How to do SEO Properly
This article explains SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) in a nutshell. It's a short guide for do it yourself SEO; or at least a concise overview of SEO and SEM for the beginner. It has taken me years of designing and developing websites to figure this all out, and I'd like to share it with you here.
Why is SEO important? Statistically, most people use search engines to find websites that contain information they're looking for. Most people do not look past the first page of Google, or their search engine of choice, when doing a search. The top spot in Google gets 40% of the clicks. The further down the page one goes, the less clicks each result gets. With competition for the first page, and the top spot heating up, it becomes imperative to take an active roll to move forward and stay on top. SEO is the name given to that active roll.
SEO is actually a constantly changing blend of art and science. What we have here in this article are the current trends in SEO in 2009 and 2010. Implementing any of these strategies will move your site up the search engine rankings. Implementing them all will put you at the top in all but the most competitive niches.
When it comes to getting great search engine rankings there are on-site and off-site factors that must be taken into consideration. On-site factors are things such as the title of the site (URL), page titles, internal links (links within the site itself), use of H1, H2, H3 tags in your code, the bolding of important words, Alt tags on image, etc.
Currently, along with the title of the page, the most important on-site factor is your content - the text on the page. That may sound simple and obvious, but you'd be surprised to know how many people don't know that. That means a site with a lot of valuable text written in a non-spammy way, will outrank a content poor site, if all other things are equal. As there are too many on-site factors to fit into a nutshell look here for a detailed SEO chart of what is currently considered the best on-site practices.
In order to know what text to use for your site and its SEO, you must first do research . It doesn't make sense to optimize your site for the wrong words... Right? Research means finding out what words in your niche are being searched, how many times they are being searched, and what and how many sites you are competing against. With these details in hand, one can make choices that will get you on the first page in Google. This type of research can often be done with free tools such as Google's keyword research tool, but can be done more effectively using other tools.
It's best to incorporate all of your on-site factors when the website is being built. That way you'll have a good base to build on. A good website designer will include all the things that the search engines are looking for as the site is designed and developed, but as that would add to the price of the site, SEO is often reduced or omitted from the quote. As it isn't seen by the customer it is often the first thing to go, even though it can be the most important part of a site. But all is not lost. It's possible to take an existing site and add any SEO factors that are missing.
There's one more thing to consider when it comes to on-site SEO factors. Content should be changed and added to on a regular basis. The search engines assume that a site that's being changed and added to regularly is better than a site that is not. That's why it's often better to have a database driven CMS, or blog type of website than a static html or flash website.
Although on-site factors are considered a must for every site, and will work wonders on local and low competition search terms, it is believed that on-site factors currently account for only 40% of the factors that will get you high rankings. For the other 60% we have to look at off-site SEO factors.
Off-site factors include things such as links to your site from other sites (the higher the authority the better), anchor tags from other sites (the words that link to your site from other sites), links from video sites, topical relationship of sites that link to yours, etc. Off-site factors are also links to your site or blog from other blogs, or comments on other blogs. Off-site factors also take into consideration directory linking, Social Bookmarking, and Social Media like Twitter.
Off-site factors can come from other site owners linking to your site because they think the content would be of interest to their readers. It can also be self-generated by creating your own off site content like extra off-site blogs, Hub pages, Squidoo lenses, and E-zine articles. Not only are the pages that are created at these sites indexed highly on the search engines, but links that are included on these pages link back to your main site, raising your site in the search engine rankings by passing on their page rank, and by sending more visitors at the same time.
Social Media is gaining a lot of ground in a today's SEO strategy. Using Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, your business takes a more proactive approach in your online marketing strategies. Not only can people who are looking for what you have to offer find you, and get to know, like, and trust you, but you can easily go out and find interested people who would love to hear about your offer. Facebook is currently used by two-hundred million people, and twitter is growing at an astounding rate. They are both more than likely going to become more and more important to SEO as time goes on.
Social Bookmarking uses sites like Digg, del.icio.us., StumbleUpon, and others to get your site seen and linked to. The links are valuable incoming authority site links, and the traffic that social bookmarking brings to your site is good for business and for raising your Alexa score. Both help with your search engine rankings.
On-site factors used to be the most important factors on a website. That is quickly becoming old-school because there are more and more websites competing for the first pages of the search engines. On-site factors are still very important to getting indexed correctly; especially for local or low competition keywords. But for now it seems they remain merely an important core of a good website.
With competition for the first 10 spots on Google getting stiffer and stiffer off-site factors have become more and more important. As a matter of fact it's impossible to compete in today's world at a national or global level without making sure that all of your off-site factors are being updated and added to on a regular basis.
One other thing that can be done to bring traffic to your site is Google PPC (pay per click). This is where an advertising account is set up with Google and your adds are shown in the search results, usually on the very top of the page or the right side of the page, in the sponsored links area. This is a great way to bring additional traffic, or to get on the first page while waiting for your site SEO to get you there naturally.
To sum things up: For low competition keywords, especially where people are typing a location into their search, like "Chiropractor in Lake Worth Florida," on-site SEO may be all you need. But for national and global searches, or highly competitive search terms (which are the majority of sites on the web today) it's going to take more work and some on-going off-site SEO.
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