Top SEO Tips

Do Your Own Seo For Your Site In Four Easy Steps

Top SEO Tips - Most of the people who don't have experience with the Internet and with web sites, get often confused and think that if a web site is visible when you digit the URL of it in the browser bar, they assume that everything is fine with the page as far as getting traffic and for the search engines too, but this is not quite true! Or we should say this is not right at all!

Having a web site that is visible in a browser doesn't mean that it is visible for the search engines too

Two web sites can look exactly the same, but one can be perfect for the search engines, and the other one can be just terrible for them. You will say, and what is the difference on them? The difference is the coding of the page, in other words the code you use to have that result in terms of appearance. So, be aware that no software or html editor can replace the mind of a good webmaster like I think I am, because I can make a site using plain XHTML, as opposed to the editors made for this task like "Frontpage" or "Dreamweaver", I am sorry to disappoint you but it will never ever be the same thing.

Maybe you made your best effort with Microsoft Frontpage and your page has an appealing look, but Google still ignore it, or the page is just not doing what you would expect, so? What can you do about it? You have 2 choices to resolve the problem, give your business the exposure it deserves: hiring a Search Engine Optimization Company, or do the optimization on your own. In case you decide for the second option here are some suggestions.

Keyword Research

Ask yourself all the terms people would use, to describe your product or services when they might type it in the search engine when searching what you have to offer them. As a role of thumb you have to understand the difference between a keyword and a key phrase.

Well, a key phrase is a two, three or even four or more words, that get typed in the box to find a service, it can be for example: "wood furniture San Diego" this is a key phrase, while "furniture" is a keyword, for being only one word. Key phrases are easier to rank for, because they are more specific and likely be what potential customers may use when they search online.

Write down all the keywords and key phrases you are able to come up with. Make sure to add phrases with geographical words about your area if you offer a local service, or if your business is nationwide or world wide don't put any words on where your business is located. Visit your competition' sites searching each key phrase in Google to get ideas until you can come up with your list of words.

Open a Google AdWords account to have access to the tools they have to find keywords and synonyms. There you can find the keyword tool to see the traffic you can expect for a specific keyword and you will have an idea of which word people use to look for your services or products.

Consider that popular keywords are also very competitive keywords in general, and harder to achieve higher ranking with. To obtain for example a high ranking for a term like “auto insurance”, it can be extremely competitive. With this little research, you will know how likely it is that the people may reach your web site looking for what you have to offer.

Site Text

The text is one of the most important aspects of your site in terms of SEO, yes even if newbies have a hard time to believe it, this is the reality. The expression from the Seo gurus that goes like: "content is king" is to describe this.

Search engines look for unique content, so don't copy your text or you will pay for it with an exclusion from the search results in Google and in other mayor search engines. Give every page a different title and target a different keyword or key phrase, and don't put in your title the name of the domain, this is the most common mistake.

Place Keywords in headings and within the first part of the text of the pages, better if in bold or italics, and even use them as links for the other pages of your site.

Remember that search engines don't read images but read the names of them, so, it is a good practice call the images in your site with the name of your main keywords instead of photo 1 or photo 2 etc.

Easy Link Building Tactics

A way to easy understand the link popularity is that every link from other sites that leads to yours are like votes for the popularity of your page. Every link you have, improves your rankings.

Quality is more important than quantity and more valuable links are from sites relevant to your market and with authority. Article directories are a good source of links and traffic, and if you write little articles about your services and have them published in article directories with links pointing back to your site, you will increase your popularity for each article.

There are services that allow you to use their network of high ranking blogs to add your articles to something like 30 or more blogs and you can build with them link popularity, based on quality links.

Don't do any reciprocal linking, because it is completely useless now, it was once. Now you can even consider having two web sites for your business and if you have two or more web sites it is possible to negotiate a three way link exchange.

Tracking And Testing The Results

The easiest way to track your traffic and all the crucial information that you need to know is the Google Analytics, and it is also free. You can open an account and you need to add a little piece of tracking code in you pages, and you will be ready to have all the statistic about where your visitors come from and how long they stay in a single page, or the location from where they visit you! Over time watch and record your search engine rankings for your chosen keywords to see your improvements.

Add content to your web site on a regular base, and try to increase the links pointing to your site over time. This has to be an ongoing effort and you better keep doing it if you want more traffic getting to your site.

Tracking And Testing and recording the results of your changes are the most valuable Seo Tools, if you want your sales and the traffic increased over time. Webmasters use this technique with more sophisticated software and with more experience, but with this Seo Tips you have a good blueprint of how to get started. Feel free to ask any question in the comments!