Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) is a term we often hear on the web. Most people understand that having an SEO friendly site is a good thing because it means you will come up in earlier pages on a Google search, as well as any other search engine you choose to use (yes, there are others). This post gives you a basic outline of things to consider when starting with SEO and a great hip-hop video about SEO at the end.
80% of users click on the first 3 results
When considering how important it is to be on Page 1 of Google, know that 80% of users click on the first 3 results they find on a Google search. Think about the last time you did a search. How deep into the pages did you click before refining your search terms and trying again?
Before you go banging your head on the wall because your site doesn’t show up in the first three results, know that 3-simple methods can help your SEO to increase: (1) Key Word Focusing , (2) On Page SEO, and (3) Link Building.
1. Finding Key Words
Welcome to your new best friend: Google Ad Words. This free tool allows you to put in multiple words, phrases, and even websites to see how they stack up in search. It will then return a number of terms and phrases similar to what you entered and tell you the number of people who searched for that term both locally and globally in the last month.
Use this list to hone in on terms that will work for your site. You can then either start a Pay Per Click (“PPC”) campaign, where you bid on terms to have your site show up sooner in searches when someone looks for that term, or use it to inform you of what buzz words you should include in your web pages or blog posts, i.e. “on page SEO.”
2. On Page SEO
Being a content guy, this is an area I like to focus on. It also doesn’t cost anything to do on page SEO and can easily be accomplished with a few new habits in how you write your pages or posts. This is where you can really use what you learned in your Key Word research. While there are some more technical tactics that what I will list here, these three techniques are the easiest ones to implement for beginners.
a. Headings Help Search
See how I use headings through out this post? They guide the reader along the page and break up the material. Think of Google like a super speed reader that is scanning every page on the web for a piece of information. When you include a headers to break up material it has an easier time locating your site as one with the “right information. Add a headings in a blog using the header tool (see picture).
b. Key Word Density
Remember all those key words you noted from your search that were relevant to your business? Now is the time to use them. Make sure you scatter key words across the page so that as the search engine crawls your page it hits on these terms throughout the post. This doesn’t mean pepper a page with nonsense or write pages just to trap the search engine (they are too smart for that in most cases), but once you’ve written your page, go back and replace certain words with key words where appropriate. Try to maintain a good balance across the page.
c. Meta Titles
Okay, now we’re getting a bit jargony; don’t panic. ”Meta” or metadata just means the stuff computers read online to know what to do. In this case, it means making sure that if you are developing web pages you code them with meta titles in addition to regular titles.
The Title Tag is expressed as:
<TITLE>Page Title Here</TITLE>
The Meta Title Tag is written as:
<META NAME=”Title” CONTENT=”Page Title Here“>
Read more: http://www.webmarketingnow.com/tips/meta-title.html#ixzz0ld5zP36j
Tools like WordPress also give you ways of adding meta titles to your pages (this goes a bit beyond the scope of this post, but if you want to read more check out their Codex on Meta Titles).
3. Link Building
There are different theories on how effective link building really is, but in my experience the most helpful thing about it is the relationship you can form with the blogger or owner of the website you link from or to. Some methods you can try to start a link building campaign include: commenting on blogs related to your site (always leave your web address in the form submission and make sure you add something to the conversation – don’t just spam posts to get your links seen), reaching out directly to offer listings on each other’s site or blog rolls, and doing guest blog post on A-list sites having to do with your subject matter.
Strategy is knowing where you’d like to end up. The tactics are many and you are only limited by your creativity. These are just a few basics which I hope will get you started in thinking about SEO.
What tactics have worked for you?
As promised, a hip-hop video about SEO and design coding:
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