1. Commit yourself to the process.
SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics
that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook
and commitment.
2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about
instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially
true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.
3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an
SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company
uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online
yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they
discussed, and so forth.
4. Become a student of SEO. If
you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO
and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great web
resources (like Search Engine Land)
and several terrific books you can read. (Yes, actual printed books!) See our What Is SEO page for a
variety of articles, books and resources.
5. Have web analytics in place at the
start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and
you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and
what’s not.
6. Build a great web site. I’m
sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my
site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be
honest. If it’s not, make it better.
7. Include a site map page.
Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders
find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your
site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl
navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each
one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.
8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use
keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html.
Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users
may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs
and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while
underscores are not
9. Do keyword research at the start of
the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also
have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s
important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free
tool is Google’s AdWords
Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.
10. Open up a PPC account.
Whether it’s Google’s AdWords, Microsoft adCenter or something else, this is a
great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs
money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the
solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking
for instant visibility.
11. Use a unique and relevant title and
meta description on every page. The page title is the single most
important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3
words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag
won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your
listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to
encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You
can ignore the Keywords meta tag, as no major search engine today supports it.
12. Write for users first.
Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my
knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a
newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those
things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in
the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it
readable.
13. Create great, unique content.
This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online
retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are
selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the
manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions,
using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual
words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away.
Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.
14. Use your keywords as anchor text when
linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to
page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine
visibility.
15. Build links intelligently.
Begin with foundational links like trusted directories. (Yahoo and DMOZ
are often cited as examples, but don’t waste time worrying about DMOZ
submission. Submit it and forget it.) Seek links from authority sites in your
industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links
from trusted sites in your geographic area — the Chamber of Commerce, local business
directories, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links
you can acquire, too.
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