Well, it seems a lot of people come into this topic looking for help with their new website, so I've outlined some basic SEO steps for those looking to promote their website a bit.
I'm just going to start from beginning to end for the basics.
1. Research your target keywords. This is an extremely important step. I do this by figuring out what keywords are top searched. You can use the overture keyword selector to see what is popular. http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. Try multiple keywords and find the ones that have the highest searches along with the most descriptive for your target market. Don't choose irrelevant keywords because it will be worthless to you to have traffic come in that is not looking for your product/service. Search 10-20 different keywords and keyword phrases (e.x. “choosing keywords”). List them by # of searches, top being the highest, bottom being the lowest. If you have not registered your domain name, take the top keywords into account. Keywords in the domain name are a big plus for Google. If you don't have the keywords in your domain name then it’s not a big deal you can continue.
2. Adjust your site’s content for your new keywords. Start by putting your keywords into your <TITLE> tag, make sure that your <TITLE> tag still makes sense and sends a clear topic of your site. Do not use more then 75 characters for your title. If it looks like spam or is not clear, it may hurt your click through rate and traffic from search engines. I never click on something I find that looks like spam in SE’s, do you? Once you have your title adjusted, adjust your meta tags. Although meta tags are not heavily weighed in your SE rankings, at least for Google, it still wouldn’t hurt to adjust them to your keywords. Once you are done adjusting your meta tags and TITLE tag, see if you can somehow insert one or two of your keywords in an <h1>-<h3> tag. If you can’t work it in, its not too important. Adjust the content of your site to have these keywords, don't be too repetitive though. And make sure to put some keywords in ALT tags, but also make sure they are descriptive in what the images are. Don't use the same alt tags over and over and also don't make all images have one. Try to have some of your link text have these keywords as well pointing to certain areas of your site. When in doubt about how many times to place keywords either on your site or meta tags, etc… Search for top placed competitors. I would say pick the top 5, count up instances of keywords and average them up. Then place those amounts on your site. Remember though, don't make it spam…
3. Back Links/Partners/Directories/Reciprocal Links… These are all VERY important for your SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions). Back Links are incoming links to your site, other sites that point to you. Partners would be sites that don't exactly have a “links” page but are willing to exchange a link with you. Directories, these are a great way to increase your BL (Back Link) count, a lot of them do not require a reciprocal link back to their site. If you don't already have a links page and/or a links manager create one. You can use http://www.MyLinking.com for a fully featured free links manager. Create a links page on your site. This is where your reciprocal links and partner links will go, along with any links to directories that require a back link. Once you’ve created your Links page you need to require HTML code on your links partners site. If you are using MyLinking this is done through the first checkbox category, you can add multiple required HTML codes, this will allow you to use many different anchor texts for your link partners. Make sure to put your keywords in your anchor text (title tag for MyLinking) when requiring a link back. I’ve found an optimal links page setup is no more then 21-22 MAX links per page, the general rule of thumb is 25 but I would say 20 to stay safe, especially if you plan on advertising later on, or banner ads, etc… Also, if you are using MyLinking check the last category to check for your required link back (HTML) every 24 hours. This will automatically filter out the link partners that decide to drop your link, etc… Once you set your links page, start submitting to free directories. Here are some places to start this: http://www.info-sales.co.uk/directory_A.htm
http://www.webmastergate.com/submit-directories/
Reciprocal Links are very important, as you now can accept reciprocal links through your links page/links manager you are set on that part. But you need to start finding your own reciprocal link partners. MAKE SURE TO FIND RELEVANT TRAFFIC LINK PARTNERS. Search engines calculate your keywords and relevance based on your link partners keywords, etc.. It is VERY VERY important to have link partners that meet your general traffic categories.
Once you start getting BLs you can check your progress by your predicted page rank: You can view that at: http://www.iwebtool.com/pagerank_prediction. It might not be 100% accurate but at least you’ll know you’re making progress. Google does not update their visible PR very often and it can take months to actually see your PR. This is the next best way to estimate your active pr which usually is updated daily.
4. Site Maps – These are very important as well, sitemaps are a list of every page on your site. It is a good idea to put this link into the template of your site. Crawlers should be able to hit EVERY page on your site with no more then 2 jumps (a.k.a Homepage -> Sitemap -> Page B. The ideal way to set this up is have al ink to your site map on each of your pages, and have each of your pages linked on the sitemap.
5. The sandbox… If your site is new, Google will cripple your SERPs for about 6 months. There is really no way around this, just try for traffic through Yahoo/MSN until your out of the box. But this does not mean you can just wait to get BLs until then, its still important to get your BLs now so once you come out of the sandbox you’ll have all the hard work already started to be positioned well.
It takes a lot of time, patience and practice to get to the top, but it can be achieved. If you have spare time you can always submit to more directories, write articles, do reciprocal link exchanges, and adjust your keyword densities.
These steps should keep you busy and get you going in the right direction.
-UrbelT
I'm just going to start from beginning to end for the basics.
1. Research your target keywords. This is an extremely important step. I do this by figuring out what keywords are top searched. You can use the overture keyword selector to see what is popular. http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. Try multiple keywords and find the ones that have the highest searches along with the most descriptive for your target market. Don't choose irrelevant keywords because it will be worthless to you to have traffic come in that is not looking for your product/service. Search 10-20 different keywords and keyword phrases (e.x. “choosing keywords”). List them by # of searches, top being the highest, bottom being the lowest. If you have not registered your domain name, take the top keywords into account. Keywords in the domain name are a big plus for Google. If you don't have the keywords in your domain name then it’s not a big deal you can continue.
2. Adjust your site’s content for your new keywords. Start by putting your keywords into your <TITLE> tag, make sure that your <TITLE> tag still makes sense and sends a clear topic of your site. Do not use more then 75 characters for your title. If it looks like spam or is not clear, it may hurt your click through rate and traffic from search engines. I never click on something I find that looks like spam in SE’s, do you? Once you have your title adjusted, adjust your meta tags. Although meta tags are not heavily weighed in your SE rankings, at least for Google, it still wouldn’t hurt to adjust them to your keywords. Once you are done adjusting your meta tags and TITLE tag, see if you can somehow insert one or two of your keywords in an <h1>-<h3> tag. If you can’t work it in, its not too important. Adjust the content of your site to have these keywords, don't be too repetitive though. And make sure to put some keywords in ALT tags, but also make sure they are descriptive in what the images are. Don't use the same alt tags over and over and also don't make all images have one. Try to have some of your link text have these keywords as well pointing to certain areas of your site. When in doubt about how many times to place keywords either on your site or meta tags, etc… Search for top placed competitors. I would say pick the top 5, count up instances of keywords and average them up. Then place those amounts on your site. Remember though, don't make it spam…
3. Back Links/Partners/Directories/Reciprocal Links… These are all VERY important for your SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions). Back Links are incoming links to your site, other sites that point to you. Partners would be sites that don't exactly have a “links” page but are willing to exchange a link with you. Directories, these are a great way to increase your BL (Back Link) count, a lot of them do not require a reciprocal link back to their site. If you don't already have a links page and/or a links manager create one. You can use http://www.MyLinking.com for a fully featured free links manager. Create a links page on your site. This is where your reciprocal links and partner links will go, along with any links to directories that require a back link. Once you’ve created your Links page you need to require HTML code on your links partners site. If you are using MyLinking this is done through the first checkbox category, you can add multiple required HTML codes, this will allow you to use many different anchor texts for your link partners. Make sure to put your keywords in your anchor text (title tag for MyLinking) when requiring a link back. I’ve found an optimal links page setup is no more then 21-22 MAX links per page, the general rule of thumb is 25 but I would say 20 to stay safe, especially if you plan on advertising later on, or banner ads, etc… Also, if you are using MyLinking check the last category to check for your required link back (HTML) every 24 hours. This will automatically filter out the link partners that decide to drop your link, etc… Once you set your links page, start submitting to free directories. Here are some places to start this: http://www.info-sales.co.uk/directory_A.htm
http://www.webmastergate.com/submit-directories/
Reciprocal Links are very important, as you now can accept reciprocal links through your links page/links manager you are set on that part. But you need to start finding your own reciprocal link partners. MAKE SURE TO FIND RELEVANT TRAFFIC LINK PARTNERS. Search engines calculate your keywords and relevance based on your link partners keywords, etc.. It is VERY VERY important to have link partners that meet your general traffic categories.
Once you start getting BLs you can check your progress by your predicted page rank: You can view that at: http://www.iwebtool.com/pagerank_prediction. It might not be 100% accurate but at least you’ll know you’re making progress. Google does not update their visible PR very often and it can take months to actually see your PR. This is the next best way to estimate your active pr which usually is updated daily.
4. Site Maps – These are very important as well, sitemaps are a list of every page on your site. It is a good idea to put this link into the template of your site. Crawlers should be able to hit EVERY page on your site with no more then 2 jumps (a.k.a Homepage -> Sitemap -> Page B. The ideal way to set this up is have al ink to your site map on each of your pages, and have each of your pages linked on the sitemap.
5. The sandbox… If your site is new, Google will cripple your SERPs for about 6 months. There is really no way around this, just try for traffic through Yahoo/MSN until your out of the box. But this does not mean you can just wait to get BLs until then, its still important to get your BLs now so once you come out of the sandbox you’ll have all the hard work already started to be positioned well.
It takes a lot of time, patience and practice to get to the top, but it can be achieved. If you have spare time you can always submit to more directories, write articles, do reciprocal link exchanges, and adjust your keyword densities.
These steps should keep you busy and get you going in the right direction.
-UrbelT
