Getting started in SEO (18/1/2007)
The wonderful thing about search engine optimisation is that anyone can do it. The vast majority of the tools required are available freely on the web, as is a vast amount of information of how to use these tools to their best effect. Don't believe the hype - #1 Google rankings cannot be guaranteed, and it will be hard work, but it is possible, and it's not complicated.
The problem most people have at the start of their SEO experience is finding the information they need in a concise form that they can understand. To this end, here are Semantic SEO's top five tips for getting started in SEO.
Decide what keywords you will target
SEO is all about keywords. These are the words that people type in to a search engine - what you need to do is work out what your potential customers are searching for. So do a bit of market research - if you have no idea, ask your customers. Check out your competition - what keywords are their sites optimised for?
Use the Overture Keyword Selector tool to find keywords related to the ones you have come up with. Start small: if you sell DVDs don't optimise for DVD , try DVD sales , or cheap DVD search . An great help is Google's Adwords tool - type your keywords into the search box and you'll be given a list of related words, their 'cost' (ie. level of competition) and the frequency with which they are searched by users. Look for words which are popular but uncompetitive.
Optimise your site for these keywords
Put them everywhere. Concentrate on your top two keywords for now - you can expand to the others later. Key places to put them are your URL (if you haven't already chosen one), your title, H1 headers, image alt tags and link anchor text. The Spannerworks Keyword Density Analyser will tell you what percentage of your text is made up of keywords. Aim for 3-4%.
However, never compromise the appearance of your site. Never value optimisation over presentation - make sure your text makes sense, looks good and contains material that your users will want. It's no good being top ranked on Google if everyone who visits your site can't see the wood for the keywords. It goes without saying that a well presented site with quality content must come first. For advice on this, see this article.
Be nice to Google
Google go to great lengths to tell you how to get your site high in their rankings. Read their advice here, sign up for their webmaster services here, submit a site map (read about this here), write a robots.txt file (read about this here) - in short, do everything they ask of you. It will pay off, and not just in Google, but the others as well.
Start off-page optimisation
Off-page optimisation consists of links to your site from others. Quality links are preferred over quantity - try and get links from popular sites working in the same field as you, and use your keywords in your anchor text. Write to webmasters and ask them nicely - make sure it's a personal email - and put links to others on your site. Search for directories - human maintained lists of websites - and apply to be in them. The biggest are DMOZ and Yahoo!, but you can find a list of directories here.
Get out there and stay current
If you're really serious about SEO, you need to make yourself and your site public. Write useful articles, start a blog, contribute to forums - be genuinely helpful to others and they (and Google) will thank you for it. It's the karma of the internet!
Finally, make sure your website is regularly updated, and that you are constantly improving the amount and quality of the content. More people will come to, and talk about your site - providing quality services is the only way to be certain that your SEO will be successful.
Hopefully that's got your started. For more information, visit the forums - Web Workshop SEO Forum and SEO Chat are two of the best - and start asking questions. Enjoy the process, and good luck!
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