SEO Basics
So your building a new website and want to make sure you perform website optimization as you go. It is much easier to get ready for search engines on the development side rather than later. I believe people make seo harder than it needs to be. While SEO is very time consuming, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are a few steps to guide you.
Set Your Website Goals And Make A Plan.
1. Set traffic goals, choose your audience.
2. Research your industry and competition.
3. Decide on a marketing budget and where to advertise.
Create A Blueprint For Your Site:
1. Map out your pages (content, layout, number of pages etc.
2. Create an internal link structure.
3. Finalize your internet marketing and search engine optimization blueprint.
Now you are ready for SEO.
The first step is to find the right keywords. There are several different tools that can help with this like Word Trackers tool or you can use competitor sites to come up with a few good search terms. Take your time here since your entire site will be optimized for these search terms.
Next you will need to write content that connects with the audience. Make sure you use the top 15 to 20 keywords throughout your websites content. Spread them across your pages in the order of priority and work your way down. (ex. IF seo is your #1 term then make sure it is at the top of the page). Especially the home page since this will be your easiest page to rank. Make sure your content is still geared towards the reader after you work in your keywords and balance out the page.
Now your are ready to build your meta tags. This is also a very important step because your meta tags contain your website’s title. The website page title is one of the most important parts of applying Search Engine Optimization. The website title can contain up to 12 words and must be relevant to the page. Use your top search terms without being a spammer. (ex. If keyword is lights a good title would be : Indoor Lights and Outdoor Lighting Fixtures For Your Home). Run a scan to make sure the keyword densities are correct!
Then it is on to your Meta description tag. It should be 1 or 2 sentences describing your site in more detail than you used in the title tag. You want to give more detail on products, services and your company. Use your keywords sparingly, remembering to scan with your favorite tool to make sure the keyword densities are correct.
To finish the seo work to the meta tags add in your new keywords to the meta keyword tag in the order of importance. Use each keyword 3-5 times keeping the density in mind the whole time. Then run a scan when you think you are close. Don’t worry about trying to balance the whole website now.
Linking and Website Strucuture.
The internal linking process for your site should be set up like a pyramid. With the top pages filtering down to relevant categories. You want to link all your pages together. This doesn’t mean your home page links to every page like a site-map (you will need to build one later). It means every page should be link from at least one page of your website. This is the part that can get complicated. You should link from your content to another topic related page on your website. I you are talking about light link to your lighting resource page. Do this across the site using your top keywords and remember to vary the link text (don’t use lighting every time).
Finally build a sitemap and finish fully blanacing or refinning all pages. We will cover more in the link building basics post next week.
Tags: engine, optimization, search, SEO, website