Top Search Engine Optimization Tips

• Unless it is absolutely necessary do not purchase a new domain name for your website. Due to Google’s habit of not indexing new sites for many months we highly recommend using your existing domain/website to promote your business. If you have to use a brand-new domain name expect to wait 9-12 months before your website will start showing up in Google’s search results for any keyword phrases you are targeting.
  
  
• Optimize your website for your target audience, not for the search engines. This may not sound like a well though out SEO strategy but it is. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are looking for the most relevant web pages to display when someone performs a keyword phrase search. If you web pages are developed with your target audience in mind it is very likely that other websites will link to your website and that search engines will index your pages in their search engines for many of the keywords that your target audience is typing in. By focusing on creating the best website for your target audience you indirectly create a website that is attractive to search engines. Remember, search engines are very good at detecting which websites offer the best and most relevant content for searchers and which websites are simply trying to obtain high search engine rankings.
  
  
• Make sure to perform in depth keyword research. The keywords that you believe your target audience might be searching for may be incorrect. If you launch an SEO campaign using incorrect keywords you are setting yourself up for disaster. To find the best keyword phrases to optimize for, we suggest using keyword research tools such as Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing data. Compile lists of the most relevant keyword phrases for your website, and then select a few different keywords for every page. Never choose general keywords such as “cars” or “real estate”, as they are rarely indicative of your what website is really about and more often than not there is so much competition for these keywords that you are very unlikely to achieve any meaningful listings in search engines.
  
  
• Construct your websites architecture and navigation based on your keyword analysis. Basing your website’s architecture and navigation on your keyword research is useful for (1) helping to categorize your products or services based on what you’ve found most people are looking for and (2) it helps search engines better index your web pages for their search results.
  
  
• Make sure that your website is “search engine-friendly”. There are many elements of a website’s design that can make it difficult for search engines to crawl, interpret and consequently index your website. Search engines can’t read most forms, they can’t read JavaScript links and menus, and aren’t able to interpret graphics and Flash. Websites that use a lot of JavaScript, websites that employ graphics to communicate information instead of using text and website that use fancy Flash programs are at a disadvantage when it comes to garnering search engine rankings. Make sure that your website always has some form of HTML links in the main navigation of every page. Your main navigation links should direct to the top-level pages of your site and in turn these pages should link to specific product, service or information pages within your site.
  
  
• Make sure to label your internal text links and image links as clearly as you can. Both search engines and website visitors alike use the clickable part of each link on your website to determine what they are going to find once they click on the link. It is important that you don’t make them guess. If a text link directs to your contact page then the clickable part of the link should read something like “Contact Us”. If an image link directs to your contact page then the alt tag in the image link code should read, “contact us” or “contact information”.
  
  
• Your website should include unique and compelling copy based on your keyword selection and your target audience’s needs. And make sure search engines can easily find your copy. If you want your website to show up well in search engines it is imperative that your website has ample high-quality copy. Search engines require keyword-rich copy on your pages so that they can understand how to classify your web pages in their search results. Your copy should be easy to find. This means that it isn’t buried under images, fancy flash designs or located within frames. Develop your copy based on the keyword phrases you identified during your keyword analysis. And while you should include your keyword phrases in your copy there is no magical number of times your keywords should appear – just make sure that your copy looks natural. Randomly placing your keywords throughout your copy is called spamming and will likely get your website in trouble with search engines.
  
  
• Make sure your website is attractive enough that other websites will link to it. This is one of the most important steps to achieving and maintaining top search engine rankings. Most, if not all, search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your websites link popularity. If you don’t have a lot of other high quality websites linking to your website chances are you will never attain high search engine rankings. And if you do achieve decent rankings and do not maintain a natural looking growth trend in the number of websites adding links to your site then it is more than likely that you will not maintain high search engine rankings very long. For these reasons it is very, very important that your website is the type of website that other websites want to link to. It is also important that you do not link to other websites that are not on topic with your website or that are low quality. For this reason you should not use link exchanges to generate links for your website – it won’t work very long.
  
  
• Don’t make the mistake of optimizing your website for just one or two keyword phrases. Don’t optimize your site for just one or two keywords and don’t focus on how you rank for any specific keyword phrase. Instead measure you’re the results of your optimization campaign on increased traffic, sales and conversion. Remember, it is not likely that you will maintain your search engine rankings for any given keyword phrases. But if you optimize your website correctly you should maintain a general and profitable presence in search engines.