What is Search Engine Optimization?
What is Search Engine Optimization?
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very powerful online strategy used to achieve high rankings of web pages in search engines for relevant search terms with the aim of driving targeted online visitors to a website.
• A successful SEO campaign will allow a website to position itself to achieve maximum search engine visibility.
• It will allow website owners to reach out to a new group of online visitors, internationally.
4 Steps To Achieving Top 10 Search Engine Rankings
• The steps to achieving top rankings in search engines can be summarized as follows:
• Step #1 – Identify your online market
• Step #2 – Research your online competition
• Step #3 – Build web pages so the search engines can easily find your site – and understand the keywords your website content is based on
• Step #4 – Locate similar themed websites on the internet and get them to link to your website and/or develop external content sources to obtain natural inbound links to your website
3 Steps To Keyword Research for SEO Success
Step 1 – Develop Initial Keyword List
• Brainstorm a list of keywords or request an initial list from your client
• Explore keyword ideas from:
• Industry Experts
• Product Brochure
• Glossary
• Industry publications, magazines
• Perform Competition and Keyword research
• Use the following keyword tools:
• TheDowser Keyword Harvester
• TheDowser for Google Suggest
Step 2 – Expand Keyword List
• Before you expand your keyword list, first group the initial keywords into tightly themed ‘clusters’
• Next, expand your initial keyword list, cluster by cluster using keyword tools:
• Overture Keyword Tool
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
• Wordtracker
• Keyword Discovery
• TheDowser
• Goal of expanding your keyword list is to generate more related and specific keywords & common variations.
Research more specific keywords (contains root word)
• digital photography – digital photography tips
Research related keywords (synonyms)
• digital photography – digital SLR, digital photo
Add Keyword Variations
• Singular vs. Plural (photo vs. photos)
• Mis-spellings (photography vs. photogarphy)
• Split vs. Merged (photography vs. photo graphy)
• Hyphens (photo-graphy)
• Apostrophes (photos vs. photos’)
• Domain names (www.digitalphotography.com)
• Abbreviation (single lens reflex vs. SLR)
• US vs. UK (digital optimization vs.digital optimisation)
• Country/City (Singapore, New York)
Step 3 – Determine Keyword Profitability and Competition
• Keyword Popularity (Demand)
• Keyword Competition In Google (AllInTitle:)
• Top 10 Competitors In Google
• Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI)
• No. of Pay-Per-Click Advertisers
• Bid Price of PPC Ads
How To Analyze Your Competition
• Method #1: Using allintitle: search command
• There are several techniques to analyze your competition.
• The easiest approach is to use the allintitle: search command
• allintitle: reveals the number of web pages in Google’s index containing the keyword in the title tag
• To determine the number of web pages containing the keywords in the title tag, simply go to http://www.google.com and type in allintitle:keyword in the search bar
• Method #2 – Performing Link Analysis
• Another effective method is link analysis i.e. the study of the quality of inbound links to your competitor’s website – because this is the primary reason why web pages rank highly in search engines
• Yahoo rather than Google is the preferred choice for link analysis because Google tend not to provide complete link information
• To analyze links to a website, simply go to http://www.yahoo.com and type in link:http://www.yourdomain.com in the search bar – This will redirect your request to Yahoo! Site Explorer (see Example in the next page)
Yahoo! Site Explorer – Example
Yahoo! Site Explorer – Example
• If you want to display all links except those from your own domain, select the ‘Except from this domain’ option
How To Perform “On Page” Search Engine Optimization
“On Page” optimization involves strategically placing targeted keywords in:
- Page Name (File Name e.g. keyword.html)
- Title Tag
- Meta Keywords
- Meta Description Tags
- H1 Tag
- Body Content
- Alt Tags
How Many Keywords To Target For Each Web Page?
There is a temptation for beginner SEO marketers to try and target numerous keywords on a single web page.
Don’t do this!
You should target one or at most two keyword phrases for each web page.
If you need to target the keyword variations e.g. dog versus puppy, you can achieve this goal using the Latent Semantic Index (LSI) approach to content writing.
How To Perform “Off Page” Search Engine Optimization
“Off Page” optimization involves generating quality backlinks to your web page by:
- Submitting your website URL to major directories (e.g. dmoz.org)
- Increasing one-way links through:
- Article submission and distribution
- Press releases and reviews
- Buying text links
If you’re targeting competitive keywords, be sure the ‘anchor text’ of the links pointing back to your website contain targeted keywords:
Anchor Text Example: Digital Photography Tips
PageRank and Google Toolbar
How To Get Your Website Indexed By Search Engines For FREE
Note that your web pages cannot get ranked in the search engines if they are not indexed. And you only have to worry about making sure your home page is indexed.
Once your home page is indexed, the rest of the pages will eventually be indexed, as long as you have a sitemap on your website – where your sitemap comprise of links to every page on your website, and your sitemap is linked to your homepage.
Here are several ways to get your web pages indexed in the search engines:
o By Posting Your Website URL to:
* An existing website already indexed by a search
engine
* Forums
* Newsgroups
* Blogs
* Discussion Groups
* Article Directories
o By Submitting Your Website URL to:
* Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org/add.html)
Next Page (How To Perform On-Page SEO On A Landing Page)
