Identify Correct Keywords
Every Internet marketing campaign starts with identifying the keywords that are searched for, and are relevant to what your website offers.
Your site should include keywords that your prospective clients key into the major search engines. Useful keyword research tools include Wordtracker, Overture and Keyword Discovery.
Optimise Your Page Titles
One of the most vital SEO techniques is to position your keywords within the Title description for each page. It is imperative that the title tag is unique to ascertain the subject matter of each page for the benefit of the search engines.
In other words, each page must have a unique title tag. This will assist your search engine rankings and help users to identify the content of the page when they bookmark it.
Build Internal Links
Take care that you have a high-quality link structure on your site, so that not only potential customers, but also search engine spiders can find and index all pages on your site.
A frequently mistaken assumption is that every visitor will start at your home page. Most will but it’s important to check that each page on your site is linked to the others. This helps the search engine spiders to quickly index your site. Also, the way you structure your site, i.e. make it easy to navigate, will have a positive effect on how people judge you and your business.
Develop Inbound Links
Developing high quality, relevant links to your site is vital to achieving a high search engine ranking. They are used as a factor by all Search Engines to evaluate how important a website is and consequently where the site should be ranked.
Submitting your website to online directories is a very useful method of increasing targeted visits to your site.
You should also seek inbound links from other relevant websites. Linking from text placed in the body of other websites is very valuable, particularly if it includes your keywords.
Be very selective when choosing link partners. Certain sites, known as “link farms”, can harm your ranking and may even result in you being blacklisted by the major search engines.
Meta Tags
There is much debate regarding the value, or otherwise, of META tags. Some Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) professionals suggest that using tags is the best way to optimise your web page by letting the search engine spiders know which are the most important words.
Others dismiss them totally out of hand, stating that they have no value whatever.
Some search engines regard META tags as important when ranking your site while others ignore them.
So, probably the best advice is to still include META tags as part of your SEO strategy, but to understand that they are not the be-all-and-end-all, as some would have you believe.
Don’t Try To Trick Search Engines
Here is the best-kept secret in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). There are no secrets. Everything you need to know about SEO is freely available to all. So if anyone offers to let you have the Secret Ingredient to promote your website, politely decline their offer.
The key technique in SEO is just that. Keep to techniques, not tricks. Join online forums where the real experts gladly exchange information. Follow the advice of the professionals.
Don’t spam, don’t use hidden text, don’t join link farms, and don’t stuff your keyword descriptions and META tags with keywords. The penalties will far outweigh the short-lived advantages. Don’t risk being banned by the search engines.
Do make your site easy for people to read and navigate their way around and the search engine spiders will follow.
Use Fresh, Unique Content
Consider why you have a website. Is it to provide information or entertainment? Is it to promote your business? Do you have an online shop?
Whatever the function of your website, it is unlikely to be there just to attract search engine spiders. So, why, when it comes to optimising a site, do some web owners focus on how the spiders will see it? They forget the original purpose for having the site.
Websites that are designed for people, offering easy navigation and fresh, unique content will attract search engine spiders that will want to index the pages.
There is nothing more frustrating than visiting a site for timely information, only to find that it hasn’t been updated for weeks. You have to get on the phone to find out the information; so what’s the point in having a website?
A website that has not been updated on a regular basis will discourage prospective clients and spiders alike. So make sure your site is constantly updated with fresh, unique content.
Optimise Every Page
One area in which search engines differ from people is that they view the World Wide Web as a collection of web pages, not as individual websites. So, if you only optimise your home page, you are missing out in a big way because search engine spiders will only crawl through one part of your site.
Therefore select relevant keywords for each page, relating to the content on that particular page. Ensure you have links between pages to ensure that you whole site is indexed. That way you will be in a position to compete for more than one keyword in order to attract people searching for your goods and services.
That way you will be in a position to compete for more than one keyword in order to attract people searching for your goods and services.
Include A Site Map
A site map, in addition to a clear navigation bar and links between pages, will help visitors to your website find what they are looking for. It will also ensure that search engine spiders visit and index each of your pages.
You can create a HTML sitemap or, alternatively it can be generated through Google or other web applications.
Beware Flash and Java!
Search engine spiders can be the cyberspace version of Grumpy Old Men. No matter how you jazz up your website with the latest dancing gizmos and flashing lights, the ubiquitous spider will not even blink an eye on its relentless march through your pages.
If you must use Javascripts or Flash to dazzle your visitors, remember that spiders do not read the code or appreciate your hard work. Indeed, as the spiders only read source, and if you use Javascript heavily, the spiders may limit the amount of source they are prepared to read. It is, therefore, good SEO practice to place the Javascript in an outside file.
This is an easy technique, which is well documented on the net.
