SEO 101: Tips from a Search Engine Professional

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By Michelle Chance-Sangthong

The art of Search Engine Optimization hasn’t evolved as much as everyone wants to believe. Yes, algorithms are updated and many sites feel a pinch when they do, but the core SEO strategies still hold true.

Don’t misunderstand: there are many different tactics and methods for getting links, using web 2.0 properties, article marketing and the like, but ultimately, when you’re looking at on site search engine optimization, you have to begin with the basics!

These basics include: Domain Name, Title Tag, Page Name, Design Elements, Content, Frequency, Popularity, Reputation and Back Links. These – along with more than 200 other factors – make up the “formula” for how the search engines rank our pages. Yes, pages. Each page has its own rank in the search engines; it’s not just about the web site, but the individual page.

Based on experience the three strongest elements to a page are its Domain Name, Title Tag and Back Links, and depending on the level of competition for your search phrase, an adjustment to any of these can increase your page anywhere from few up to hundreds of spots.

Domain Name:

Include keywords, if possible; however, don’t make it “spammy” with too much hyphenation! My personal rule of thumb is no more than 2 hyphens. If your niche is wedding favors, and all the “good” domain names are taken, you could consider beautiful-wedding-favors.com, but I wouldn’t recommend the-very-best-wedding-favors-ever.com. Get the picture?

The Title Tag:

I think of it like the mullet hairstyle: business in the front, party in the back. Your most important keywords should be in the front, and it should be followed with a compelling reason to click the link:

Beautiful Wedding Favors: We ship your Wedding Favors for Free

Beach Wedding Favors: Free Shipping on all Beach Theme Favors

You don’t have to “stuff” the title tag, and in the search results it is the most prominent, clickable element. You want to design it to help you rank higher AND get more clicks than the other folks.

Back Links:

It has been said that enough back links can solve any ranking problem, and that’s probably true, but you do want to make them work well for you. Remember, anchor text matters! Your best links will include keyword rich words and phrases, not your URL. For example:

Buy beautiful beach wedding favors from my-great-sites.com

…is MUCH better than…

Buy beautiful beach wedding favors from my-great-sites.com.

Hint: Your links should look NATURAL. In other words, they shouldn’t all say exactly the same thing. Immediately having 10,000 back links to a site that’s been online 2 days, with all the same exact links just doesn’t “feel” right.

ALSO … Remember that you want to get links DEEP into your site, not just the home page. It has been suggested in the past that no more than 50% of your links should point to the home page, so be sure to get links to categories and even product level pages (if you’re in eCommerce)!

The Strongest Elements:

Domain Name: Include keywords, if possible. Don’t SUPER DUPER HYPHENATE (EX: the-very-best-wedding-favors-ever.com)

Title Tag: Like A Mullet (Business in the Front, Party In The Back!). The tag should be targeted AND clickable.

Back Links

The next element that I work diligently on to make keyword rich is the actual page name. Consider the keywords that are targeted for the page, and name the pages accordingly – even in ecommerce and database driven sites.

Page Names: Do you have a generic domain, or a custom domain? (www.mydomain.com/seo-expert-tips.html vs. www.mydomain.com/?3z42.php)

The design elements can help emphasize the “theme” of a page and you should incorporate them in ways that make sense. Use your H1 tag properly, with 1 per page. The H2 and H3 tags can be used if you have multiple sub topics on a page.

Using the tags for your keywords provide emphasis to the reader.

Your pages should be themed based on relevance. If the page is about beach wedding favors, keep the content relevant. Don’t stray and add extra content about wedding shoes and the dress – unless it’s appropriate.

The Meta Description should NOT be ignored. While it will not affect the search results, it can alter the results of the search and drive a higher click through rate. This is the second feature anyone will notice about your site, BEFORE they ever arrive on the page. So use keyword rich content with compelling text to encourage them to click on that search engine listing to visit your site. I have seen occasions on our own site where we were getting higher click throughs at #2 than the listing at #1, and our only conclusion is that our meta description copy was more compelling to the user.

Meta Keywords are certainly not used for ranking, but I add them to each page so that I can keep track of what the page theme is ranking for. Some folks are concerned that using them this way would allow others to “steal” your keywords, but frankly there are so many other tools out there that they don’t have to view my meta keywords to find out what I am trying to rank that page for.

Design Elements:

H1 Content – 1 per page
H2, H3
Strong
Relevance
Meta Data (Probably NOT used for ranking, but gives visitor a REASON to click you instead of the others.)
Meta Keywords (NOT Used – But serves as a reminder as to the focused keywords for a page.)

All this talk about the page leads us to the actual content of the words used on a page. Make it laser-focused and relevant to the topic! Consider the rule of at least 200 words, but probably not more than 500 or so words. People just won’t keep reading past a minute or two. If you find that the topic is worthy of 1,500 or more words, split it up into separate topics or a series of articles. Also, this content on your own site should be unique. Do not use duplicate content that you’ve placed on another site! I am not theorizing over a duplicate content penalty. The search engines will simply rank the best page of duplicate content, and simply exclude the others to provide the BEST results to users. So if your information is unique, you increase your chances of ranking!

Content should always be:

Laser Focused
Between 200 – 500 words
Distinguished as indexable
Unique (and never duplicated) content

The idea of popularity has been debated on again and again, but consider this idea, especially with personalized search: Google (and others) know which links are clicked, and can determine when a link is clicked and how quickly the back button is pushed.

Longer stays could indicate that the page served IS providing a keyword content match to the searched phrase, where as a quick back button clicks could indicate that the page is not providing the best “match” for the keywords. Over time, it would feasible for the search engines to “improve” the listings based on the sites that folks tend to stay on and “reduce” the listings that get quick back clicks.

Popularity:

Debated – But Makes Sense
Quick Click Backs May Hurt
Click Throughs Help
Personalized Search Changed Things

Consider the reputation of your site, as well. The server it lives on, the markets it serves, etc. A random article about gun holsters on a website about prom makeup doesn’t really make much sense. If you are guest posting or accepting guest posts, they should blend in with your site. If you’re not sure of your site’s “category”, take a look at DMOZ.org for some indicators!

Reputation:

Market Matching
Vertical Reputation
Think DMOZ Categories

Now for some final tips… Get your site listed in the BIG directories like DMOZ, Yahoo and others. It’s simply that important!

Want more links? Write great content, amazing information and compelling content. Users will naturally want to link to your information!

Use SEO-friendly press releases. Tip: Make sure you have your most important keyword phrase linked in the first paragraph. Sites like http://onlineprnews.com have made it incredibly affordable.

Writing Articles. It’s a great way to build your own reputation and get your information shared across the web when other websites syndicate those articles. As a reminder: don’t recycle the same article on your own sites that you submit to the article directories.

Blog Comments. Many are NO FOLLOW. That really is not as important, so use blog comments to engage and create an opportunity to attract actual human visitors to your website.

Links. It bears repeating: enough quality links with relevant keyword-rich anchor text can solve just about any ranking problem.

Relevance. Be relevant, not random!

Anchor Text. Don’t use phrases like CLICK HERE to see the latest gear. You don’t want your page to rank for CLICK HERE … you want it to rank for your keywords – use them.

Important Tips About Links:

Try for BIG Directories like DMOZ, Yahoo, etc.

Link Bait – Natural Links

Press Releases

Articles

Blog Comments

Links can overcome many obstacles

Relevance

Anchor Text Matters

More on getting back links. Make your linking campaigns natural, and use an appropriate mix of back link anchor text. Make sure the name you use at the top of your site includes the keywords for which you want links – as many folks will link based on those words. Do not get links for yourself with your domain name only – if you can help it- because sometimes anchor text isn’t possible on some websites. Don’t get too many links, too fast. If you have more links than you’ve had visitors to your site, it really doesn’t make mathematical sense, does it?

Finally, if you have to choose between 100 poor links from 100 random places or 10 great ones, I would pick the 10 great links first.

Consider:

Natural, mix of words
Site Name
Not www.thisismysite.com
Not TOO MANY, TOO FAST
DEBATABLE
10 from 10 great sources over 100 junk links

Search engine optimization is not about impressing the search engines; it is about getting your website in front of users, making your listing click worthy, and then using the right information on your site to help them make an informed decision to do business with you. Follow these proven tips, and you can’t go wrong! Good luck!