Basic SEO Tips To Get You Started

Before you start....keep in mind

Every business with a Web site should make                
Search Engine Optimization -- trying to get
your site as high up as possible on Google
and Bing search-results pages -- a part of
their growth strategy.

At its most basic, "SEO" means finding ways to
increase your site's appearance in web visitors'
search results. This generally means more traffic
to your site.

While intense SEO can involve complex site
restructuring with a firm (or consultant) that
specializes in this area, there are a few simple
steps you can take yourself to increase your
search engine ranking.

All it requires is a little effort, and some re-thinking of how you approach content on your site.

Monitor where you stand

You won't know if your SEO efforts 

are working unless you monitor your

search standings. MarketingVox 

suggests that you keep an eye on 

your page rank with tools

like Alexa and the Google toolbar.

It's also important to check your
referrer log regularly to track where
your visitors are coming from and the
search terms they're using to find your
site, according to PC World.

 Keywords, keywords, keywords!

You should be conscious of placing

 appropriate keywords throughout 

every aspect of your site: your titles, 

content, URLs, and image names. 

Think about your keywords as search 

terms -- how would someone looking for

information on this topic search for it?

The title tag and page header are the
two most important spots to put keywords,
 PC World notes.

BEWARE: Putting ridiculous amounts of
keywords on your site will get you labeled
as a spammer, and search engine spiders are
programmed to ignore sites guilty of
"keyword-stuffing." Be strategic in your
keyword use.

Link back to yourself

There is probably no more basic strategy for SEO

than the integration of internal links into your site
-- it is an easy way to boost traffic to individual
pages, SEO Consult says.

You should make it standard to link back to
your archives frequently when creating new content.
MarketingVox advises that you also make the anchor text search-engine-friendly: "The more relevant words point to a page, the more likely that page is to appear in search results when users run a
query with those terms."

As with all other SEO approaches, be sure your
links are appropriate, and be careful not to cross
the line into excessive linking -- you don't want
your visitors to get annoyed.

Create a sitemap

Adding a site map -- a page listing and linking to all   the other major pages on your site -- makes it easier

for spiders to search your site.

"The fewer clicks necessary to get to a page on
your website, the better," advises MarketingVox.

                   

Search-friendly URLs

Make your URLs more search-engine-friendly  

by naming them with clear keywords.
SEO Consult explains:

"For instance, it’s easy to understand what
‘www.puppyfun.co.uk/puppyhealth/vitamins’
would contain. It’s less easy to understand if the
in-house classification system of the business is
used, for example ‘www.puppyfun.co.uk/11789/s201.htm’.

A dynamic URL is similarly off-putting, even if it contains recognisable words: ‘www.puppyfun.co.uk/search/?s=”health”’.


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