Do-It-Yourself SEO
Let’s Begin.
In the competitive world of Internet commerce, search
engine optimization is one technique used to modify
or design a Web site in order to attain high rankings
in search engine results. However, before exploring
the marketing techniques used to optimize a Web site for search
engines, we should discuss what a search engine is and
how it works.
Search Engines Revealed.
Generally, a search engine is a tool used to find
relevant information about a topic, product, or area
of interest. Users input keywords, and the search engine uses an extensive set of PageRank algorithms to return
links to pages it believes have relevant information. These algorithms are part of a complex network of automated programs called bots, spiders, or crawlers, which index sites across the Web several times a month. When indexing occurs,
these programs determine which Web pages contain information most relevant to the customer's keyword search query and then they relay these pages to the search engine. This
way, search results are given quickly and efficiently without
the search engine having to actually search every site on the
Internet for every query.
Each search engine puts a different weight on elements considered to be indicators of relevant page content. The
significance of each of these elements determines the ranking
of a given site on the results page. Various on- and off-page
elements are known to affect a page’s search engine ranking. Most notably,
a page’s keyword density factors into its rank. However,
this factor is becoming less significant to many search engines.
Inbound and outbound links to a page have an influence on a page’s
ranking as well. In addition, the higher the rank of pages that
link to you, the more significant and relevant your page becomes.
Thus, the quality and quantity of inbound links to a certain Web
site affects its rank. Another factor is anchor text, the text
used to create a hyperlink to another page. Links such as “next
page” or “continue” give very little information
to a search engine, but links with titles such as “Search
Engine Optimization,” "Organic SEO," or “Search Engine Marketing” give
distinct impressions of the information a site contains.
There are also factors that have nothing to do with site content,
such as the organization of
pages on the Web site. The more levels within a site’s page hierarchy, the greater
the site’s overall search engine placement.
All together, these elements add
up to the final page rank. Since each search engine
weighs each of these factors differently, and since
the factors themselves are constantly changing, search engine
optimization requires diligence and tenacity.
When optimizing a Web site, you should take into account the
various SEO factors which are known to
affect page rank, without the use of underhanded tricks
to temporarily augment a particular site
section artificially. Remember—natural SEO is most effective in the long run. Original content and site
design should never be compromised in an
effort to increase page rank overnight.
SEO Beginner’s To-Do List:
- Title each page based upon content and critical
keywords. Do not title page based upon website URL.
- Create a unique meta description for the page
that relates to title, keywords, and page body.
- Create 5–10 unique meta keywords for the page
that relate to the document title, headlines, and
text.
- Create pages that are approximately 250 words in
length. Longer pages should be split up. Write more
content for shorter pages.
- Do not focus on keyword density. Instead, write naturally,
using multiple synonyms to major keywords.
- Create keyword-based anchor tags. Rename all links that
say “click here” or “next” with a more
detailed description of the content on the hyperlinked
page.
- Save each page with a descriptive title. For example,
instead of naming a document optimization.html,
name the file with descriptive keywords like search_engine_optimization.html.
Relate these keywords to the meta tags and the body
content.
- Name all alt tags for linked images based upon
the content. Since spiders cannot read images, they rely
on the alt tags for the link description.
SEO Tricks:
How many pages of your Web site are indexed by Google?
Type: “site:www.mysite.com”
How many outside Web sites link to your site?
In Google type: “link:www.mysite.com”
In Yahoo type: “linkdomain:www.mysite.com”
Find competing/related sites:
Type: “related:www.mysite.com”
See if your site has been indexed:
Type: “cache:www.mysite.com and cache:mysite.com”
See what sites link to your site with a certain keyword in the anchor text:
In Yahoo type: "linkdomain:www.mysite.com keyword"
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