Monday, 27 August 2012

Basic SEO Tips

By Rashida Williams


More and more businesses are realizing the importance of an on-line campaign. The age of the phone book is over and customers are using Google and various social media channels to find products and services. Looking at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) reveals a seemingly endless array of topics ranging from on-page changes to links and Pay Per Click (PPC) options. On top of that misinformation is rampant making it even more difficult to decide on a course of action. Which are really necessary? Here are some great ideas for making the most of your SEO activities.

One of the first things people realize is that SEO is not a quick process. It can often take several months to see search ranks move significantly and you should be prepared to commit. While you can expect local results for non-competitive terms to move quickly with the right strategy, be willing to accept a strategy will be long-term.

Properly researching phrases for your campaign is essential. Keyword choices can make all the difference between a successful campaign and failure. There are quite a few free tools out there you can use or you can pay for upgraded versions to get even more information. Tools like Google Keyword or WordTracker are great places to start and can give you enough information to move forward.

Organic SEO changes to actual copy on your webpage are also easy and can boost your ranks. The right phrases in the right places can mean Google will see you are relevant to the topic searched for. Page titles are probably the most important factor and should be unique to the page you are attempting to market. Meta descriptions on a page are also key and tell the users and the engines more about the content on your page. And finally, you should include your targeted phrases and words on the page itself where relevant.

Another big on-page factor is using the proper anchor text. Linking to a different page or back to your home page with the words "Home" or "Click Here" is worthless from an SEO angle. Instead use anchor text that includes your targeted keywords or phrases. You can also ensure that your internal pages include properly anchored links to other pages on your site in addition to the home page as this will also improve your search engine visibility.

Finally, content is going to be a very important factor. If you create a poorly organized site or one that doesn't contain anything useful, you can expect poor results. Even if you can attract a large volume of traffic to your site, those users will go elsewhere if they're not satisfied with yours. Quality content extends to off-site tactics also. Submitting to article marketing sites with poorly created content may provide some benefit but if you're content is well written, it will be far more effective.




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