Search Engine Optimization

Overview of SEO for Web Designers and Individuals with Small Business Websites

SEO Techniques Should Form the Foundation of a Small Business Website

SEO influences website structure

SEO influences site navigation

SEO influences website content

SEO influences content wording

SEO influences filenames

SEO influences website URL (domain name)

SEO influences what webhost to use
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It is harder to place well in Google than other search engines, so if you are doing well in Google, you will, by default, do well in the other Search Engines.

1. Define Your Target Audience

Who is Your Target Audience and what is the Target Audience looking for?

Your target audience includes site visitors who are actually interested in what you have to offer, so make your web pages specific. Define your target audience, and weed out people who are not really interested in what you have to offer. You are not likely to rank #1 on Google for a general keyword or keyword phrase. No one here is going to get a #1 placement on Google for dog, or “computer repair”, or camera. If you define your target audience more narrowly, you will be able to rank easily on the first page of Google.

Define Target Audience by Geography--Examples:

Keyword phrase “dog trainer” vs. “Roanoke dog trainer”

www.roanokedogtrainer.com/ is #1,

www.fieldofdreamsk9.com/roanoke-dog-trainer.htm is #2

Keyword phrase “Christiansburg natural horsemanship” #1

Keyword phrase “Christiansburg horse boarding” #2

Define Target Audience by Specific Use--Examples:

Keyword phrase “weather station” vs. “drag racing weather station” www.altalabinstrument.com #4

Give the Target Audience What They Want Website visitors make a decision to stay or leave a page within 2-6 seconds.

Fast Loading Pages

Optimize images; keep total page size under 60k. Check for page loading speed

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Easy to Find, Useful Website Content

Structure Logical Navigation, your Target Audience wants to find useful website content within 2 clicks.

2. Content

Have Great Website Content, Useful Content

Have GREAT website content, useful content for your Target Audience. Ask the business owner to describe 3 unique visitors to his or her site – what will your target audience do? Visit competitors’ websites, make a list of the best offerings they have, and improve on them.

Be Professional

Be professional; use spell check, hire a copy editor if necessary to make sure your website content is well written. Have someone else proofread each page.

Page Length

Yahoo and Google like pages with about 1000 words of website content.

Don’t Fear Outgoing Links

Having quality outgoing links makes a page a more valuable resource for the visitor, and can help increase Google Page Rank.

Each Page is About One Thing

Each page of your website is about 1 thing, and is optimized individually for a keyword phrase that best describes the item, information or service that is the subject of the page. Each page is an opportunity for a visitor to find your site from a search engine. Each page is an entry point to your site.

3. Determine a Keyword Phrase for Each Page

Don’t start with your homepage.

A good keyword phrase is 2-4 words long.

A good keyword phrase accurately describes the useful content of the page.

A good keyword phrase is something your target audience is looking for.

A good keyword phrase is not necessarily something YOU would search for.

A good keyword phrase is popular in the keyword tool.

A good keyword phrase is not too popular in the keyword tool.

Tools for Determining a Good Keyword Phrase

http://www.goodkeywords.com/

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

How to Use Your Keyword Phrase

Example: “wv horse rescue”

Page Title

“Horse Rescue in Ellenboro, WV – Horse Haven Holler” (<60 characters)

Filename

Wv-horse-rescue.htm (use hyphens, not underscores or scrunching)

Image Filenames (images on this page)

Wv-horse-rescue-facilities.jpg

Wv-horse-rescue-pasture.jpg

Wv-horse-rescue-horse-adopted.jpg

Keyword Phrase Density

Aim for 3-7% in keyword phrase density. http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

Different search engines treat variations in word forms differently. Write for your visitors, not for search engines.

Meta Tags

Horse Haven Holler, a WV horse rescue, works to rehabilitate and safely adopt any WV horses, burros and donkeys in need. We are a privately funded WV Horse Rescue. 150-200 characters

wv horse rescue, horse adoption, west Virginia horse rescue 150 characters max

Horse Haven Holler - Horse Rescue in Ellenboro, WV

Alt Tags in images – be appropriate “WV Horse Rescue Facilities in Ellenboro, WV”

4. Structure Logical Navigation

Assemble all your website content into logical categories and subcategories. This makes it easy for site visitors to find the content they want. Your Target Audience wants to find website content within 2 clicks.

Do not use Frames

Frames make it hard for search engines to properly index the site, and interfere with bookmarks.

Homepage

The homepage should have useful content and the standard navigation, not a magazine cover style splash screen with an “enter here” link. Google wants to point to pages with useful content, not to doorway pages.

Navigation and Links

Use absolute urls.

Use the Title Attribute.

Make sure linked text is relevant (the keyword phrase)—no “click here” for anchor text.

Create a Sitemap and Custom 404

This will ensure that all of your website content is available to visitors and search engine robots. This is also one way to define the preferred URL when you have a page that may be seen as duplicate content.

Robots.txt

http://www.seoconsultants.com/robots-text-file/

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=40360

.htaccess 301 redirect

Choose a preferred method of writing urls, and redirect the other version using an .htaccess file (Apache Servers Only).

Example:

http://www.website.com

http://website.com

5. Choosing a Domain Name

As you did with choosing a keyword phrase and page title, think about what your site is about, who you want to come to the site, and research possible domain names based on what people are actually searching for. Your business name may not be a good choice to use.

If possible purchase both a scrunched and hyphenated version of your domain. One is easier to say and the other easier to read. Google prefers the hyphenated version. Example:

mynewproduct.com

my-new-product.com

Then use the 301 permanent redirect to point the scrunched version to the hyphenated one.

6. Incoming Links – the Client’s Job Too

Directories and Search Engines

http://dmoz.org/add.html

http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Google Page Rank

This link analysis is a reflection of the importance of a page to Google. A link from a page with high rank is worth more than a link from a page with low rank. Google values popularity. Links from junky sites can do more harm than good. There is no way to FAKE popularity.

http://toolbar.google.com/

Harvesting incoming links to your site should be done regularly, not just one time. A text link pointing to your site is better than a banner. You need quality content that other websites will want to link to. Be selective with incoming and outgoing links.

Incoming and Reciprocal Links

Unless the webmaster only develops websites in a specific business niche, the client, or someone in the client’s firm should be trained to take on this job after the webmaster has established the necessary structure. The client will eventually be the best judge of the value of sites to link to and from, and will have the most up to date information on business trends. He or she will also have the highest motivation to improve this aspect of the website.

Create a Well Planned Reciprocal Linking Section/Strategy

Offer an attractive reciprocal link section that is easy to navigate and exists in sitemap and standard navigation.

Make it Easy to Link to You

You need to provide specific information for websites who want a reciprocal link with you. This should be consistent across the sites you request a reciprocal link from. Prepare both a short version and a more detailed version. Examples:

If you would like to link to this page, please copy and paste this html into your linking page:

Short Version 80 characters:

Positive dog obedience training, puppy classes, agility. APDT, CPDT certified. Roanoke, VA.

Long Version 153 characters:

Positive dog obedience training, puppy life skills and agility classes with APDT and CPDT certified trainers. Positive motivation and recreation for people and dogs. Roanoke, VA.

Search for your Keyword Phrase to Find Places to add Your Link

Don’t be afraid to link to any page, not just the homepage.

Targeted directory websites, choose these carefully

Maps

Cooperative partners (hot dogs/mustard)

Social Networking

Blogging

Twitter

Facebook

Myspace

IM

You don’t have to do everything – who has time? Pick one or two current technologies and create a presence that reflects well on you and your business website.

Social Networking is more or less important depending on the demographics of your target audience.

Viral Marketing

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm

8. Dynamic and Ecommerce Sites

Dynamic Sites

Use software that gives you control over page names, Meta tags, titles, and urls. Google and other search engines can choke on urls with too many parameters, or limit the number of dynamic urls they will index per site. Be careful about using flash and JavaScript, which can generate content that Search Engines cannot follow.

http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

Ecommerce

Use shopping cart software that is SEO friendly. It should give you control over page names, Meta tags, titles, and urls.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1040-Search-Engine-Friendly-S...

I like using Wordpress with these settings, which will give you good control over the SEO of your pages.

WP Shopping Cart plugin

PixoPoint Multi-level Navigation Plugin

All in One SEO Pack plugin

permalinks

9. Follow-up and Evaluation

Google Tools

Search “site: www.yoursite.com”

Search “link: www.yoursite.com”

Website Statistics

Regularly view your web logs to determine “bounce rate”, what pages people are finding, and how long they are staying. As you make changes to the website observe the results. Choose a webhost that provides good, easy to use logs.