I thought this would be of interest since I've been talking about optimizing your pages. Keep your page load time in mind too.
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Friday, November 10, 2006
Thursday, November 09, 2006
FortifyYour Website with these 5 SEO Activities
Fortifying your website with the elements that both search engines AND your readers love, will reap deep benefits in due time.
You must think of these Search Engine Optimization [SEO] activities as ongoing. They are musts for site evolution and progression. Fortify your website by taking time to prepare your site for the search engines. Many website owners have no idea how to do this or even that they should!
So go with me on a crusade to fortify your website with these 5 steps:
1. Choose the right keywords
Don't make the mistake of optimizing for very general keywords. It is very unlikely that you'll rank high for them. Sure you'll get lots of traffic with them, but the traffic will convert very poorly because these are not targeted prospects.
Search stats - 28% of searchers type in a product name; 9% type in a brand name; and 5% type in a company name. The more targeted your keyword phrase, the more qualified the buyer. If they are searching for specific products, brands, or companies they are further along in the buying process.
2. Optimize your page for your targeted keywords
There are many elements that determine your rank in the search engines. One of the most important is a good title. The title appears at the top of the head section and the words will appear as a clickable link on the search engine results page (SERP). Your title tag should contain the targeted keywords that reflect the copy of the page. Use your most important keyword at the beginning of the title tag. You want the title to be compelling enough to prompt searchers to read more or click. Think of the title as the headline in an ad.
Following your title tag is the description META tag. Less weight is given by the search engines to META tags, but you should take the time to include them. They'll allow you to control the description of your listing in some search engines. Use the description tag for marketing purposes. Think of the description as the actual ad. The title grabs their attention and the description tells them what's in it for them.
Finally is the keywords META tag. Although this tag isn't recognized, if at all, using this tag for misspellings, technical acronyms and synonyms may bring additional traffic from people searching for these less popular keywords.
3. Create Quality Content
Don't just write your pages for the search engines. Optimize your content for your readers first - they are the most important. Once the copy is written, then weave your keywords in so they appear and flow naturally throughout your page. Use your best keyword phrase in the first sentence of your first paragraph of text. Other places to include your keywords are in the image alt attributes, within your heading tags, and near the end of your page.
4. Internal Linking
Proper navigation and site structure is important for retaining your visitors once they arrive. It's also key for the search engines since they cannot fully index your site if it's not properly linked together. Each page of your site should be no more than 2 clicks from your homepage. Decide which pages are most important and include them in your navigation - both on the top and/or side, as well as the bottom. This will transfer the highest possible page rank to each page. Each of these links should include anchor text, preferably your targeted keywords. Think of each page as a subfolder of the main page. These subfolders contain more information on a particular keyword phrase.
5. Inbound Links
When you are done optimizing on-page elements, focus on off-page elements. To complete the SEO cycle you need to go beyond on-page factors. Link popularity is a crucial ranking element. All of the following activities can make your site link worthy: syndicating articles, exchanging RSS feeds, submitting your website to directories, syndicating podcasts, sending out press releases, obtaining affiliate partners. If other sites find your site useful and informative, then natural linking begins to occur. Be sure with any of these activities, that you include your anchor text [targeted keywords] in the copy and, if possible, make them clickable links.
SEO activities take time. Put these strategies into action one step at a time and you'll soon begin to see the benefits. Have fun!
You must think of these Search Engine Optimization [SEO] activities as ongoing. They are musts for site evolution and progression. Fortify your website by taking time to prepare your site for the search engines. Many website owners have no idea how to do this or even that they should!
So go with me on a crusade to fortify your website with these 5 steps:
1. Choose the right keywords
Don't make the mistake of optimizing for very general keywords. It is very unlikely that you'll rank high for them. Sure you'll get lots of traffic with them, but the traffic will convert very poorly because these are not targeted prospects.
Search stats - 28% of searchers type in a product name; 9% type in a brand name; and 5% type in a company name. The more targeted your keyword phrase, the more qualified the buyer. If they are searching for specific products, brands, or companies they are further along in the buying process.
2. Optimize your page for your targeted keywords
There are many elements that determine your rank in the search engines. One of the most important is a good title. The title appears at the top of the head section and the words will appear as a clickable link on the search engine results page (SERP). Your title tag should contain the targeted keywords that reflect the copy of the page. Use your most important keyword at the beginning of the title tag. You want the title to be compelling enough to prompt searchers to read more or click. Think of the title as the headline in an ad.
Following your title tag is the description META tag. Less weight is given by the search engines to META tags, but you should take the time to include them. They'll allow you to control the description of your listing in some search engines. Use the description tag for marketing purposes. Think of the description as the actual ad. The title grabs their attention and the description tells them what's in it for them.
Finally is the keywords META tag. Although this tag isn't recognized, if at all, using this tag for misspellings, technical acronyms and synonyms may bring additional traffic from people searching for these less popular keywords.
3. Create Quality Content
Don't just write your pages for the search engines. Optimize your content for your readers first - they are the most important. Once the copy is written, then weave your keywords in so they appear and flow naturally throughout your page. Use your best keyword phrase in the first sentence of your first paragraph of text. Other places to include your keywords are in the image alt attributes, within your heading tags, and near the end of your page.
4. Internal Linking
Proper navigation and site structure is important for retaining your visitors once they arrive. It's also key for the search engines since they cannot fully index your site if it's not properly linked together. Each page of your site should be no more than 2 clicks from your homepage. Decide which pages are most important and include them in your navigation - both on the top and/or side, as well as the bottom. This will transfer the highest possible page rank to each page. Each of these links should include anchor text, preferably your targeted keywords. Think of each page as a subfolder of the main page. These subfolders contain more information on a particular keyword phrase.
5. Inbound Links
When you are done optimizing on-page elements, focus on off-page elements. To complete the SEO cycle you need to go beyond on-page factors. Link popularity is a crucial ranking element. All of the following activities can make your site link worthy: syndicating articles, exchanging RSS feeds, submitting your website to directories, syndicating podcasts, sending out press releases, obtaining affiliate partners. If other sites find your site useful and informative, then natural linking begins to occur. Be sure with any of these activities, that you include your anchor text [targeted keywords] in the copy and, if possible, make them clickable links.
SEO activities take time. Put these strategies into action one step at a time and you'll soon begin to see the benefits. Have fun!
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