It's a jungle out there when it comes to rising up the ranks of the major search engines. Getting your site to show on even the 5th page of results requires a strong understanding of
SEO principles and a determination to implement improvements. Here we'll go over a few of tricks to help you become king of the jungle.
Keep your keywords in mind, but create your page for the users. Search engines crawl for keywords but they are not the ones choosing to click on your link. A page title or meta description that is full of keywords without content will keep people from clicking on your link.
Don't try using Flash when you're using a website
for SEO purposes. Flash typically does not load very fast, and spiders are turned off by this. If you want to optimize your site, you have to have the right type of content.
Be specific about your keywords and phrases and keep it simple. If you try to catch every keyword in your niche, you will have spread yourself too thin. Target a select few and use them creatively and often while still maintaining a natural flow to your page. By doing this you can push to the top of the list much easier.
Do not simply focus on
your web copy to carry your keywords. Incorporate your keyword into all aspects of your site. This means being creative in your domain name, folders within the site and individual page names. Keywords in these areas, along with keywords and phrases throughout your copy, greatly increase your chances.
Include a range of content on your site including podcasts, videos and social content feeds (from Twitter, for example) to help your search engine optimization. You'll find that search engines place sites with dynamic content higher on search results pages; many sites make the mistake of thinking links are the only important factor in raising their ranks.
To optimize your search engine results it is important to make your URL easily identifiable. Include words that are relevant to the site as opposed to numbers and symbols. People will recognize those keywords in the URL, and are more likely to click on your link if they think it will bring them to a relevant page.
There are a lot of marketing and
SEO services out there that claim that they can work wonders in promoting your site or products, but you have to be very aware of scams in this area. A service that promises to direct a large volume of traffic in a short period of time is probably too good to be true. Always get the opinions of others before parting with your money.There are several good forums where you can go for advice.
Isolate content like images and javascript in separate directories and use a robot.txt file to prevent search engines from indexing these directories. These file types have no effect on your website's
SEO performance. By instructing search engines to skip over them, you will increase the speed with which search engines index the other, more relevant parts of your site.
Add a site map to your site. By putting a site map on your site, which a page listing that links to all the main pages on your site, it will make it easier for the search engine spiders to search through your site. It is best to require fewer clicks to get to a page on your website.
There is no one single method of search engine optimization, but using meta tags is a good start. When choosing your tag be sure that the keyword actually matches your website. Use a search phrase that you think your target market would use to find your product or service.
If you're writing on a single topic, create a standing page with links to the updated content. Often, content will be updated as time passes, especially in the case of current events. It is best to create a summary page with links to the latest information and have that page rise to the top of the
Search Engine Results Page (
SERP).
When using Twitter, employ a URL shortener that utilizes a 301 redirect to ensure you're getting the full benefits of the inbound link.
bit.ly provides great statistics in addition to using the 301 redirect, and therefore is an excellent choice. You can keep track of the click-through numbers on each link that you shorten.
When optimizing your site, think of the search engine as a matchmaker. The search algorithms look for sites with the most similarities to or cohesion with the most popular and reputable sites. In terms of quality and links, how well does your site content align with that of sites that are considered successful?
Make sure that the search engine is seeing the same thing that you, or your audience, is seeing. There are wonderful free websites which allow you to view your site in the eyes of a search engine, so make use of them! You may be shocked at how little they actually index.
Don't use tables if you want excellent search engine optimization. Table headers will not make sense to a search engine spider, so instead write out the information contained in the table in paragraphs. Full sentences are easier to read by your audience as well, and will therefore provide a better source of information.
Marketing through email will be a large part of website promotion, so know how to do things with it. SEO keywords ought to be used within your emails, as should social site sharing tools. So write your emails in a way that make them easy for people to forward to their contacts who might enjoy them also.
You aren't going to become king in a day but these tips are going to put you solidly on the way to becoming king of your keywords. Incorporate as many of these tips that you can to see your ranking start to soar. Keep in mind that the more popular your keywords, the harder your fight for status is going to be. Keep following these tips and keep learning new ones to rise above the rest of the field.
