Getting Started - SEO Basics
Where to begin?
At first, the world of SEO can seem completely overwhelming. But in reality, search engine optimization is not so difficult. If you do a little research and have the right tools at your disposal, you can optimize your site by yourself and save hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
The question, of course, is where to begin? On this page, we will break down the most important elements of search engine optimization and tell you exactly what you should consider when creating or editing your website. We will discuss the following topics:
Keyword Selection
Before you do anything else, you need to choose some keywords for your page. These are the words that people will use to find your site. This is perhaps the most important step in search engine optimization, so it is important to choose the right words.
It is essential to realize that in the world of search engine optimization, there are literally millions of competitors using the same exact keywords you might want to use. So it is crucial to try to find a little niche when choosing your keywords. For example, let's say your site is all about "World News." Now, if you use the keywords "World News," you'll see that you have about 163,000,000 competitors. Frankly, unless you're CNN, it would be impossible to get into the top ten for these keywords.
But by using a couple of free tools, you can search for niche keywords. That is, you can find keywords that people are actually using to search with, but that have only a fraction of the competition.
So here's what you need to do. The most important free tool here is something called the Overture Keyword Selector Tool. Once on the page, simply type in the keywords you're thinking about using. For our example, type "World News." The keyword selector tool will then return a list of related keywords, and the number of searches that have been performed in the last month on Yahoo with those words.
The next step is to find out how much competition there is for each set of keywords. To do this, simply type in the keywords into Yahoo or Google and see how many hits you get. The goal here is to find a set of keywords that has a high number of searches each month, but has a relatively low number of hits. For example, you might see that "International News Stories" gets a million searches a month, but only has three million pages listed in the result (instead of 163 million).
For new websites, a reasonable expectation is to reach the top ten for a search term with two or three million search results. Anything above this will take some intense link building, which we will discuss later.
Another useful tool can be found at Google Adwords. Google's Keyword Selector tool provides similar (but less detailed) information as that found at Overture. However, it also indicates the amount of competitiveness from pay-per-click advertisers, which is certainly valuable to know.
While going through this process, keep in mind that your site can only really be optimized for a few keyword phrases. We recommend choosing one major keyword phrase, and then perhaps one or two variations as backups.
Domain Name Selection
Selecting a domain name is a crucial factor in determining the success of your website. It is a good idea to choose your keywords before choosing a domain name, because having the keywords in the domain can help give you higher rankings on Google.
When choosing a domain name, there are three things to consider. First, it is essential to choose something short. Second, the domain name should be something easy to remember. And third, the domain name should include your desired keywords whenever possible.
If you are already beyond this point, don't panic. You can still acheive high search engine rankings even without following these three steps.
Site Title
The title of your site is found within the <title>...</title> tags of the <head> of your document. It is a crucial part of optimizing your page as this is what will appear in the search results. The title should contain your desired keywords, but it is essential that the keyword density here not exceed a specific limit.
In general, your keywords should account for roughly 25 - 30% of the document title. Anything more, and the search engines might think you are "keyword stuffing," which can result in being put in the dreaded Google Sandbox or worse.
The keywords should be placed at the beginning of the title, as the search engines may determine the relevance of your site by the position of the keywords in the title. Document titles should generally include 6 - 10 words.
Our custom-made report will examine all of these details and more and give you a thorough explanation of what you can do to make your site title perfect.
Meta Keywords
The meta keywords tag can be found inside the <head> of your document. The code should be written as follows: <meta name="keywords" content="keyword, another keyword">. However, most web site editors will generate this code automatically for you.
The meta keywords are a very important part of optimization, as they allow you to specify the keywords you think are relevant to your site. Google and the other search engines will take these words into consideration as they rank the importance of your site. If the rest of your site is optimized for these specific keywords, you should be able to attain high search rankings for your chosen words.
There are many temptations here to bend the rules a little, but it is imperative that you do not do so. Even if unintentional, keyword stuffing here can have disastrous results. There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing your meta keywords.
First, you should choose only a few keywords. Some sites will include upwards of 50 keywords, but this can be detrimental to your site in the long run. You can't possibly optimize your site for so many different words, so it useless to include them all in the meta keywords tag.
As outlined in the Keywords section above, we recommend that you include here only your main keyword phrase, along with a few variations. Four to ten keyword phrases is a safe range, but anything more and your efforts will most likely be counterproductive.
Our team of SEO Experts will analyze your meta keywords and give you detailed instructions on how to make them better.
Meta Description
The Meta Description tag can also be found in the <head> of your document. The code should be written as follows: <meta name="description" content="This sentence describes the contents of your web site.">
The Meta Description is another important element of website design, as this gives you a chance to write your own description of the site. Some search engines will actually show the meta description in the search results.
When writing the meta description, it is important to use the keywords you have chosen. However, it is a good idea to keep the keyword density below 15% or so. Meta Descriptions should be brief, with a word count somewhere in the range of 20 - 50 words.
Body Text
After the keywords have been selected, writing the main text for the site is the most crucial step to attaining high search engine rankings. Google and the others love text. The more text you have, generally the better ranking you can get. You will generally need at least 300 words of text, but in many cases a lot more.
However, it is important that the text be crafted in an extremely careful way, taking into consideration keyword placement and density. Keyword placement is relatively easy. In general, you should try to place the keywords at the beginning of the body text, as the search engines will estimate the relevance of the keywords by its position on the page.
In many cases it is necessary to use the keyword multiple times, but it is a tricky task to find the correct density. Too few times, and the search engines will deem your site irrelevant. Too many times, and the search engines will think you are keyword stuffing and place your site at the bottom of the rankings.
The exact percentage of keyword density needed in the body text is different for every site. A general guideline is to avoid exceeding 5% keyword density. That is, if you have 100 words of text, no more than five of those words should be your keywords.
Our team of SEO Consultants will examine your content, compare it to your main competitors and then determine the exact keyword density and position needed for optimal search engine rankings.
First Sentence
The first sentence of text on your site is important for two main reasons. The first is that some search engines will display the first sentence of text in the search results. Some engines will use the meta description, but some engines use this sentence. So it is important to make the first sentence on your site as descriptive as possible, and relevant to the keywords you have chosen.
Second, search engines give extra weight to the first sentence when determining the relevance of your site, and will analyze the contents of your first sentence thoroughly.
Since the first sentence has a similar function as the meta description, your sentence may be almost the same. It is a good idea to keep it brief, ideally under twenty-five words. Keyword density must also be considered, with an optimal range 5 - 25%.
Along with analyzing the main text of your site, our team of SEO Experts will also examine the contents of your first sentence, providing a detailed explanation of how to make it perfect.
Heading Tags
The headline tags are written as follows: <H1> </H1>, <H2> </H2> ... H1 is the most important headline tag, with the relative importance decreasing with each progressive number. Most search engines will take into consideration the contents of the heading tags when assigning a rank to your site, so it is essential to utilize them properly.
H1 is given the most weight, while the other headings are often overlooked. It is therefore necessary to use the H1 tag, but uneccesary to use any others. The contents of the H1 tag should be descriptive of your site while containing your desired keywords.
The contents of H1 should be brief, ideally not exceeding ten words. The keyword density can be high, but should never exceed 33%.
Same Site Links
One of the big things that search engines like Google rank are the number and content of links on your page connecting to other pages in the same domain. The search engines look at the words contained in the links, and titles of the pages you are linking to.
It is important to craft your page in a way that uses the optimal number of links and the correct keyword density. Keyword density is the most important factor here. The number of links is analyzed, but it is given less weight.
In general, the more same site links you have, the better. This is because Google and other search engines will see more links as a sign of a richer, more fully developed page and thus determine it is more useful to searchers. A safe range of same site links is difficult to state because it varies so much, but a bare minimum would be ten.
The text of those links should contain your chosen keywords, but it needs to fall within a certain range of keyword density. This range varies for every website, but a general rule is never to exceed 20% keyword density in the same site links.
Since the search engines also analyze the titles of the document you are linking to, it is also important to give descriptive names to the other pages in your site. If possible, the other pages should contain your chosen keywords. See the section on document titles for further details.
Our team of experts will analyze your same site links and determine the exact ratio of keywords needed for top search engine rankings.
Outbound Links
In addition to same site links, search engines like Google and Yahoo also analyze the number and content of links to sites on other domains. The guidelines for adding and editing outbound links is similar to that of same site links.
The number of outbound links is not as important as same site links. It is acceptable to use a small number of outbound links, and your site will not be penalized. When writing the text of those links, it is a good idea to use your desired keywords.
However, as with the same site links, it is essential to stay within a safe range of keyword density. The threshold here is generally a little lower than with same site links, so it is a good idea to never exceed 15% keyword density in the outbound links.
IMG ALT Attributes
The IMG ALT attribute is the alternative text that some web browsers display instead of pictures. You can also see the alternative text if you leave the mouse over the image for a few seconds. The code is found within the IMG tag, and should be written as follows: <img src="logo.gif" width="200" height="75" alt="picture description with keyword"> (emphasis added)
Some search engines will analyze the content of the IMG ALT tags on your site. It is a good idea to write a description for every image on your site, with some descriptions including your chosen keyword. As with every other element on the page, it is important to stay within an acceptable range of keyword density. For IMG ALT tags, it is a good idea never to exceed 10% keyword density.
Our team of SEO Consultants will analyze the contents of your IMG ALT tags and determine the exact percentage of keyword density needed for optimal search results.
HTML Comment Tags
An HTML comment tag is information found within the script of the site but not visible to the user. Web designers sometimes include comments for other designers or colleagues to see that they do not want general visitors to see. The code is generally written as follows: <!-- comments with keywords -->
Some search engines may take into account these comments, so it is a good idea to include your chosen keywords if you do use the comment tag. However, these tags are entirely optional and choosing not to use them will not damage your search rankings.
Search Engine Submission
After you have finished optimzing your page for your chosen keywords, the next step is to submit your site to the major search engines. Some people mistakenly believe that it is necessary to submit your site to every search engine out there. However, it is important to realize that the big search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN actually provide results to the smaller engines.
That is, if your site is listed in Google and Yahoo, it will also be listed in most of the little, lesser-known search engines. So submitting your site to search engines is actually an easy, quick process. We suggest submitting to Google, Yahoo and MSN. The site submission pages can be found below:
Add your URL to Google
Live Search URL Submission (MSN)
Yahoo! Submit Your Site
Please keep in mind that it takes time to appear in the search engines. It can take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to appear, and even longer to start getting top search results. Google and the others tend to give more weight to older sites, so it is necessary to be patient for the first couple of months.
In addition to "the big three," there is another important submission that is often overlooked by web designers. The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) is an enormous and incredibly influential web directory that powers most major search engines, including Google. Having your site listed in DMOZ will greatly boost your search engine rankings, as not only does it automatically list your site in most search engines, it also makes the search engines give your site more weight.
DMOZ is highly selective in adding sites to the directory, so it is important that your site is well-developed, unique and offering something of value to the web community. It will take several weeks to be listed in DMOZ, if in fact your site is accepted. Your site can be submitted at the following link:
Submitting a Site to The Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
Link Building
Unfortunately, in the world of SEO keyword optimization is only half the battle. Your page can be perfectly optimized for the keywords you've chosen, but you may still have less than optimal search engine rankings if you haven't built any backward links.
Link building is an essential part of SEO. It is often time-consuming and tedious, but it can be much easier if you have a better idea of exactly what needs to be done.
Visit our Link Building Index for a detailed explanation of what you need to do to get quality backward links. You will also find a list of free web directories that you can submit your site to.
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