1. Pick The Right Keywords
Keywords are at the heart of every search engine optimization
effort . You have to target the correct words and phrases
that your audience is likely to type into the search
engines. This process is called Keyword Analysis. First,
you need to do the research to find those phrases.
One of the best tools out there right now is called
Word Tracker ( www.WordTracker.com ).
With Word Tracker you can research the types of keywords
that you are going have the most bang for your buck
as well as those that are going to have the least amount
of competition. It is best to start off with a set
of phrases that you think your customers are going
to enter into the engines. Then go to Word Tracker
and do further research. You will probably find that
there are additional words and phrases that you hadn't
even thought of. Once you have whittled down the list
of phrases, then you have the foundation for the rest
of your search engine optimization effort.
2. Define The Title And Description META Tags
The HTML META title tag for each page describes what
each page is about. Many of the search engines look
to this Title tag to see what the page contains. It
is usually a very short sentence or phrase. Add the
phrases that you have researched in your key word analysis
and place them into the title tag once, or at most
twice. This tells the search engines that the page
is "about" this phrase. The same holds true for the
Description META tag. Here you want to be a little
more lengthy in your description of the page, but in
the text of this description you should include the
keywords that you want to target for that page. Do
not add the phrases over and over. This is a spamming
technique. You want the description to be read in a
natural way so that when people read it, they will
understand what that page is about. If you can place
your key phrases (from your keyword analysis ) within
the META Description short paragraph and the META Title
tag, it will help your search engine optimization rankings.
3. Eliminate Obstacles Within Your Web Site
The word obstacles here refers to different things
you can do on your web site that can actually hinder
how the search engines index your site. Watch out for
a navigation scheme that is hard for the search engines
to follow. You want to make sure that you have text
links within your site that link to all your main pages.
You don't want to have linked images that are your
single source of navigation around your site. That
is why we also recommend you use a site map as a way
for search engines to easily follow the links to all
of the pages of your site. Also it is a good idea to
have a set of text links at the bottom of each of your
pages that link to the various sections of your site.
A navigation bar built on only graphics does not provide
the easiest path for search engine spiders to navigate
through.
4. Write Readable, Keyword Rich Content
Content is king. The most important part of a web
site is that each of your pages is readable and the
text itself has the keywords that you targeted during
the keyword analysis phase. You want to create each
of your pages with a healthy amount of text. You don't
want just a paragraph or two. The more text you have,
the better chance that those search engines are going
to be able to understand (using their algorithms) what
each page is about . If you have, for example, six
paragraphs on a page about graphic design then the
search engines are going to interpret that that page
is probably about graphic design. If you only have
a single paragraph because you want to keep the page
short and sweet, then it is harder for the search engines
to understand what that page is about, because it only
has one paragraph to analyze. So for each of your pages,
you want to create lots of keyword-rich, readable text.
5. Get Other Relevant Web Sites To Link To
Your Site
Your web site will benefit from having inbound links
from other sites in the same category. So get as many
links as you can from similar types of web sites and
similar types of companies/organizations. The reasoning
is if many other sites are linking to yours then the
content that you have in your site must be worthwhile
and helpful to people. This is the goal of your links
campaign. Research what those web sites are that you
want to have linking back to your site. Contact the
web masters at those sites to request (in a polite
way) if you can have a link to your site from theirs.
Of course, if you have great content on your site,
they should be linking to you anyway!
6. Insert Your Keywords Into Your In-Bound
Links
Your in-bound links are those links that are on other
web sites that link back to your site. Remember that
the actual linking text on those other sites should
include the words and phrases you identified in your
keyword analysis. In other words, you want to include
those keywords and key phrases if at all possible in
the text that people are using on their sites to link
to your site. It helps the search engines to understand
that the phrase you are using in your link text relates
to your site. This helps your Google Page Rank and
consequently you will get higher rankings for that
phrase (across many of the larger search engines).
7. Use Pay-Per-Click
If you need to rank high in the search engines quickly,
you can leverage Pay-Per-Click (PPC). Pay-Per-Click
allows you to list your site in the sponsored sections
of search engine results. You are bidding on key phrases
people enter into their search engines, and then you
appear on the resulting pages. Whether you are the
first, second, third, etc listing depends on how much
you are bidding on that keyword or phrase. Keep in
mind though that people will be able to identify that
sponsored listings are different than natural web site
search engine listings. But if you need to get your
web site some exposure quickly, then you can use Pay-Per-Click.
Combined with a careful bidding campaign, you can get
the exposure that you need until your organic search
engine optimization efforts start to kick in. Keep
in mind that Pay-Per-Click can be very expensive. It
is important to track how much your return on investment
(ROI) is while bidding. Make sure that you know how
much it is costing you to bid and then how much it
is costing you to actually complete the transaction
that you desire (such as purchasing a product, signing
up for a newsletter, etc). PPC is a solid technique
if used carefully.
8. Research, Revisit, Revise
Once you have a web site optimized, it is important
to revisit the site every month or so to check on its
rankings. You can also research what your competition
is doing (whether they are climbing above you) and
revise your site to make sure that you are taking advantage
of the best keywords and key phrases. Try to maximize
the amount of text you have on your site as well (but
make sure it is useful text, not just text for the
sake of text). Use a blog to keep your content fresh.
Leverage social media sites (like Facebook and Twitter)
to engage with your audience on a personal conversational
level. Beef up the number of in-bound links also. Once
your web site is complete and optimized for the search
engines, the work is not over. It is an on-going process
because your competition is always out there trying
to get higher rankings. And if you are not intermittently
checking and improving your own site, then your rankings
will inevitably slip as your competition does more
work and they rise above you.
Paul Kaufman
President
Pitch Perfect Marketing
