Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

Businesses are growing more aware of the necessity to understand & implement at least the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). But in the event you read a variety of blogs & sites, you'll quickly see that there's plenty of uncertainty over what makes up the fundamentals.Without access to high-level consulting & without plenty of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there's also plenty of misinformation about SEO strategies & tactics.

Commit yourself to the technique: SEO isn't a one-time event. Search engine algorithms modify regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook & dedication. Change your tactic according to the google webmaster guidelines.

Be patient: SEO isn't about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

Ask questions when hiring an SEO company: It's your job to know what kind of tactics the company makes use of. Ask for specifics. Ask if there's any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research about the company, about the tactics they follows, and so forth.

Become a student of SEO: If you're taking the do-it-yourself route, you must learn about SEO as much as you can. Fortunately for you, there's plenty of great web resources and many books on serach engine optimization which you can read.

Have web analytics in place at the beginning: You ought to have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you'll need web analytics program in place so you can track what's working and what's not.

Build a great & attractive website: Definitly you want to show up on the first page of search engine results pages. Ask yourself, Is my site of the ten best sites in the world on this topic? Be honest. If it's not, make it better.

Include a site map page: Spiders can't index pages that can't be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, & help the spider understand your site's hierarchy. This is helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

Make SEO-friendly URLs: Use keywords in your URLs & file names. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy & users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs & file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a space, while underscores are not.

Do keyword research at the beginning of the project: If you're on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what's important is the relative volume of keyword to another. Another lovely free tool is Google's AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn't show exact numbers.

Open up a PPC account: Whether it's Google's AdWords, Microsoft adCenter or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but in case you have the budget it's worth the investment. It's also the solution in case you didn't like the Be patientâ suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

Use a unique & relevant title & meta description on every page: The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It's rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won't help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it ought to include the relevant keyword(s) & be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta tag, as no major search engine today supports it.

Write for users first: Google, Yahoo, etc., have powerful bots crawling the net, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you require keywords in the text, but don't stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

Create great, matchless content: This is important for everyone, but it's a specific challenge for online retailers. If you're selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, & everybody is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier to target actual words searchers use, & make product pages that blow the competition away. And, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally: Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say click here do nothing for your search engine visibility.

Build links intelligently: Start with foundational links like trusted directories. (Yahoo & DMOZ are often cited as examples, but don't waste time worrying about DMOZ submission. Submit it & forget it.) Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area the Chamber of Commerce, local business directories, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, . Generate great content on a consistent basis & use social media to build awareness & links.

Use press releases wisely: Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media net sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, & opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to document. Don't waste journalists time.

Start a weblog and participate with other related blogs: Search engines, Google , love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured information. Beyond that, there's no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your weblog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your weblog posts. If that's impossible, use weblog.yourdomain.com.

Use social media marketing wisely: If your business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality images there. If you're a service-oriented business, use Quora and/or Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an specialist in your industry. Any business ought to even be looking to make use of Twitter and Facebook, as social information and signals from these are being used as part of search engine rankings for Google and Bing. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not anger them.

Take advantage of local search opportunities: Online research for offline purchasing is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, .

Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you: Sign up for Google Webmaster Central, Bing Webmaster Tools & Yahoo Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how lots of inbound links they're aware of.

Diversify your traffic sources: Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next giant algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, plenty of of the DOs on this list creating great content, beginning a weblog, using social media and local search, etc. will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.

About The Author: Neha Sharma is a SEO Expert in Xantatech Pvt Ltd, Noida. Neha Sharma can be found on Twitter at @Nehaseoxanta and/or on Google Plus.

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