your website, and optimize each one for 1-3 keywords.

4. Build a good inbound linking campaign

Many search engines assume that if noone is linking to your site, your site is not that important. Quality relevant inbound links help your search engine positon immensely.

When starting out, search for directories on the web which are in your space. There are many directories on the web that allow people to add their website links and a brief company description for free. Doing a search for "Your keyword" + "Directory" will get you off to a good start. For example, for our own website, we found several great directories by searching terms such as "Web Design Directory" or "Small Business Directory".

Once you've exhausted the free directories, you can opt to find some others that charge a listing fee. There are many that will list your site for less than $100/year.

5. Content is king

Not only is content the main thing most web surfers are searching for, search engine crawlers love it as well. Content should not only be abundant, but it needs to be relevant to the keywords you are targeting. Search engines are getting smarter and smarter. They use complex algorithms to analyze the relevancy of content within web pages.

If a keyword is not supported throughout the textual content, the page will not get a high ranking for that keyword. However, the content should still sound natural and not too "keyword-stuffed".

Content should also outweigh the html code if possible. It's typically advised that scripts such as javascript are placed externally and linked to within the html page.

6. Make sure all of your pages are linked to from within your site

This often overlooked step is easy to implement. Each page within your website should be linked to from at least one other page on the site. Also, each page should have at least one link to other pages on your site. When search engine crawlers crawl websites they follow the website's links to capture all of the pages. Crawlers hate dead end pages (ones that have no links out).

A great way to ensure that crawlers are finding every page on your website is to add a sitemap page. A good sitemap lists standard "a href" links to all of your pages. This is particularly important for websites that have javascript-based drop-down menus. Crawlers can't follow the links on javascript menus, so adding a sitemap with basic text links solves the problem.

Also, it is advised to add links to other websites that are relevant to the topic on a particular page. For example, if you have an informational finance-related site, it's a good idea to link to other relevant sites such as Nasdaq, Yahoo Finance, etc.