A Ten Minute Search Engine Optimization
by Brian Johnson
Many small businesses simply do not have the resources to hire a search engine optimization (SEO) company to promote their web site. There are countless resources online for do-it-yourself (DIY) optimizers where professional SEO’s offer general recommendations and advice. This article is my opportunity to offer more of my SEO experience in the form of a 10-minute optimization process. This process will be effective for any page designed in HTML with at least 1 paragraph of html text but for the purposes of this article, I will concentrate on the all-important home page.Setting the StageBefore I begin, there are a few things that you must know before proceeding and you should spend more than 10 minutes considering:Determine Your Target/s99 of you know who your target market is, now you need to choose the keywords that you believe they will search for. There is no use obtaining top search engine placements under terms that are not being searched. This step, alone, requires extensive explanation but there are a few simple tips to keep in mind. For one, you will want to check your current traffic statistics and note what traffic you are already receiving and under what keywords. Now, visit the site of a competitor who you know is doing well online (either through conversation or news articles). Look at their titles on individual pages and try to determine a pattern in the keywords that they have chosen. Also look at the source of their pages (Internet Explorer: click “View” then “Source”) and copy their META tags into a notepad on your computer. Between the titles and the META tags you should be able to determine with reasonable accuracy which keywords are most important for rankings.It is important to note that professional SEO’s have many more resources at hand to determine such information with higher accuracy. Design – Is Your Page Marketable?This topic can be touchy to bring up but the simple fact is that traffic will have less impact if your web page is unmarketable. Now this covers a lot of different aspects of design, however, a few basic rules should be followed. 1/ Avoid using strange color combinations that make it hard for a viewer to read your sales copy (red text on a blue background is a perfect example of a painful design). In the same respect it is important not to use text that is too small; try to keep your font size to a minimum of size 10 or 12 (2 or 3 in Dreamweaver). 2/ Unrelated advertisements on your web site provide distractions to your viewers. If you are selling BMW’s then it is generally not a good idea to show an advertisement for herbal Viagra. Every single graphical element of your home page has the potential to add or deny credibility. Using this space wisely will ultimately create happier visitors and generate more profit. The Ten Minute Process1. Spot Check for SpamBefore optimization begins it is crucial that your page is devoid of any ‘tricks’ that a search engine may construe as spam. You may not even know they are there! Some web designers with out-of-date information add hidden text because they think it will help your rankings. This is entirely untrue and can cause extreme problems for your search engine visibility. To check for hidden text just hold down the left button on your mouse at the very top of your page and drag it down to the bottom. If there is any hidden text (normally text that matches the color of your page background) it will appear as it is highlighted. Second, you will want to search for unnecessary repetition of keywords on your page. Do you see instances of 5 or 6 keywords being repeated in a row anywhere on the page? If so, remove this.There are other forms of spam that you should be aware of that are not covered within this article. For more information see our resource article: www.nikosoftware.com2. Spot Check for RelevancyIt is very important for your site to be focused. For example, if your web site is supposed to be devoted to ‘BMW car sales’ then a link or information on real estate sales is entirely unnecessary. Keep in mind that most of the top search engines will rank your site depending upon the topic they determine you are offering. This determination is largely made based upon the text within your web site. Don’t give them any reason to get ‘confused’.3. Polish
Tell others about
this page:
Comments? Questions? Email Here