Ok in my last article, I shared with you what not to do to get in trouble with Google. Today I am going to share with you what makes Google happy, happy.Ok let’s get going.
First you need to submit your site to each of the three major search engines.
1) Google: http://www.google.com/addurl.html
2) Yahoo: http://submit.search.yahoo.com/ (choose the "Submit Your Site For Free" option) or if you like you can spend $49.00 for Search Submit Basic. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/ssb.php
3) MSN Live Search:
Ok now for the SEO part.
You may have the best website on the planet, maybe the cure for cancer but if no one knows where you website is or how to find it...it's completely useless!!
There is a lot of "stuff" regarding SEO (search engine optimization) so I am just going to go over the most important things you should be doing to make your site search engine friendly and get you on your way to better search engine rankings. Then at the end of this article, I will share with you the holy grail of top positioning.
One of the most important things you need to do is have and use the proper keywords on your web pages. The search engine spiders will look for text and at your websites HTML code to correctly categorize and rank your website.
Keyword research is very important, and is necessary evil for the success of your site. So take your time. I spend weeks doing just keyword research for my clients and my own sites. However, all that hard work pays off big time
A little trick to starting your keyword research is type in the phrase you think people will use to find your product or service into the search engines. Once you get the results, take a look at the web sites that come up, look at their source code, and look at their keywords.
To look at a web sites source code simply right click your mouse or click on View in your tool bar and then click on View Source or Source.
Once you have a look at their keywords you can then use a resource like Word Tracker. This is one of the tools that I use to do my keyword research to find out the ranking and competitiveness of each keyword.
Please remember a good keyword list should be about 500 to 1000 words and/or phrases. You WILL NOT be using all these keywords in your site.
NOTE: Try to avoid highly competitive keywords. It will be hard to rank well with competitive keywords. So shoot for niche phrases and long tail search terms.
For example, you don’t want a keyword like Dogs. I did a search for dogs and the result was 205,000,000 pages. Way too many. However, if you refine your keywords to let’s say Mini Dachshunds the results are now only 726,000 pages. Less competitive and easier to get a top ranking.
Here are some of the top places to use your keywords on your site.
So for example I am building a website for a client about Miniature Dachshunds (a wiener dog) so lets use this as an example site.
1) Your domain name. As her site has to do with miniature dachshunds my goal would be to have Dachshunds, Doxies or Dachsie in my domain name or some version of that. Just so happens I have a few domains like that. And one of them is: http://www.nothingbutdoxies.com/
2) Next would be in your title tag. Again, if you want to see where a title tag is view the source code of any site and you will find it at the top of the page. The title is what appears at the top of the web page you know that blue bar at the top of every web page. You want to enter a keyword rich description here.
So my title tag could look something like this The Simple Guide To Owning And Training A Miniature Dachshund
3) Next would be both your description and your keyword tags, and they could look like this:meta name="description" content=" A basic guide to owning and training a dachshund and understanding everything you need to know about doxies'
meta name="keywords" content=" dachshunds, dogs, doxies, dachsie, wiener dogs, dog training, house training, obedience, obedience class, long hair dachshunds, smooth hair dachshunds, wire hair dachshunds"
Please note google does not put much relevance on meta tags any more but other search engines still do, so that’s why I mentioned it.
4) Next would be in your headlines and your sub-headlines. So your headline could be something like this:
Life with a doxie, what's not to love. Have the perfect relationship with your dachshund
Dachshunds, not just any dog. But are you ready for a Dachsie? Your detailed guide to house training and obedience training for your doxie in less then 7 days
5) Next is the content of your site. This is where you use your top keywords within your content. Please remember don't just toss keywords in where they don't belong. Yes you're making your website search engine friendly but it has to be people friendly as well.
So when writing your content make sure your keywords go with the flow of the content and it makes sense. In other words make it natural. You don’t have to be Hemmingway but present your information in a thoughtful and concise manor.
And the golden rule is content is king. So the more relevant content you have the better. With that said you are getting closer to the holy grail of getting a top position on google or any other search engine for that matter.
6) Next would be your tags. On every website there are images. And you can add text to those images if you choose too. When you're at a web site move your cursor over the images a well-constructed web site will have text appear over an image when your cursor moves over it.
This is the text that will appear if the image cannot be downloaded by your browser. So an image tag could look like this:
Now when someone comes to the site and moves their cursor over this image or the image does not download the text Miniature Dachshund will appear. Please note these tags should not have more then four or at most five words in them.
The goal of doing good SEO is so your website will be found. And one other very good tactic is getting inbound links from relevant websites.
Now the number one rule of building links is QUALITY not QUANTITY!!
Search engines place a lot of relevance on your sites link popularity. This means how many links are linking back (into) to your site. It only makes sense, the more links going to your site means your site is a good resource for your topic (product/service). And in turn has more value and relevance.
The best link or I should say the link the search engines see as the perfect link. Would be a one-way link from a high ranking website with content related to your sites content (topic) and it comes from a page with few out going links to your web site.
Ok I admit these are harder to get one-way links as opposed to reciprocal links but that's why the search engines love them so much. And they are so worth the effort
How do you get a one-way link?
Simple, you ask for them.
But before you do you must do your homework. And that means you need play detective and locate relevant sites and you do that by using your favorite search engine.
Next you need to research your linking prospects website. Your want to collect as much info about your prospects site as you can before you contact them.
Why?
Because if you have a lot of info about their site and you include that info in your request. Your request will be taken more seriously.
One of the best tools to find out a ton of information about your prospects website is to use Alexa. To download the Alexa toolbar go here http://download.alexa.com/
Once you have the relevant information you need it’s time to contact the owner of the site and there are two ways of doing that.
The very best way is call him/her if they have a phone number.
And the second way is by email.
If you choose email there are elements you need to include in your email:
1) Why you’re emailing them. Sounds basic but you would be surprised how many people don't do this.
2) Include a positive comment about their site. You like the layout, the information is fantastic, anything but most importantly be honest.
3) Tell them how their visitors and they would benefit from having your link..
4) Point out where your link would benefit their visitors the most.
5) Make sure to tell the owner that your site is in no way competition to their site.
6) Provide easy steps for adding your link to their site.
7) And finally all your contact info, including your phone number.
Like I said getting one way links takes time you will need to be persistent but it is so worth it.
Another great way to get one-way links is by submitting your site to website directories. Here is a list of directories you can submit to:
1) Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org/
2) Yahoo Directory: http://dir.yahoo.com/ The cost is $299. Please keep in mind this does not guarantee your site will be listed.
3) Best Of The Web: http://botw.org/ The reoccurring annual fee is $79.95 or there is a one-time fee of $239.95.
4) Wow Directory: http://www.wowdirectory.com/ This is free. But you can pay for express review $43 or sponsored review $65.
5) GoGuides: http://www.goguides.com/ There is a one-time fee of $69.95
Ok the next thing you want to do is create a site map for your website. This is not as hard as you think, so go for it.
Before you can do this step you must have a google account, and you can start one here https://http//www.google.com/accounts/Login. You will need this account to activate your site map.
All a search engine spider knows of your site is the individual page it's currently crawling and indexing. To get it to crawl your other pages, you need to give it a map or a trail to follow — and that's exactly what a sitemap does.
It's a fantastic way to increase your chances of getting your entire site indexed as soon as possible, regardless of what page a spider lands on first!http://iphonegoldrush.blogspot.com/
The search engines require an XML sitemap (XML is a programming language). Just like you making a good navigational map for your visitors an XML sitemap does the same for the search engine spiders.
You can build a site map free here: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/.
This is the easiest way to build a site map because you can simply enter the URL of your site and your XML sitemap will be created for you.
Once you’ve done that you can then upload your site map to your hosting account and then activate it in your google account.
Well I hope that helps you understand some of the Search Engine Optimization methods you can use for your website. These are just a few of the things you should be doing to get well ranked from the search engines. There is much more you can do but this will get you started.
Now I mentioned I would share with you the holy grail of getting a top position on the search engines, well here it is.
Blogging!! Why blogging?
I will go over the steps of creating a search engine spider magnet using blogging in my next article http://iphonegoldrush.blogspot.com/
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