With the constant alterations seen in the Search Engine algorithms, it is impossible to establish a fixed set of effective practices. However, basic principles hold good despite varying search trends and search engine algorithms. You can make search engine optimization strategies more successful by making your website more significant, accessible, and easy to use, while keeping some tips in mind. Here are some suggestions to help you do that
Generate keyword-rich content
Keyword-rich content is the first step to effective Search Engine Optimization. Content is infused with suitable keywords and search phrases commonly used by internet searchers for products or services and relevant to your business. Keyword phrases need to be placed prominently to captivate the customer’s attention and that of search engine bots. Some guidelines to get you started off:
- Use applications such as Wordtracker, Nichebot, Google Analytics, KeywordDiscovery and Google Adwords to find keywords that are fairly competitive but show up often in searches.
- Use niche keyword phrases rather than all-encompassing phrases, (for example, “Women Plus Size Clothing” instead of “Women apparel”).
- Make keywords part of titles, headings, links, page URLs, alt text of images, text descriptions of multimedia files, and bold and italicized content.
- Keyword density should be reasonably high but not over the top. Try to write as naturally as you can.
- Use keywords at the beginning of text blocks for superior indexing and ranking.
Develop content that is attractive to customers
Content should be relevant to users interests, not difficult to understand and access, and most of all should address their requirements. Search engines favor web sites that are linked to by other sites. It tells the search engines that the content is useful. This will make search engines boost your page rank and get it to rank higher in organic search. Constantly updated content will also encourage customers to come back and also lead to re-indexing of pages by search engines.
Create customer-friendly website design and information structure
Internet surfers and search engine bots should be able to traverse pages easily. This is achieved through effective information structure – website navigation; cross-linking with descriptive labeling; positioning textual content, video, audio and graphics, and pictures effectively; etc. Each web page should have links to sections within the website. Use a sitemap or a navigation menu for convenient access. Sitemaps improve the search-ability of websites too. These practices should be part of the web site’s development plan as they take time but help build a sound foundation of the website.
Get inbound links to your website
Inbound links or links from other websites improves your search engine placement. Try to get backlinks from known web directories and related business websites. Linking directories are useful. They collect a recurring or one-time fee. Do not get lured by unethical SEO tactics that promise hundreds or thousands of links to improve your page rank. Their tactics may get you blacklisted and make your site disappear from search engines.
Some tips for getting backlinks are:
- Superior, appropriate web content is effective in getting backlinks by becoming link baits.
- Have a “Link” button for simple linking to your website.
- Contact site administrators and build mutually helpful relationships for exchanging links.
- Link to useful websites that are superior quality. They may link to your website in return.
- Publish quality articles in high ranking article directories. They let you include a few links in the author resource box. Also contact owners of high ranking blogs and offer to provide free content to them if they allow you to include links back to your website.
Use meta tags effectively
The description meta tag contains the text that gets displayed in search results. It should include good keywords and should appeal to clients. The keyword tag, though ignored by most search engines, helps in the website’s classification. The tags should address each page individually.
Regularly review the website’s performance
Once you deploy an SEO tactic, examine the website’s performance to verify its efficacy. Use tools such as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, SEO Analysis Tool, etc.
Stay tuned to SEO events
Search engine companies are always tweaking underlying algorithms. It’s a good idea to know what’s going on by registering with websites such as Search Engine Guide, The Official Google Blog, SEO Book, SEO Chat, WebProNews, etc.
Avoid content duplication
Duplication of content can occur if articles are republished on a number of websites, product and service specifications are similar except for heading and representation, session IDs are the only changed elements in URLs, printer-friendly page editions are not excluded from search with directions in the “robots.txt” file, and if a website has multiple URLs names with similar content, etc. There is no search engine penalty for duplicate content but you will not get credit for backlinks created with duplicate content.
Avoid black hat tactics
Black hat SEO strategies such as randomly repeated keywords and website cloaking are helpful in the short term but can get you banned from search engines. Stick to white hat SEO tactics that play by the rules.
Pertinent content, information structure, and effective positioning of keywords should always be part of your SEO strategy with a mix of other strategies thrown in. This way, your website will have a sound base irrespective of amendments in search engine algorithms. Daljeet Sidhu is the author of this article.