 Home |
There are clear rules and reasons why websites get ranked well in the
search engines. Below are some of the more basic ones for all you newbie search
engine optimization out there:
1. Internal Navigation
Sure the search engines are getting better at learning to crawl complex
websites, but you need to make it as easy as possible. Avoiding JavaScript,
Image Maps and session IDs are just a few of the pitfalls many newbie's miss.
Create your navigation in CSS or standard text. One way to see if your
navigation is easily crawl able is to check the Google cache and click on the
link "Click here for the cached text only." If you can see your links in
hyperlinked form you are probably ok. This is probably the most universal issue
I see as a problem for newbie SEO's and even some of the largest online
companies. Get this fixed, do nothing else and you could see large improvements
in rankings and conversions.
2. Why Are You The Best?
Maybe the 2nd most important item in marketing your website online is setting
yourself apart. If you're just another website that offers DVDs (or whatever)
online for the same price as BMG, Best Buy, etc., what makes your website
better? The internet is a network of interesting content, products and services.
You must make your content, products and services stand out above the rest. How
you do that is another story altogether.
3. Links
OK in a perfect world you could make a great website with awesome content and it
would rank fine. Our world is hardly perfect and the search engines are not even
close. The search engines will more than likely always use some sort of linking
weight in their algorithm, so after you build this great website, let the world
know. Contribute in blogs, forums, and message boards related to your website.
Write articles. Contribute To The Internet. Become an authority on what your
website deals in and before you know it you will be getting those one-way links
without even asking for them. This is truly the link you want. Remember there
are no short term link building strategies that work long term.
4. Content
a) OK obviously you can't just have a website made up of images and one sentence
on each page. Text is the meat that those search engines love to cook and grub
on. The more relevant text you can write on each page the better it is for the
search engines and the better it is for your end users. One thing to remember
here is not to squeeze too many subjects onto one page. Break pages out as much
as possible.
I will tell you right now. If you don't have a blog create one now. Blogs can
really help keep your website "fresh". You may have heard that this is necessary
to rank. I disagree that it is necessary to constantly change your content on
your website for you to rank. That is where some get confused. What the search
engines like about fresh content and blogs is NEW content. You are consistently
posting relevant, fresh content on your website about your business. This is
great for end users so it is great for search engines. Blogs are a great way to
attract in-bound links, fresh content, and are easy to crawl. These are
basically the three cornerstones to successful search engine optimization.
5. Title Tags
Another no-brainer. Looking at the example above, the website owner is not using
unique title tags on each page, but you should throughout your website.
6. Duplication
Sure we have heard all kinds of confusing horror stories on content duplication.
Sure you want to avoid doing it, but I have yet to see Google or other search
engines actual penalize for it. What the search engines do is rank one page over
another and yes sometimes if they find a duplicate they will toss it in the
supplemental index. If you call that a penalty fine, but I call it Google
choosing one version to rank over another. Make sure you provide only one to
rank! Also, if you write an article, just make sure to publish it on your
website and WAIT a couple of weeks and then syndicate it. It will give the
search engines time to associate you as the author/owner of it.
7. Competition
Please recognize who your competitors are. If you are going head to head with
websites that have been online for years and maybe even decades, then you should
realize your search engine optimization battle will be uphill and difficult, but not impossible.
8. Finance
If you are on a shoe-string budget or just have been burned by search engine
optimization in the past
and don't want to invest more money into it now, this is OK. But please
understand the leg work is now on you. Only expect "high-level" ideas and
recommendations from forums. The best thing to do is to dive in and do the work
yourself with the support of the forum. Don't rely on the forum as cure for your
website marketing sickness, but rather as an antibiotic that works within your
body to heal.
9. Tracking
You better do it! If you don't know if your website is making you money, then
who cares if it is optimized. Who cares if it is ranking? Who cares what Google
PR it is? Two hundred #1 rankings mean nothing if you not making money off of
them. That mind set is important. If you do not track leads/sales, then start
now.
10. History
How long have you been online? Less than a year? More than 5 years? This makes
an big difference. I don't care what anyone says. The longer you have been
online the more likely you are to have good results. If you still don't have
good results and you have been online for a while, don't fret. Your fixes should
take hold quicker in the search engines once you make them.
11. Code Bloat/Download Time
OK I understand you might be a search engine optimization newbie. What do you know about coding
websites, let alone inline CSS or JavaScript? Bottom line is your either going
to need to learn or get someone who does know. No excuses here. It is becoming
more important to have valid and easy to crawl code. I am not saying it is
absolutely necessary. I see websites that rank all the time that are ridiculous
when it comes to valid code, but if you can fix this, then do it. The second
part is to make sure your pages download in a reasonable time. Once again you
will find slow websites ranking all the time, but get it fixed not only for the
search engines, but for your end users.
12. One Change At Time
Sometimes even minor fixes to one of the concepts noted above is enough to make
the jump you have targeted in the search engines. Take your time and evaluate
changes one at time. Changing too many things at once can cause "Chasing Your
Tail Syndrome".
These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. There are many more and
always remember each website's search engine optimization needs are very unique. I have yet to see one
website need the exact same solution set as another, when optimizing.
|
