Seach Engine Optimization | information, links, and articles
SEO from my Experience
In my experience I have found alot of success in the SEO world by following a simple set of rules:
Step 1: Meta Tags
Your website's URL, Title Tag, and Meta Description Tags are the three KEY elements to Google indexing your page. Make your Title Tag keyword rich while still simple and short ( 70 Characters is the limit for Google ). Good practice I've used that has given me success is in this order - FIRST, the business name...SECOND, the business location...THIRD, a unique keyword phrase for the current page. Example - For the home page of Jewel Restaurant I chose the Title tag: "Jewel Restaurant by Tom Schaudel | Melville, Long Island, New York | American / Italian Cuisine & Fine Dining". The "|" or "pipe" character isn't a necessary element, merely a cosmetic separator I like to use. This allowed Jewel to get first page success on google with the keyword phrase "melville restaurant" among others. I continue this formula to all interior pages ( ex: About page, Contact Page, etc. ) to keep continuity which gives each page a unique page name while still optimized for SEO. For the Meta Description tag try to keep it to 25 - 30 words to prevent cut off on Google's SERPS ( Search Engine Result Pages ) while still keyword rich. A LONG, Descriptive, artsy description is NOT NECESSARY. Keep it simple. Example - For Jewel's homepage, their description tag is "Melville, Long Island, New York | Jewel Restaurant | Features new American Cuisine and Private Dining, owned by Long Island's most attention-getting restaurateur: Chef Tom Schaudel." Short and sweet and keyword rich.
Step 2: Examine your Code
This is something that can only really be done by true experienced Front End Developers ( like myself <-- Shameless plug :) ). The easier / simpler a website's code is, the easier it is to be read or "crawled" by Search Engine Spiders. Avoid direct CSS styling on your page as well as direct Javascript...instead put them on separate pages with reference links. Next you want to structure your page using header tags. Think of it like a book, you have chapters and text in each chapter. Your H1 tag is the title of the page. There can only be one on each page for proper SEO so keep that in mind and make it keyword rich. Next follow it with H2 then text, and then if necessary H3, text, H4, text etc. If I've lost you already, RIGHT CLICK on this page and click on "View Source" or "View Page Source" and look at the sites code....This is what Google spiders see. You can see I used 1 H1 tag to describe the whole page, then H2 tags to describe the titles of each of these articles...If I had more information under these articles I'd have used H3, H4, and H5 tags to keep structural continuity. Other important things to keep in mind with the code are Page links ( a href ), and your image alt tags. WIth the alt tags...images CANNOT be read by Search Engine spiders so it's important to give your images a description. Example if you have an image logo, it's alt tag should be: "COMPANY NAME | LOCATION | Logo".
Step 3: Outlinking
Link out to other pages that share a similarity to your company or page. If you're a restaurant, link out to other local restaurants like you, recipe websites, Top Ten Restaurant types of sites, etc. Google sees you as trying to help others by doing this and gives you a better Trust Rank, increasing your SERP rank.
Step 4: Google Analytics
Create a Google Analytics account and input the code on your site to every page and monitor its progress. I have a better description about Google Analytics below.
Step 5: The Real Grunt work
Now comes the hard part. Marketing...Submit your sites to Search Engines, Submit to the dmoz, create Social Media Pages and continually update them, create Press Releases and / or advertise, and create Listing Pages on sites like Google Places and Yelp for Biz to draw more traffic to your site by giving it a presence on the web. This is a LONG and seemingly TEDIOUS part but it is VERY essential to keeping traffic to your site and increase in rank on Google. Take the time to do all this and it WILL pay off in the long run.
Step 6: BE PATIENT
So you've done all I've said and created this amazing website fully optimized with outlinks and Social Media....WHY AREN'T I RANKING YET?! Wellllllll it's because you have to wait. Google spiders generally take between 7 to 14 days to come back to your site and see your changes, and even after that it could take a couple extra days to really see your progress. I tend to adjust and readjust and readjust as I see my progress on Google come Page updates.
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SEO - Learn the Terms
by webconfs.com
This article gives you the list of necessary terms to learn when researching SEO for your website, company, or your clients. Read about Important Meta tags like "Title" and "Description" as well as the importance of proper page structure using H1 / H2 tags and page linking.
What is SEO? - YouTube
This video provided by SearchEngineLand helps put in perspective the basic principles of Search Engine Optimization.
Not using Google Analytics yet?! WELL DO IT ALREADY!
Google Analytics is without a doubt the BEST tool you can use to monitor information about your site. It allows you to see daily visits to your site from unique and returning visitors, see what region people are viewing from (i.e. local towns or other countries ), monitor keyword phrases people are typing in to google and clicking on to get to your site, track what device people are viewing your site on ( iphone, ipad, android, etc. ), and MUCH MORE...and the best part: It's FREE!
Alexa and Search Engine Optimization
Alexa is a development tool that gives you general marketing information about a site. It tells you general analysis / stats, its Alexa ranking, and most importantly the number of inbound links and outbound links. The best part about it is that it gives you not only information for your site but your competitors as well. Learn the keywords and phrases they use to get success and use the info to your advantage. It gives you the edge you need for success in the SEO marketing world.
The Social Media Marketer's SEO Checklist
by seomoz.org
Here's a good checklist on how to use Social Media to your advantage when utilizing it for SEO purposes.
Just as an added FYI to you in regards to SMM ( Social Media Marketing ), here's the major Social Media sites and links that I have found essential to good SEO:
MagicYellow.com Business Center
SuperMedia.com Business Listing
Are there more? ABSOLUTELY! Should you find them all and sign up for as many as you possibly can? ABSOLUTELY! The more traffic you have going to your site, the more "Trust Rank" you obtain, which means the more Google likes you and places you further up on the SERPS ( Search Engine Results Page ). This has given me ALOT of success in the people I have done SEO work for.
Submit your site to Search Engines
Submitting your site to big Search Engines gets you placed directly into their database which is a BIG help in the SEO competitive market. Below I have links to the 3 major Search Engine Submission pages.
What is the dmoz and how can I submit my site to it?
by dmoz.org
The DMOZ is a Web directory, not a search engine. The purpose of the DMOZ is to list and categorize web sites. The DMOZ is simply a data provider. DMOZ data users, such as AOL, Netscape and Google, install their own search functionality on their site. The DMOZ has no influence or knowledge on how these search engines process search queries. Getting listed on the DMOZ helps substantially in building backlinking. To list your website simply find the category and area that BEST fits your business and click on "suggest url". The wait time can be LONG but in the end it's worth the wait when you see the increased traffic to your website.