SEO Basics Part I – Chris Cardell
Many website owners wring their hands in frustration as they try to optimise their sites and get a handle on SEO (search engine optimisation). Many even throw in the towel and end up paying an SEO company thousands to do the job. Yes you can outsource this job, but YOU still need to know how it works and you always need to be the one directing your SEO efforts.
What is SEO?
SEO is optimising a website both on page and off page to achieve a better organic (free) ranking in search engines and consequently driving more traffic to your website. SEO consists of four main areas: keyword research and selection, site building, on page optimisation, and link building.
Here are some tips to get your SEO off the ground
Let’s look at those four areas….
Keyword Selection – This may seem obvious, but many people forget that selecting the right keywords is the fundamental structure of your SEO campaign. Write down as many keywords as you know about your business. There are many excellent keyword tools you can use including Google Adwords Keyword tool and Word Tracker. Use these to select the most profitable keywords. You’re then going to optimise your pages around these keywords
Site Building – Search engine spiders need to find and index the pages on your site or all the rest of your SEO efforts are a waste of time. Help them to do this by putting navigational text links on your pages. It’s also very important that you have a sitemap which is linked to and from your home page.
On Page Optimisation – Here you need to do all you can to optimise each page. Use your keyword/s in your page title and headings. Use relevant keywords throughout the text, but don’t overdo it, because you could be penalised.
Link Building – This is the Holy Grail of SEO but Google is getting smarter, so your linking strategy must look natural. Get as many quality links back to your site as you can with article marketing, social bookmarking and forums as a start. VITAL TIP: Make sure that the wording of any link to your website includes your keyword.
In the end, don’t forget to write for your reader/customer first, and the search engines second. If readers don’t enjoy or get value from your content, they will happily click away.