5 Simple Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques

[srbhattarai]

Friends,

I am sharing 5 Simple Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques with you. Hope that you will find it helpful.

The lifeblood of any website/ecommerce business is traffic, and every webmaster knows the best type of traffic is natural, organic search engine traffic. There are two very important reasons for this: (1) it is extremely targeted, and (2) It is FREE! The hard part is getting top ranking for your sites keywords... or is it? The purpose of this article is to provide a few simple, effective, and most important, search engine friendly strategies to help boost your websites' ranking and ultimately your traffic.

1. I will start with the Meta Tags. I know you have already heard of, and are probably currently using meta tags on your site. This is great. I just want to make sure you are using them effectively. We will only go over 2 tags: the "title" tag, and the "description" tag. We will not go over the "keywords" tag, as the major search engines have placed less and less weight on this one, and some would argue this tag has no weight at all. I still use this tag however, as I feel there is some merit and no drawbacks to using this tag.

I have found it effective to use similar text in the "title" and "description" tags, and to place your keywords prominently in these tags (near the beginning and more than once). I have seen sites with "sitename.com", "New Page 1", or "Welcome to my site" in the "title" tag, which really does not help in their quest for higher rankings for their particular keyword. Also, try not to use words such as "and", "or", or "the" in these tags.

Important note about keywords Search engines evaluate keyword prominence, keyword weight, and keyword density when determining a site's ranking. All three are calculated individually for the page, the title tag, the description tag, as well as other areas on a page. Keyword prominence means how close the keyword is to the beginning of your page. Keyword weight refers to how many times a particular keyword or phrase can be found on the page. Keyword density is the ratio of the keyword to the other words on the page. You do not want the keyword weight or density to be too high, as this can appear to the search engine as "keyword stuffing" and most search engines penalize sites that stuff their keywords.

2. Place your navigational links (and JavaScript) at the right or at the bottom, but not on the left, of the page. When the search engines "read" your site, they read from the top left to the bottom right. Search engines place an emphasis on the first 100 words or text on the site. You do not want these words to be navigational links or Javascript. Ideally, you want to have your "heading" tags with your keywords in the beginning of your page. This being said, placing your links/JavaScript on the right or bottom of your page ensures the search engine spiders get to the text first, giving more weight to what's important on your page.

3. Place alt tags on all of your images. Search engine spiders cannot "read" pictures or images. The only way a spider knows what an image is about is by reading the alt tag. This is also another chance to place more of your keywords in your HTML, improving your page's keyword weight/density. Alt tags are easy to make and they can make a big difference in your sites keyword ranking. A simple alt tag looks like this: alt="put your keyword phrase here." Search engines separately calculate keyword prominence, density, and weight in alt tags as well, so optimize your tags.

4. Place your keywords at the bottom of your page. Just as search engines place more weight on the first words of your page, they also do the same to the last words. The general thinking is this, if your site is about a certain subject, then the main points, or keywords, should, appear at the beginning, be spread throughout the page, and be prominent at the conclusion. But if you have all of your navigational links and JavaScript at the bottom, your relevant page text could end well before the HTML does. An easy way to have your keywords at the bottom of your page is to include them in the copyright information. For example, if you have a dog food website, you could have something like this at the very bottom of the page:


Search engines are not (as of this writing), penalizing sites using this technique, and it wouldn't really make much sense for them to do so.

5. The Anchor Text of your links. Anchor text is the actual linking text on a site. It is what the user clicks on to navigate to that particular site or page. If a search engine finds many links to your site using the term "dog food", then the search engine concludes your site is about "dog food". This is overlooked quite often, but it seems to have a very large impact on your search engine rankings for a particular keyword. Your anchor text needs to be the keyword or phrase you are trying to target. Try to avoid anchor text such as "Click Here" or "www.yoursite.com"

Also, if you're running a reciprocal link campaign, be sure to use variations of your text. If an engine notices every link to your site is identical, it could place less weight on these links or potentially penalize your site. This is because search engines generally give more weight to "naturally occurring" links, and less to "reciprocal link exchange campaigns". Using different, but relevant anchor text can dramatically affect your targeted keyword rankings, by making your links appear more natural.

Effective SEO may seem difficult at first, but as you have read above, little tricks that require little or no programming knowledge, can make a huge impact on your website's keyword ranking

[saranisa]

Not a quite big to be fan of this article because you are telling everything which is very basic and everybody knows it.

But for starters, they can find it useful too.
Meta tags are not important for Google. All that matters is backlinks, Quality and related. Keywords and anchor texts etc.

[zero_digit]

hey thanks for the information...

[Digitoko]

Agreed. I think it is your personal article those you share with us. So it is really helpful for a beginner.

[peterko]

I agree with you. The only thing I'm not sure is anchor text. You say it should be variations of anchor texts when you're running a reciprocal link campaign (I guess you also mean one way links too) . Another words anchor texts should not be identical.

How about web forum signatures. Some of partisipants have 1000s of links with the same text on signature. How you would consider that? Is it good or bad, or doesn't matter?

Have a great day

[alvis]

I think Anchor text should be different. you should use different keyword as a anchor text and should be associated with different links.

[Lokina2]

Thank for the guide.
I will do it if I have a free-time.
Now I am too busy with my other business.
I want to cry.

[chizarium]

get backlinks and vary your anchor text!

also make sure you get links to all levels of sub-pages on your site

i.e. homepage, category page, sub-category page, product page

[artificialturf]

Thanks for the refresher!

[cooluks]

Good pointers for beginners..

Thanks for informative post...

[aciam]

that's pretty good stuff for SEO novice

keep it up

[dsouza]

read this also



depend on following factors:

1) Marketing is a three-syllable word
2) Few limitations
3) Identity Continuity
4) Trade Publications
4) Promotional Items
5) Reviews

1) Marketing is a three-syllable word : is so simple, Marketing is a multi-faceted approach to promoting products or services. Both traditional and unconventional marketing methods have a place in the small business era. Marketing helps small businesses focus on building their brand, product and identity.

2) few limitations to marketing options, the opportunities listed here are just a few that will generally result in a decent ROI-("Return On Investment") for most of small businesses.

3) Make continuity between an online website, logos, letterheads, business cards, and packaging like things. Keep and create an identity that will make your business grow up from the competition, and leave a good initial impression on essential customers. A professional image associated with your company or product will memorize customers of their previous brand experiences, and will reinforce your product line.

4) Niche syndication are journals or magazines that focus on a specific market. If your product or service is appropriate for a niche market, then advertising in their trade publications will allow you to immediately drill down and target that very specific customer.

5) Product reviews lend credibility to your product or your company.

[trixie]

I am not a SEO but I know some of it stuff and I thank you for I gain another one from this post.

[Amar_001]

Yeh it is quite common thing which every SEO person knows but still it would be the great guide for beginner in SEO

[dsouza]

nice tips , i also have some .read this also

Be bold. Use the <b> </b> tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.

Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible.


Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way.

Article exchanges. You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site.
Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.



Site map. A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too.