Easy Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips & Advice
Following is a short (okay, maybe not so short) list of things you can do — right now and without paying someone hundreds of dollars — to help your pages place higher in commonly used search engines such as Yahoo, Google, Altavista, and Lycos.
What I can't put in these tips is the experience and expertise that a trained search engine optimization specialist can bring to your project. Knowing how to define a set of achievable keywords, optimize (rewrite, if necessary) pages, network for links, and map out a strategic plan are things you can't put into a "how to" list. Having years of web design and site administration experience can help too, as can years of working on the web to provide valuable marketing solutions to clients.
My Web Marketing Manager / Director Resume
1. Before you go any further, understand that you should not optimize any one page (including your home page) for more than five or six keyword phrases. Trying to optimize for more will only dilute the effectiveness of your pages. Instead, identify other pages on your site that can be optimized for different sets of keyword phrases.
2. Don't expect to be able to score with single-word keyword phrases (such as, "travel" or "software") unless you are one of the most visited sites on the internet. It just won't happen. Conversely, the longer your phrases get, the easier it will be to get to the first page of search results. The trick is striking a balance somewhere in between so two and three-word phrases work for you.
3. The most important technique you can use these days (especially for good placement in Google, the number-one search engine) is to provide your visitors with lots of good information on the subject(s) of your keywords. Use your keywords often without being too repetitive.
First things first:
4. Go straight to Yahoo's paid submission page and submit your site. (Click here for my list of search engine submission links.) It will cost you $299 (as of Winter 2002). Be prepared with a great title for your site and a kicker description of no more than 25 words (a little less than 200 characters by Yahoo's standards). Get your most important keywords into your title and description (but be prepared for the Yahoo editors to remove most of them). It doesn't matter. You have to be in the Yahoo directory, if only so that the Google spiders find you and give you points for it.
5. Go to the Open Directory Project (DMOZ), find the best category for your site and then submit it to their editors. Again, you have to be in this directory, but not just because Google will like it. Many, many sites now use the DMOZ directory as the basis for their own directories. Get into DMOZ and you get into all those others (eventually).
I recommend this one-two, Yahoo-DMOZ punch to anyone who is serious about achieving their best rankings in the Google index.
Optimizing the HEAD section of your HTML page:
6. Use a TITLE tag (in the HEAD portion of your HTML file) that contains the keywords for your website. If it is the title of the home page, it should also contain your company name. Example:
7. Use META tags for description and keywords. Keep the description short, a maximum of 200 characters (including the spaces). Keyword lists should be a maximum of 1000 characters (including the spaces and commas). In the old days, longer keyword meta lists would get you higher on the search results, but this is going out of favor with the search engines. Do use the meta keywords, though, to list the most important keywords on your page (once is enough) and any synonyms or common misspellings. Always include your company name in your keyword lists.
8. Optimize the META description to include your company name, what you do, and your target keywords. Keep this description to 200 characters.
9. Minimize the depth of your HEAD section by using links to javascript and cascading style sheet code whenever possible. Too much junk in the HEAD section can make a search spider think your site's text starts too far down the page to be relevant.
10. Each page should begin with a heading that again uses your keywords. Code this as a first-level,
heading. You can get creative. Notice how on my own home page, the list of services and cities below the main graphic is coded as an
. Another example:heading, include a short paragraph that spells out exactly the value you bring your visitors with this page, using your keywords frequently (though without getting too redundant).
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