Search engine optimization isn’t hard to do or learn. Some basic stuff in web development goes a long way. The basics believe it or not work wonders when trying to get your site into the search engines. But first you have to determine, how badly do you want to be in search engines, and how badly do you want to fanazzle your viewer. Unfortunately, for search engine optimization, the bells and whistles often times hurt your rankings. When planning for search engines, the best thing to do is go back to the basics pre javascript era when the world wide web was still only for the selected few.
Using Javascript can be used and yet still achieve search engine optimization, however, flash will not get ranked. And this is important to know. What is your goal for your site? Knowing this will be key. Ranking in search engines is a process that takes time to achieve. White hat SEO does not happen over night, or even months. Often time to get good quality rankings, you need atleast 6 months, and so much goes into what factors your score.
Time your site has been “alive” plays a key factor. If you domain is brand new, chances are, your site will take forever and a day to get ranked. New sites have not established any relevancy to the internet world in the search engine spider’s eyes. However, at the same token, and brand new domain might be easier to get into the search engine. Old domains that may been optimized using black hat techniques might have been band or label, virtually making it imposible to rankings. A brand new domain has no history, therefore it’s history will be built. If you do things correctly, the search engines will love you, and before you know it, natural traffic will be on your way.
When building a brand new domain, it is better to build it small, then expand. This gives it time for the search engine spiders to see a natural growth of the site. Constantly adding new content keeps the spider hungry for more and coming back.
Targeting each pages to specific keywords or phrases is key. No more than 3 should be used on any given page. Content should be written specifically for it. Use proper english, however in the case of search engines, repeating keywords and phrases will not get you slapped on the hand by your english teacher. Repeat the keywords. Use them as much as possible, but make sure it is still gramatically correct and understandable to a human reader. Try and keep content to approx. 300 words or roughly 3 paragraphs.
Use meta keyword and description tags. Do not spam the keyword. Make each page unique. Try not to repeat the same keyword more than 5 times.
Use the keywords in an H1 and title tag in the HTML. Proper usage of HTML tags is very important. The days of using the tag to best achieve the look is out. Use CSS to redefine the look of the HTML attribute or tag. Keep your HTML code to a minimum. Stay away from the table development, and stick more to div tags. Keep all styling in a seperate CSS file. Creating a pure CSS page will make a big difference in how the search engines favor your site. Often times the pages are lighter, and the code is easier to read.
Images, keep the design images in the CSS file, and only include necessary images named after the keyword targeted for the page. The name of the image must make sense to the image itself. Proper usage of “Alt” tags on the images is a good idea. Remember, what the search engine spiders want to see, is a properly formated site, this includes the content and the code.
Make sure all links on the site are readable. Use title attributes on “a” tags. If any javascript is used for rollover effects, make sure the link is still readable, and keep the javascript on a js file seperate from the page.
Page naming convention and folder structure. Make sure the name is named to the keyword or phrase, and logically stored in the appropriate folder. You would not store a page called “widgets” in a folder named “cars”. Chances are, you will store a page named “Ford Mustang” in a folder named “cars”. Usage of folder structures is critical when targeting main keyphrases and the sub targeting specific key phrases and keywords. Keep your folder structure to a minimum. It is not advisable to go in to deep. Try and not pass more than 2 tiers deep. Example: somewhere.com/cars/ford-mustang.html is idea. This is not: somewhere.com/cars/ford/mustang.html. This is to many folders in deep and chances are, the page mustang will not be seen and put on to the back burner for another time.
Backward links is very important. There are 2 types of links. One way links, and two links. One way links rank higher than two way links. It is known that two way links are used in link building, and that two sites agree to have each other’s link on their site for the purposes of search engine optimization. Better links are one way links. Usually when someone finds a good read, they will naturally link to the site. Search engines know this. If you have a one way link to your site, and you have a lot of them, chances are, the content is good, and relevent to what the user is searching for.
As of now, search engines rely heavily on links to your site to tell them how you should be ranked. The more links going back to your site, the better you will position. A linking campaign is crucial when building for search engines.
Last thing, your site’s theme. All sites have a theme. The theme of this blog is everything about the internet. Not much outside of the internet will be discussed. Your site should have a theme too. Without a theme, search engine’s will not know how to rank you or what to rank you for. If your theme is cars, but you write or the spider interprets your content as planes, you have a big problem. Using tools to figure out what your site’s content gives off is important. Use them. They really can drastically improve the ranking of your site.
This is a more in depth approach. Tweaking an maintaining your site are important. Tweaking your site often will teach you what little stuff works and what doesn’t. A great deal of time will be spent, but if you’re long term goal is to get natural traffic through your site to help cut marketing costs, you will reap the rewards if you keep at it. Read webmaster forums and search engine optimization forums as much as posssible. Post and ask questions. There is so much free information out there, you just have to go get it.
July 5th 2008