Top
SEO Tips - Ten things you can do today to make a serious
difference in your site’s position in the SERPs.
Of
course, there are no overnight bonanzas and nothing earth
shatteringly different than the simple truth: generate unique
content and build backlinks. But unless a site ranks #1
for all its target keywords, even SEO pros need to look
at their sites with a fresh eye on a regular basis.
Below
Cyber Key's top ten, you will find favorite 'guest SEO'
tips. If you have a tip that isn't mentioned here, or a
way of explaining an SEO tactic that is unique, please email
your idea. If it's selected to be featured, you'll get a
followed link to your website.
1. Revisit
Your Keyword Research. Even if you did a bang
up job on your initial keyword research, you will learn
something if you revisit the process. The popularity of
keyword phrases changes as searchers become more sophisticated
and your most searched phrase may well have gone from
two words to three. You might find new and productive
long-tailed terms. Don’t just rely on a keyword
research tool; ask your friends or better yet, your customers
tools such as, Google’s External
Keyword Tool.
- Ask
your customers what terms they would use to find a site
offering your product or what terms they used.
- Set
up an Adwords account (even if you have only a very
low budget) for your site. In addition to the extra
traffic, you’ll get some real time information
on search terms. Test all your terms.
There are some additional
free keyword tools, including Wordtracker
& Keyword
Discovery, but the more robust features of the paid
versions may give you an edge. WordTracker does offer
a free
trial.
More on Choosing
Keywords.
2. Have
a Blog. It doesn’t matter whether it’s
on or off your site; what matters is that you post something
relevant to your content it at least twice a week; daily
is better. If you can’t afford the expense of installing
a custom blog, use Blogger.com.
Be sure to Tweet and social bookmark everytime you post.
- If
you already have a blog, consider adding a new category
and getting a guest blogger or two to increase your
content.
- Check
your blog's optimization. Are you disallowing the archives
in your robots.txt? Are you using the AllinOne SEO plug
in? Are your page files and titles SEO friendly?
3.
Build content. Build it and they - the search
engine spiders - will come. Google knows
how often you add content, and adjusts their crawl schedule
to reflect how regularly your pages are updated. The more
you add content, the more often Google visits. Look back
over your recent keyword research. What new articles or
posts does that new information suggest? What’s
new in your industry or field? Setting up a news section
for your site can be very valuable. Post your own press
releases there.
4. Tweak
on-site SEO, but take care to not overdo it.
Do check your on-site optimization against your new keyword
research. Should any title tags be changed? Are you using
the optimal anchor text for your internal navigation?
Have you properly utilized the alt tags of all your images?
Are you using h1-h3 tags correctly – much as you
would for an outline of a theme paper?
5. How’s
your accessibility? In addition to increasing
your site’s effectiveness by being more usable to
largely untapped market segments, (see: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web.php)
there are more and more SEOs who believe strongly that
Google responds positively to accessible sites.
- Here's
an accessibilty
tool to to test your site's compliance with web
accessibility standards.
- For
more help see: Ten
Tips on How to Make Your Website More Viewer Friendly.
- At
the very minimum, add titles to your links. NB: don’t
keyword stuff; keywords will occur naturally if you
think of the user when you write.
- Also
consider accessibility of your site to mobile
searchers. What does your site look like on
an I-phone? Is your contact information at the top?
Can a mobile searcher navigate your site easily Your
site's design may need some tweaks to make it friendly
to mobile users, too.
6. Add Google
Analytics to your site. There are other traffic
tools, of course, but GA is free and about as robust as
it gets. For SEO purposes, you can see what keywords are
successfully drawing visitors to your site. You can see
which pages are most clicked and which aren’t. You
may want to rewrite the copy on pages that aren’t
visited or where visitors are exiting. Also add your site
to Google’s Webmasters Tools. You’ll
find more information about the effectiveness of your
keywords there and a bird's eye view of how Google sees
your site.
7. Track your position
in the SERPs. Find a tracking tool you like and
add the terms from your keyword research. Establish your
baseline (if you haven't already) so that you can see
how the site changes over time for your targeted phrases.
With the advent of personalized search your position is
not as relevant, but your relative position is. In other
words, you can still assess movement in relative position
for a given set of keywords and that information can help
you develop your SEO strategy.
8. Backlinks:
What’s your strategy? The most powerful way to attract
backlinks is to create content that makes people link
to it. Have you got a tool that you find useful, but just
haven’t shared? Put it on your site. Tools, such
as this SEO
Analysis Tool are link magnets.
- Ask everyone you know
who has a related site to link to you. Yes, just ask.
You’d be surprised what people will do when asked.
- Write articles, become
a guest blogger (really, it’s not that hard; lots
of blogs are dying for content),
- Write press releases.
Dave Barnes of MarketingTactics
suggests: Participate in many related [forums]. Add
your URL to your signature.
9. Build
Your Social Network. While social networking
doesn’t really have a direct impact on site’s
performance in the search engines, it can have an indirect
impact. One of your Facebook friends or Twitter followers
may like what they find and give you a link. Follow M.-J.
Taylor of Cyber Key on Twitter.
And while you are doing all
of this, never lose sight of your visitor. All your SEO
efforts are about attracting people, not robots. Make sure
the human user experience is friendly, accessible and rewarding
enough to make them want buy whatever you're selling AND
come back for more.
Guest SEO Tips
While writing this article,
I asked other SEOs and webmasters to suggest tips. Here’s
are some of their ideas:
Mark (Web
Reservations Systems):
Take control of your
account for Google 'Local Business Centre'. Make sure
it shows you in the right place, has a link to your website
and has been set to match the right standard categories
as well as creating customer categories with keyword rich
content.
Add a video, recently
made one using Picasa which takes a set of images, creates
a slide show and allows you to include captions and music
or sound - all uploaded direct into YouTube for easy embedding.
Then, link the video to your LBC as well as your website.
Simon Mallett (Solar Kent
Alternative
Energy):
Try searches for your
website that you know will be successful. Now look at
the list of results. Does the call to action of your website
outweigh the call to action of the others, would you click
on your website listing?
If you have an SEO tip that
isn't mentioned here, or a unique way of implementing some
of these tips,
your
short, but powerful idea. If it's published you'll get a
link back to your site.
To talk with an SEO
Web Designer or for copywriting
services, call toll free: 866-872-0059
or
for
an appointment.
Want to learn more about
search engine optimization? Here's more about choosing keywords
and the art of SEO
copywriting, using keywords in your copy.
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