Website optimization is the first step in promoting your website.
Those with foresight and deeper pockets will have a SEO-savvy
webmaster (such as myself) build the website that is optimized
from the start. Otherwise, a website may need a SEO-facelift
later to help it be digestible to the search engines - and to
make it obvious to the search engines that the keywords you are
trying to be found under are truly relevant to your website. Like
any specialty, performing website optimization involves skills,
special tools, and a willingness to keep up with current changes
in the market.
Unfortunately, hiring an SEO expert can be quite expensive. For
those who want to do it themselves, here are the steps.
BOOKMARK THESE TOOLS! YOU WILL need them!
The first step in website optimization is to make sure you have
well-formatted HTML. I would encourage you to use the following
tool to check this: http://validator.w3.org/ Do your best to get
your website as close to conformance as possible.
If you use CSS, then use a CSS validator at
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html There is
rarely an excuse for not having it validate here.
If you follow most of the suggestions for having valid HTML code
your web pages will be more digestible for the search engines, as
well as being much more cross-browser compliant. You should also
do this after any significant edit of the web page - to ensure
that it is still compliant.
The second step in website optimization is to work on the Meta
tags and the title tag for each page in your site. These are in
the header of your web page document and need to be tailored to
attract users who type in one of a select group of keywords.
If you need a tool to help generate these, use this meta tag
generator tool here
(http://www.spiderweblogic.com/HTML-Meta-Tag-Generator.aspx)
that I built.
The Title Tag:
The title tag is, of the three, the most important for the major
search engines. Don't make this too long - normally no more than
6 words. But have your most important keywords here. Some SEO
specialists advise that even the order of the text here is
significant. They suggest that if you place your company name in
the title, that it should be placed last so the other keywords
are being considered with greater weight.
The Meta-Keywords Tag:
This is now of lesser importance than before, due to abuse by
webmasters to achieve high rankings. However, it is still
important and is required by many of the smaller search engines.
Make sure that you don't repeat any keyword or keyword phrase
more than three times. That would be considered Spam (bad SEO
tactics) by the search engines. Remember, your visitors will see
the title of the web page. Make it useful to them as well.
The Meta-Description Tag:
This is of higher importance than the keywords tag. Several
search engines use it when they show your listing. It needs to
encourage your potential visitors to visit your website. Of
course, having keywords in here is important. But keep the
primary purpose in mind as you write it. Here too, you should
make sure that you don't repeat any keyword or keyword phrase
more than three times.
Each page in your website needs its own tailored title, meta-
description, and meta-keywords tag. These need to be focused on
the keywords you are trying for. (These are the words or phrases
you want to be found at when people are doing searches.) These
shouldn't normally be the same on every page. They should be
customized to the content that is on that page. You should also
keep your visitors in mind as you write them.
The third step is to work on your content - especially on your
home page. Ideally you would have between 800 - 1200 words of
text. It should have your most important keywords at the top,
middle and the bottom of the text. If possible, use an "h1" tag
at the top for your title - and have your most important keyword
imbedded in it. Also, have some of your keywords in a sentence or
phrase that is bolded. Keep it natural for your visitors to read.
If it doesn't look natural, you will loose any visitors you have
attracted.
The fourth step in website optimization is to edit your links and
your images to make full use of the "title" and "alt" attributes.
Text links can have a "title" attribute. The content is to more
fully describe your link. When you put your mouse over the link,
the content of the "title" attribute is displayed. I would
encourage you to tailor the description so that it contains at
least one of your keywords - but keep it accurate - that it
really does describe the link. It must make sense to the common
user.
Images HTML tags can have an "alt" attribute. It is used to
describe an image when you put a mouse over it. It is also used
for different devices for seeing impaired. Also, it is used when
the user decides not to show images with the web site. They will
see this text instead. (It is the "Alternate Text" for the
image.) Try to incorporate some keywords here too - but keep with
the spirit of being the "alternate text" for the image.
If you are using tables, you may even include a table "summary"
attribute. The purpose of this attribute is to assist for those
with disabilities to understand the contents and structure of a
table. Keep all summary comments within that purpose - and add
keywords only where appropriate. Note that these summary
attributes may cause your web page validator to spit up an error
- but this is newer item that is encouraged.
The fifth step is to have a good menu system or a site map.
Search engines follow links to find the different pages in your
site. If your navigation is one of those JavaScript drop-down
menus or Flash menus, the search engines may not find all of your
pages unless you have an alternative non-JavaScript link path
that they can follow. If you use the fancy JavaScript links, you
should have a hard link to a site map on every page. The site map
should have a real non-JavaScript list of links that the search
engines can follow to map out your whole site. As a standard
policy I tend to avoid the JavaScript links in the menus.
OPTIONAL:
If you haven't chosen a domain name yet, you may strongly
consider having your top keyword phrase in the domain name, with
the words separated by dashes. This is an excellent idea, but not
always feasible. Many companies already have a domain name
selected, or prefer to use their company name as the domain name.
This is a business decision left up to the customer.
THINGS NOT TO DO:
Don't create and market mirror sites though to accomplish this
trick either. Sites that are identical in content, but have a
different domain name are considered SPAM (bad/taboo) by the
search engines. They don't appreciate such tricks, and the
ranking of both websites will suffer for it.
Also, don't get too crazy with stuffing keywords where they don't
belong or by repeating keywords or by having keywords in hidden
layers. Search engines don't like that and will ban your site.
SEO SOFTWARE TO BUY:
I have used SEO Studio to do website analysis during my
optimization. This has been an invaluable tool for analyzing how
saturated my keywords are in a particular web page. It is
reasonably priced and I have been very satisfied with the
performance. It is easy to see such things as keyword density
relevance for the whole web page. It also is helpful in showing
where the keywords are not (and can be). You will learn a lot
about website optimization just by using this tool!
NOW WHAT?
After all this "Search Engine Optimization" you need to do a
human review your website - is it natural/useful/helpful for the
human visitor? Remember, getting website traffic is only half the
game. This site needs to quickly convert them into paying
customers.
Once it is "Optimized", then you need to let the search engines
know that you exist. Only after it is ready should you tell them
about it. But this is a subject for another article. Do a search
of different article warehouse or SEO news sources. You will find
a lot of information on this.
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION NEWS SOURCES:
Since there are new quirks in the website optimization and
website promotion that come out all the time - some that apply to
all search engines, and some that apply to a particular one, it
is wise to keep up to date. I strongly encourage you to join a
couple of relevant mailing lists!
I really like the news sources from Entireweb.com. If you submit
a site through them, I would encourage you to accept their free
newsletters. They have great content.
http://www.entireweb.com/submit_site/
Another place to get really great articles on website
optimization or promotion is http://www.SiteProNews.com
They also allow you to subscribe to their articles. Do
this!
If you are serious about keeping up with your website
positioning, keep up with the news. You will find these
resources invaluable!
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