Stages in SEO

[I have a new blog called Free DIY SEO which is all about search engine optimisation. The blog is mainly offers basic SEO for small sites doing their own SEO.]

The process of optimising a website for search engines can be broken down into stages. Initially, it takes a lot of work, and then the workload decreases as you monitor how effective your SEO has been before tinkering to try to increase your ranking.

1. Keyword Research

Keywords and key phrases are what people type into a search engine to find your site. You need to work out what these words are, which ones are used most and which are most relevant to the service you offer.

First, generate a list of possible keywords by asking yourself ‘What would I type into a search engine to find the service I offer?‘ Remember people aren’t necessarily going to know that you are called ‘Dave the Magician’ and search for that phrase; they are going to search for ‘party magician’ or ‘children’s entertainer’ or ‘magician Nottingham’.

Once you have this list you need to refine it by using an online keyword suggestion tool. This will tell you how many people actually use a particular keyword or phrase and also suggest alternatives.

Try the Digital Point Solutions [keyword suggestion tool->http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/]. This tool accesses the two main providers of search data, [Wordtracker->http://www.wordtracker.com/] and [Overture->http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/].

2. Incorporate Keywords in Website

Once you have decided on your keywords, they need to be incorporated into the design and content of your website. Ideally, your site should be structured so that each page targets a particular key phrase with your homepage targeting the most important.

The search engines look at specific areas of a page for keywords so this is where you need to make sure they appear:

  • The title meta tag.
  • The description meta tag.
  • The content on the page.
  • The <H1> tag (and other heading tags).
  • The anchor text of internal links.
  • The anchor text of external links.
  • The filenames of pages.
  • The filenames of images.
  • The <alt> tags of images.
  • The <title> tags of links

The main point to remember is that search engines like text; they can’t read photos or video or graphics (check out [this tool->http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php] which shows how a search engine ’sees’ webpages). Of course, graphics make your site appealing to human beings, so you should use them, but remember to add text to the <alt> tags so the search engines will be able to read them.

3. Submit to Search Engines

The search engines need to know your site exists, so they can index it and rank it in the search results. Most search engines have an online form you can use to do this ([here is Google's->http://www.google.com/addurl/], [MSN's->http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2] and [Yahoo's->https://login.yahoo.com/config/login?.src=srch&.done=http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request] - you have to sign up for a free free Yahoo account).

However, there are hundreds of search engines out there so an automatic submission tool is a real help. You can use specialised [SEO submission software->http://www.trendmx.com/go.to?id=dangifford] or websites like [www.freewebsubmission.com->http://www.freewebsubmission.com/]. It is a good idea to have a separate email account/address for search engine submission so all the replies and confirmations don’t get mixed in with your normal email.

Search engine submission was once very important and you could pay a lot of money to have your site submitted. But you really only need to do it once, if at all, since the search engines will find your site anyway by following links from other websites. In fact, some experts think search engines ‘prefer’ (i.e. rank more highly) sites found in this way.

4. Link building

Link building is a very important aspect of SEO. Search engines see a link from another website as a ‘vote’ for your site, so the more links you can get to your website, the better.

However, it is not just the quantity of links that is important but also the quality. A link from a page or site about the same subject as yours (i.e. with similar keywords to your site) carries more weight.

Another aspect of this is the anchor text, the text which is the actual link, i.e. this text. If the anchor text includes the keywords you are aiming for, it is an even better ‘vote’ for your site.

You can get links to your site by:

  • Exchanging links with other websites with similar or related content (reciprocal linking).
  • Submitting your site to web directories.
  • Writing and submiting articles.

5. Monitoring and Analysis

Once you have designed and optimised your site you need to check where your site is appearing in the search engines (your ranking) to see if it is working. Depending on how your site is doing, you may then need to change your pages slightly.

You can do this manually by typing your keywords into the search engines and seeing where your site appears, or you can be more analytical and use [SEO software->http://www.trendmx.com/go.to?id=dangifford] to track your ranking over time. There is also another Digital Point online tool you can use, their [keyword tracker->http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/].

This is an important part of SEO, you need to make sure what you are doing is working - but don’t expect overnight results. You should see a steady increase in your ranking over time for the keywords you are targeting.