SEO Basics
Research
1. Research Your keyword using Word Tracker and Overture, use http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
2. Carrying out a short term adwords campaign can be used to find the click through ratio and conversion ration of the chosen keywords.
On Site Optimisation
1. Target between 1 and 3 key phrases per webpage.
2. Have a unique and relevant title for each page created, the title should be in readable English but include the key phrase you are targeting on that particular page.
3. Each webpage should contain ONLY unique and relevant content, Google will penalise duplicate content that you have ripped off. Split very long articles up onto multiple pages, to allow for optimisation of multiple phrases.
4. You should try and make each optimised page contain 300+ words
5. Content on your page should focus around your keyword, it should be written in clear and readable English but try to have the key word density around 6-12%.
6. Each webpage should be named appropriately, use you keyword/phrase in the URL, if using multiple words in the URL use "-" instead of the "_" because search engines will read "-" as a space.
7. The heading of the page should be in H1, this should contain your key phrase, subheadings should use other tags such as H2, H3 etc these also should contain your key phrase if possible.
7. All images should use the Alt attribute, if the image has no use then set the attribute to blank. Key images should explain what the image is and if possible contain your key phrase.
8. Use the Meta Description to display the description of your site in the search engine, apart from that it makes little difference.
9. Use your keywords/phrases in the Meta keywords, don't duplicate phrases or words and don't key stuff. Meta keywords will not make a difference to the SEO
10. If your website uses asp/php and has long complex URLs, use the mod rewrite function to simplify the variables in the URL to be search engine friendly.
Off Site Optimisation
1. Do not bother submitting your site to Google site submit, post your link onto a forum with a high Page Rank(PR), or any website you have access to with a high PR. Google crawls high PR sites frequently, and follows outbound links to check their relevance. Initially it will just crawl the first page, but later will come back for a deep crawl.
2. Back linking is still very important, but it is no longer about getting as many as possible from where ever. Submit your site to niche directories that focus on your subject area.
3. Write articles relavant to your subject and submit them to article directories, such as GoArticles and EzineArticles.
4. Articles that you add to your website submit them to Digg or Shoutwire to generate some traffic.
5. Find other websites in your subject area and swap links with each other, the higher their PR the better but if they are good websites in your subject area will be useful.
6. Try and make your website appealing enough for people to link to your site without the need to reciprocal link. This can be done by providing a useful resource such as programming tools, SEO tools or just writing interesting articles on popular subjects.
7. Try implementing a forum into your site to generate reoccurring traffic.
DO NOT!!!!!
1. Join linking farms, these are websites that will distribute your link to hundreds if not thousands of websites. Google will perceive your website as a spam site and penalize you for it. If you are in the Google sandbox and you gain links at an unnatural pace it will take considerably longer to get out of the sandbox.
2. Keyword stuff in your website, this means you repeat your keywords in the content/title/headings etc. This could be either just repeating the word constantly or making the text very difficult to read. Google will penalize you!
3. Use hidden text to avoid the issues of keyword stuffing, Google is intelligent and will notice these techniques.
4. Use doorway pages that are heavily optimised and then redirect to you main page, Google will kick you out of the Search Engine Results Pages if found for example bmw.de was booted at the start of the year.
By J Smythe
This information has been provided by J Smythe @ Blue Echo UK.
1. Research Your keyword using Word Tracker and Overture, use http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
2. Carrying out a short term adwords campaign can be used to find the click through ratio and conversion ration of the chosen keywords.
On Site Optimisation
1. Target between 1 and 3 key phrases per webpage.
2. Have a unique and relevant title for each page created, the title should be in readable English but include the key phrase you are targeting on that particular page.
3. Each webpage should contain ONLY unique and relevant content, Google will penalise duplicate content that you have ripped off. Split very long articles up onto multiple pages, to allow for optimisation of multiple phrases.
4. You should try and make each optimised page contain 300+ words
5. Content on your page should focus around your keyword, it should be written in clear and readable English but try to have the key word density around 6-12%.
6. Each webpage should be named appropriately, use you keyword/phrase in the URL, if using multiple words in the URL use "-" instead of the "_" because search engines will read "-" as a space.
7. The heading of the page should be in H1, this should contain your key phrase, subheadings should use other tags such as H2, H3 etc these also should contain your key phrase if possible.
7. All images should use the Alt attribute, if the image has no use then set the attribute to blank. Key images should explain what the image is and if possible contain your key phrase.
8. Use the Meta Description to display the description of your site in the search engine, apart from that it makes little difference.
9. Use your keywords/phrases in the Meta keywords, don't duplicate phrases or words and don't key stuff. Meta keywords will not make a difference to the SEO
10. If your website uses asp/php and has long complex URLs, use the mod rewrite function to simplify the variables in the URL to be search engine friendly.
Off Site Optimisation
1. Do not bother submitting your site to Google site submit, post your link onto a forum with a high Page Rank(PR), or any website you have access to with a high PR. Google crawls high PR sites frequently, and follows outbound links to check their relevance. Initially it will just crawl the first page, but later will come back for a deep crawl.
2. Back linking is still very important, but it is no longer about getting as many as possible from where ever. Submit your site to niche directories that focus on your subject area.
3. Write articles relavant to your subject and submit them to article directories, such as GoArticles and EzineArticles.
4. Articles that you add to your website submit them to Digg or Shoutwire to generate some traffic.
5. Find other websites in your subject area and swap links with each other, the higher their PR the better but if they are good websites in your subject area will be useful.
6. Try and make your website appealing enough for people to link to your site without the need to reciprocal link. This can be done by providing a useful resource such as programming tools, SEO tools or just writing interesting articles on popular subjects.
7. Try implementing a forum into your site to generate reoccurring traffic.
DO NOT!!!!!
1. Join linking farms, these are websites that will distribute your link to hundreds if not thousands of websites. Google will perceive your website as a spam site and penalize you for it. If you are in the Google sandbox and you gain links at an unnatural pace it will take considerably longer to get out of the sandbox.
2. Keyword stuff in your website, this means you repeat your keywords in the content/title/headings etc. This could be either just repeating the word constantly or making the text very difficult to read. Google will penalize you!
3. Use hidden text to avoid the issues of keyword stuffing, Google is intelligent and will notice these techniques.
4. Use doorway pages that are heavily optimised and then redirect to you main page, Google will kick you out of the Search Engine Results Pages if found for example bmw.de was booted at the start of the year.
By J Smythe
This information has been provided by J Smythe @ Blue Echo UK.
