Website optimization is the first step in promoting your website.
Those with foresight and deeper pockets will have a SEO-savvy
webmaster (such as myself) build the website that is optimized
from the start. Otherwise, a website may need a SEO-facelift
later to help it be digestible to the search engines - and
to make it obvious to the search engines that the keywords
you are trying to be found under are truly relevant to your
website. Like any specialty, performing website optimization
involves skills, special tools, and a willingness to keep
up with current changes in the market.
Unfortunately, hiring an SEO expert can be quite expensive.
For those who want to do it themselves, here are the steps.
BOOKMARK THESE TOOLS! YOU WILL need them!
The first step in website optimization is
to make sure you have well-formatted HTML. I would encourage
you to use the following tool to check this: http://validator.w3.org/ Do
your best to get your website as close to conformance as
possible.
If you use CSS, then use a CSS validator at http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html There
is rarely an excuse for having invalid CSS.
If you follow most of the suggestions for having valid
HTML code, your web pages will be more digestible for the
search engines, as well as being much more cross-browser
compliant. You should also do this after any significant
edit of the web page - to ensure that it is still compliant.
The second step in website optimization is
to work on the Meta tags and the title tag for each page
in your site. These are in the header of your web page document
and need to be tailored to attract users who type in one
of a select group of keywords. There are sevaral free meta-tag
generator tools available for those who need them. Just do
a search on "HTML Meta Tag Generator".
The title tag:
The title tag is, of the three, the most important for the
major search engines. Don't make this too long - normally
no more than 6 words. But have your most important keywords
here. Some SEO specialists advise that even the order of
the text here is significant. They suggest that if you place
your company name in the title, that it should be placed
last so the other keywords are being considered with greater
weight.
The meta-keywords tag:
This is now of lesser importance than before, due to abuse
by webmasters to achieve high rankings. However, it is still
important and is required by many of the smaller search engines.
Make sure that you don't repeat any keyword or keyword phrase
more than three times. That would be considered Spam (bad
SEO tactics) by the search engines. Remember, your visitors
will see the title of the web page. Make it useful to them
as well.
The meta-description tag:
This is of higher importance than the keywords tag. Several
search engines use it when they show your listing. It needs
to encourage your potential visitors to visit your website.
Of course, having keywords in here is important. But keep
the primary purpose in mind as you write it. Here too, you
should make sure that you don't repeat any keyword or keyword
phrase more than three times.
Each page in your website needs its own tailored title,
meta-description, and meta-keywords tag. These need to be
focused on the keywords you are trying for. (These are the
words or phrases you want to be found at when people are
doing searches.) These shouldn't normally be the same on
every page. They should be customized to the content that
is on that page. You should also keep your visitors in mind
as you write them.
The third step is to work on your content
- especially on your home page. Ideally you would have between
800 - 1200 words of text. It should have your most important
keywords at the top, middle and the bottom of the text. If
possible, use an "h1" tag at the top for your title - and
have your most important keyword imbedded in it. Also, have
some of your keywords in a sentence or phrase that is bolded.
Keep it natural for your visitors to read. If it doesn't
look natural, you will loose any visitors you have attracted.
The fourth step in website optimization is
to edit your links and your images to make full use of the "title" and "alt" attributes.
Text links can have a "title" attribute. The content is
to more fully describe your link. When you put your mouse
over the link, the content of the "title" attribute is displayed.
I would encourage you to tailor the description so that it
contains at least one of your keywords - but keep it accurate
- that it really does describe the link. It must make sense
to the common user.
Images HTML tags can have an "alt" attribute. It is used
to describe an image when you put a mouse over it. It is
also used for different devices for seeing impaired. Also,
it is used when the user decides not to show images with
the web site. They will see this text instead. (It is the "Alternate
Text" for the image.) Try to incorporate some keywords here
too - but keep with the spirit of being the "alternate text" for
the image.
If you are using tables, you may even include a table "summary" attribute.
The purpose of this attribute is to assist for those with
disabilities to understand the contents and structure of
a table. Keep all summary comments within that purpose -
and add keywords only where appropriate. Note that these
summary attributes may cause your web page validator to spit
up an error - but this is newer item that is encouraged.
The fifth step is to have a good menu system
or a site map. Search engines follow links to find the different
pages in your site. If your navigation is one of those JavaScript
drop-down menus or Flash menus, the search engines may not
find all of your pages unless you have an alternative non-JavaScript
link path that they can follow. If you use the fancy JavaScript
links, you should have a hard link to a site map on every
page. The site map should have a real non-JavaScript list
of links that the search engines can follow to map out your
whole site. As a standard policy I tend to avoid the JavaScript
links in the menus.
OPTIONAL: If you haven't chosen a domain name yet,
you may strongly consider having your top keyword phrase
in the domain name, with the words separated by dashes. This
is an excellent idea, but not always feasible. Many companies
already have a domain name selected, or prefer to use their
company name as the domain name. This is a business decision
left up to the customer.
THINGS NOT TO DO: Don't create and market mirror
sites though to accomplish this trick either. Sites that
are identical in content, but have a different domain name
are considered SPAM (bad/taboo) by the search engines. They
don't appreciate such tricks, and the ranking of both websites
will suffer for it.
Also, don't get too crazy with stuffing keywords where they
don't belong or by repeating keywords or by having keywords
in hidden layers. Search engines don't like that and will
ban your site.
SEO SOFTWARE TO BUY: I have used SEO
Studio to do website analysis during my optimization.
This has been an invaluable tool for analyzing how saturated
my keywords are in a particular web page. It is reasonably
priced and I have been very satisfied with the performance.
It is easy to see such things as keyword density relevance
for the whole web page. It also is helpful in showing where
the keywords are not (and can be). You will learn a lot
about website optimization just by using this tool!
NOW WHAT? After all this "Search Engine Optimization" you
need to do a human review your website - is it natural/useful/helpful
for the human visitor? Remember, getting website traffic
is only half the game. Your site needs to quickly convert
them into paying customers.
Once it is "Optimized", then you need to let the search
engines know that you exist. Only after it is ready should
you tell them about it. But this is a subject for another
article. Do a search of different article warehouse or SEO
news sources. You will find a lot of information on this.
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION NEWS SOURCES: Since there are
new quirks in the website optimization and website promotion
that come out all the time - some that apply to all search
engines, and some that apply to a particular one, it is wise
to keep up to date. I strongly encourage you to join a couple
of relevant mailing lists!
I really like the news sources from Entireweb.com. If you
submit a site through them, I would encourage you to accept
their free newsletters. They have great content. http://www.entireweb.com/submit_site/
Another place to get really great articles on website optimization
or promotion is http://www.SiteProNews.com They
also allow you to subscribe to their articles. Do this!
If you are serious about keeping up with your website positioning,
keep up with the news. You will find these resources invaluable!
Robert Fuess is a veteran website designer who specializes
in making dynamic search engine optimized websites.
http://www.SpiderwebLogic.com |
http://www.SchoolAndTeacher.com
