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.
(article continued below ...)
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 Stage Before 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/s.
99% 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.
- 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).
- 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
Process
1. Spot Check
for Spam. Before
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.
For more information on other types of spam that may be affecting your
search engine ranking, view our resource article: “Inspecting your Web
Site for Spam”
2. Spot Check
for Relevancy. It 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 &
Optimize Text The text on
your home page is crucial to maintaining the attention of fresh viewers. In
fact, copy is so important that many companies prefer to have a professional
copy writer create the content. Since this is not an option, you have to
keep your text engaging as well as smartly optimized to present an obvious
topic to the visiting search engine spiders or visitors. To do this, keep
your mind focused on the keyword(s) that you have chosen to target on the
search engines while you write the content for the page. Implement the
keywords within the text without sacrificing the true intent of the
information to engage and retain your viewers.
Important Note: Often the first 25-30 words of your home page are what
the each search engine will use for the description of your web site. Try to
utilize your target keyword/s within this area but be certain the resulting
sentence is legible and descriptive.
4. Optimize the
Title The title of the
home page can be optimized quite simply by placing the keyword or keyword
phrase that you have chosen to target first and then finish with the name of
your company or web site. For example:
”BMW Car Sales MyBMW.com”
The search engines place a great deal of weight in the title of your home
page and the keywords within your title will likely be chosen as the title
of your listing on the search engines. The title also plays a huge role in
the relevance of your site. The topic denoted within your title will be
compared to the content within the body of the page, if the topic and
content match, you will have a much better chance of obtaining higher
targeted placements.
5. META Tags
The META tags located within the invisible source of your web page. They
were originally designed to provide the details of your web site to visiting
search engine spiders and they still do, to a degree. Since this part of
your web page is invisible, META tags were increasingly used to misinform
the search engines of the content of a web site spamming. As a result,
META tags play a lesser role but they should still be properly optimized so
that they contribute to the topical relevance of your web site.
META tags are basically composed of the Description and Keyword tags. The
description tag should provide the same or similar 25-30 word description of
your web site that you created earlier for the first text within your
visible page. The description is occasionally used as your description
within the search engines but it is unpredictable. The Keyword tag should
include the keywords/phrases that you are targeting in order of importance.
Start with the most important and then proceed to less important but still
relevant keywords. It is extremely important that you do not repeat any word
more than 3 times within the Keyword tag. This includes words within target
sentences. Also do not place repeated keywords close together.
6. Navigation…
Provide Clear Paths Is the
navigation within your site entirely graphical or programming oriented? In
this case I recommend that you create a textual link menu at the bottom of
your page. For added punch (and this is a big hit) you should make each link
count by using the keyword/phrase that best describes the target page. For
example:
BMW Accessories | Used BMW for Sale | More About MyBMW.com
versus these less powerful links:
Accessories | Used Cars | About Us
7. Test and
Spell-Check Preview the
page and spell check it then once you are certain everything is properly
balanced, upload it to your server.
Hurry Up and Wait What happens now is entirely up to the history of your
web site and your marketing budget. There are many search engines that offer
paid submission for the regular or prompt indexing of your new page/web
site. If you have paid for prompt indexing then you may see the fruits of
your labor within a couple of days depending on the search engine.
In this case I am going to assume that you have a non-existent search
engine budget. If your site has already been submitted to the search engines
then you can simply wait until a spider returns to check for new content, at
which time your new it will be found and processed accordingly. If you wish
this process to proceed post-haste or your site has not yet been submitted,
then you may submit your newly revised page to the search engines for what
may be a faster response time. Be sure to read the rules that each search
engine carefully defines before submitting or resubmitting your web page.
-- Ross Dunn is the
founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria,
BC, Canada, StepForth is the result of the consolidation of BraveArt Website
Management, Promotion Experts, and Phoenix Creative Works, and has provided
professional search engine placement and management services since 1997.
Visit StepForth at http://www.stepforth.com
May 13, 2003
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