14 Search Engine Optimization Tips - The Basics

Before we begin, it’s important for you to understand how search engines work. Otherwise these search engine optimization tips won’t make much sense to you.

So what is a search engine anyway?
A search engine is a computer program that indexes and searches a set of documents for specified keywords and then returns a list of the documents where those keywords were found. Now that’s a mouthful! Google is one example of a highly complex search engine built by hundreds of really smart people that has indexed billions of documents. While human beings built the Google search engine, no human being is involved when you conduct a search using Google.

What are keywords?
Keywords are individual search terms or phrases associated with a given document. The document could be a web page, PDF file, Microsoft Word or Excel document, image, or any other file type. People use keywords to find your website. You want to know which keywords your prospective customers are using so you can attract them to your site.

Now, on to the tips!

1) Install a Web Analytics Package for Tracking
Looking at web analytics is like looking at an X-ray of your website. You are able to see the number of visitors to your site, which sites are sending you traffic, which pages are most popular, what keywords people are using to find your site, how long people are staying on your site, which search engines are sending you the most traffic, and more. You can either purchase a web analytics package or install one that is free. Google offers a free one called Google Analytics.

2) Research Your Competition
This is a great way to help you brainstorm and get keyword ideas. Pretend you are your own customer. Go to Google.com and type in the keyword phrases you would use to find the products or services you sell. Click on some of the websites that show up. Try another phrase, and another and another. When you are on a competitor’s website, right click with your mouse. Then choose View Source. This will show you the actual website code. Look near the top and look for keywords in the <TITLE> tag, <META NAME=”DESCRIPTION” and <META NAME=”KEYWORDS” tags. Take note of which sites appear for your different queries. The idea is to discover which keywords will not just bring you traffic, but also targeted, motivated buyers who want what you have to sell.

3) Use Keyword Tools
Try these keyword tools to get an idea of keyword popularity. Keep in mind that the keyword counts are not exact. Use them only as a guide to get a rough idea of how much traffic one keyword gets relative to another. Three keyword tools to try are Word Tracker (paid), Keyword Discovery (paid) and the Google Keyword Tool (free).

4) Find Keywords that Get Leads and Make Sales
Find out which keywords are most profitable for you by running a small Google Adwords campaign. Be sure to use the built-in Keyword Tool Google offers to help build your campaign. Install the Adwords conversion tracking code on your site, and be sure to ask your prospective call-in customers what keywords they typed in to find you. Once you know your most profitable keywords, use them in all the ways below.

5) Keyword-Rich Title Tags
Write a different keyword-rich title tag for each page of your website. Make sure your title tag reflects the content of the page and uses keywords. Do not use the same title for every page! Your title tag should look something like this:

<TITLE>Keyword Title Here</TITLE> or <TITLE>Custom Cabinets by Joe Woodworking</TITLE>

6) Keyword-Rich Meta Tags
Write keyword-rich meta description tags. Make sure to write an original description for each and every page of your site. Don’t copy the same one over and over. The code should look something like this:

<META NAME=”DESCRIPTION” CONTENT="This is where you write a couple keyword-rich sentences describing the benefits of your business." />

7) Keyword-Rich Header Tags
Use your keywords in header tags. Make sure you have a headline with an H1 tag at the top every page, and use your keywords in the headline. The code looks like this: <H1>Keyword Headline Here</H1>

8) Keyword-Rich Web Content
Use your keywords in the text you write on each page of your website. This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many website owners fail to do this. Example: “We specialize in affordable custom cabinets for homes across the United States.” Do not use duplicate content on your web pages either.

9) Using Images Sparingly
Avoid using images where you can use text instead. The search engines can’t identify images very well. Yes, there are image tags called ALT tags which can help to get images recognized, but to my knowledge, text always works best. If possible, make sure your site navigation is text, not images.

10) Quality, Inbound Links
Get relevant inbound links to the pages of your site from other reputable websites. Use your keywords in the “anchor text” for the inbound link. Each link has two parts. The hyperlink is the URL to the page you want the site to link to. The anchor text is the visible text on the page that people see. Your anchor text should include your keywords. The code will look something like this:

<a href="http://www.affordablecustomcabinets.com">Affordable Custom Cabinets</a>

Contact other relevant websites and ask either to exchange links or offer to pay for a link from their site to yours. The basic philosophy here is that links are like little votes for your website. The more links you have from high-traffic, trustworthy websites, the better. These links carry more weight than those from an  obscure website with very little traffic. 

11) Make Internal Links
Link to your most important pages from within your own website. It’s similar to getting links (votes) from outside websites except you are doing it yourself. You probably have one or two web pages in addition to your home page that could use more traffic. Place additional links to those pages so that they stand out to the search engines. Put hyperlinks to those web pages in the content of other web pages.

12) Create Link Bait
Create “link bait” web pages. If your business lends itself to this approach, this can be a great way to get a ton of traffic to your site.

The basic idea is that you craft a well-written article about a topic within your industry. It might be an educational article on “how to avoid the pitfalls” or “the top 10 tips” or a “how to choose” article. Once the article is done, submit it to one of the larger social networks like Digg or StumbleUpon. Make sure the community to which you submit your article is interested in your topic! If your article gets enough positive reviews, it will get pushed to the top of the list, and lots of people will see the article teaser and click over to your web page.

You might even consider creating an entire educational resources area on your site with dozens of articles. Press releases are a form of “link bait” since you are enticing reporters and editors to visit your site. Use a service like PR Newswire or PR Web to get the word out.

13) Blogging Basics
Set aside time for blogs. If you have the resources to maintain a blog and it’s appropriate to your business, creating a blog as part of your website can bring quality traffic. Just make sure you have the time and energy to post frequently. Consider posting on other relevant blogs too, but make sure your posts are well written and informative! Don’t post a silly comment just to get a link.

14) Build Sitemaps
Create a sitemap. Build a simple web page that has links to all pages of your website. This purpose for this page is to give the search engines a quick access point to “spider” or find and index all your web pages. You can also create an XML version of your sitemap to submit to Google and Yahoo! There isn’t enough room here to discuss XML, but you can find XML sitemap tools on the web.

Well, there you have it. These 14 tips are by no means an exhaustive treatise on search engine optimization, but they should help you get started in the right direction!