Back to Basics in SEO

There has been a lot of talk about Google and MSN's new algorithms and Yahoo's search engine changes. When these changes finally do occur, it is always important to remember the number one rule in SEO: DON'T PANIC!

If there is one guaranteed constant in this business it is that there will always be changes in the search engines' rankings. Our job, as search engine marketers, is to stay on top of the changes and to monitor how the change affects our clients' site's traffic.

I am actually excited about any algorithm change, because it means that the search engines should actually get better.

What follows is a "back to the basics" on getting good rankings:

Keyphrases

First things first: Always be sure to research the keyphrases you intend on using. Find out what keyphrases Internet users most often employ to find your product or service. There is no point optimizing your site for "online web marketing" if everyone types in "Internet marketing".

Once you have a list of potential keyphrases with a high amount of Internet traffic, comb over that list and see which keyphrases best describe your product or service. These are the ones you should consider.

Here are some sites that can help you in your research:

• Wordtracker www.wordtracker.com


• Google AdWords https://adwords.google.com/select/ (Click to sign up, it is free to do the keyphrase research)


• Snap www.snap.com

Competition

Research your competition with these questions in mind:

• What keyphrases are they using (take a peek at their keyword Meta tag)?
  
• What are the titles of their sites?
  
• When you do a search for the keyphrases you are considering, who comes up in the top five rankings?
  
• What is their title/keyphrases?
  
• Are the top ranking sites your competitors or are they industry associations?

Use the keyword effectiveness index (KEI) tool at Wordtracker to compare the effectiveness of your keyphrases. A higher KEI signifies a better ratio of demand-to-competition for a keyphrase.

Do a link search to see who is linking to your competition. In a search engine, type in "link:" (without the quotes) followed by the URL you want to verify. This will allow you to see all the important links to the site that the search engine tracks (I would recommend doing this in both Google and Yahoo).

• Can you get links from the same sites as your competitors?
  
• Are there industry associations or organizations that are linking to the top sites, but not to you?

Get your link campaign going!
(see the article about linking for search engines to learn why links are important)

Optimizing Your Web Site

Now that you know what keyphrase you are optimizing for, here is how to optimize your site: write good quality content that focuses on your keyphrases.

Above all else, this is the single most important factor.

Sure there are other on-site factors such as:

• Getting the keyphrase into the title (this is the second most important factor)
  
• Getting the keyphrase into the Meta description tag, the Meta keyword tag, the headers and sub headers, the alt tags, and into some link text (some of these factors are VERY minor)
  
• Having a good site map so that the search engine spiders can easily navigate your site
  
• Having a robots.txt to include the pages that you want the search engines to include
  
• Don't use frames
  
• Use flash wisely (not the WHOLE site in flash)
  
• Use external files for your java scripts
  
• Use cascading style sheets (a .css file)
  
• Use dynamic URL's wisely (Avoid using URL's with ? or & in them)

Content is king

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