SEO Is More Art Than Science
Search engine optimization is a science. One needs to do research, create a detailed plan, and test until the website is as optimized as possible. It's not an exact science, but rather more of an art, and a very important one at that. The success of a website depends largely on its on-site optimization. Many people believe that off-site optimization, ranking high in search engines, is more important than on-site optimization, but this is simply not true. What is true is that off-site optimization without on-site optimization is like a car with no steering wheel, sure you can still drive the car, but it won't turn.
Make Your Site Crawlable
You want your site to be easily found by search engines. Make sure you have a clear and concise website that's easy to navigate. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, displays correctly on a smartphone, and is free of any material that may be considered spam, blacklisted, or low quality by search engines.
Create Sitemaps
To help search engines index your website, you should create a valid sitemap. A sitemap is a file that tells the search engine what pages on your website you want to index. Creating a sitemap helps search engines find and index your website content.
User Oriented SEO
The best way to improve your search rankings is to find the right keywords and use them in your website content. You need to make sure your website is easy to use and easy to find. Use Schema and other metadata to help search engines better understand, organize, and serve your content. You need to make sure your website is easy to navigate and understand for both users and search engines. Modern coding standards such as separating different types of code into external files to avoid inline code and simplifying code structure can help search engines crawl your site more easily. You may need help from a professional who knows how to do the job.
Thoroughly Research Keywords
You need to find the right keywords for your business. You need to do keyword research to determine the most important words and phrases that describe your site. Create an outline of your site structure and categorize each page based on those most important keywords. Use your more general phrases on your homepage, and use your more specific phrases on your inner pages. Use several relevant keywords and phrases in your content. Don't just focus on one keyword, use several of them simultaneously. Optimize for the words that best describe the content of your page. By targeting the lower competition keywords related to your page, you could rank higher with less difficulty.
Avoid Keyword Manipulation
Keyword Stuffing
Some people are unethical and use keywords that have nothing to do with the website. They put keywords in the meta tags that have no relevance whatsoever to the website. This practice is called keyword stuffing and it is considered to be one of the most penalized practices on the internet. Often, it can get a website entirely delisted from a major search engine.
Keyword stacking
Similar to keyword stuffing, keyword stacking uses a lot of keywords in the content that are not relevant, but contain a related word or two. Keywords are used to artificially boost search engine ranking, which can be considered spam. Trying to manipulate the search engines by using keywords that are unrelated to your site is not allowed. A keyword density checking tool can be used to see if keywords are being overused.
Hidden Text
If you hide keywords or keyword phrases, it will be difficult for customers to find your site. Using sneaky techniques can cause you to lose sales and get put on the blacklist of search engines. Search engines penalize websites that use these kinds of tricks, so it’s vital you don’t do them. Another version of hidden text is hiding your important words and phrases in tiny, barely visible type. So hidden they are nearly invisible. It's better to be obvious. Write your sentences in a straightforward manner, using normal type size, proper grammar, and common sense. Don't hide anything. Instead, put it all into plain sight for everyone to see.
Optimize Your Metadata
Meta tags are not as important as they used to be, but it’s still a good idea to use them. Make sure your meta tags are written so they make sense and contain relevant keywords. Use descriptive words and short phrases that make sense and are meaningful. Your content is the most crucial aspect of ranking in search engines. You need to optimize your website for SEO, UX, and content. The heading tags are used to identify the topics of the page.
Create Descriptive Page Titles
You need to write a good title that accurately describes the content of the page. Your title should include keywords and phrases that will make your site more visible in search engines. Your targeted keywords should appear in your website's unique title tag on every page. This will improve your site's search engine rankings and increase website traffic. The title of your page should be relevant to the content of the page. The title should be concise and to the point.
Optimize Your Headings
Describing your pages in detail is important. You need to write compelling copy for your top ranking products. Use the major search engines to find out the average number of times people use each of the keywords on your targeted page. Using the keyword with the highest search volume, craft your headline so it is clear, compelling, and most likely to be read by someone who is interested in what you are selling. Your headline is the most important part of your sales copy. It should grab the reader's attention and make them want to read the rest of your copy.
Optimize IMG ALT Tags
Your images should always have descriptive ALT tags. Descriptive ALT tags will help search engines see your pictures and understand what they are. Keyword-rich ALT tags will help them find your site more easily when someone is searching for something. Instead of focusing on the content of your link, focus on crafting a clear message which will be effective in getting your sale. Use descriptive phrases in the link text, and use the image ALT attributes to provide additional descriptive info about the linked picture.
Make Your Copy Sing
Websites are indexed according to the content they contain. With a thorough understanding of the language and grammatical conventions used on the site, combined with intensive research, it is possible to engineer the site to achieve top ranking in search engines. Search engine optimization is one of the most effective ways to increase organic traffic to your website. Getting high rankings in search engines will help users find your site easily.
Create Quality Content
You need to have quality content on your site to rank well in search engines. Your content needs to be unique and original. Make sure your content includes relevant keywords. Regularly add new content to your website, update old content, and replace underperforming content. You need to regularly update your content, but you also need to make sure you're increasing its value to the user. Make sure you tag your images appropriately so they can be found by search engines. Use popular and obscure keywords in your content. Optimize your content for both popularity and relevance.
Manually Submit Your Site
You should submit your site to the major search engines manually. Avoid submitting your site more than once. Search engines don't like excessive submission of the same website. This will help make sure your site shows up in searches. Avoid using automated search engine submission. Using automated services is a violation of most search engines terms and conditions and can cause issues for you.
Don't Waste Time On Useless Links
You don't have to submit your site to thousands of websites. Most of the traffic on the internet comes from a few major search engines. If you have just one or two high quality links from established websites, they'll find your site just fine on their own. You're better off focusing on a few high-ranking pages than trying to get listed in an obscure search engine. You should only be using proven techniques, and not relying on untried techniques that haven't been thoroughly tested.
Analyze Your Traffic
One of the main tasks of an internet marketer is to keep an eye on the site visitors and their activity while they are on the site. At the very least, one should have a basic understanding of what a website analytics package can do. This is done by methodically keeping a record of, and making an analysis of the logs of the site. It is only after you have tested and analyzed every aspect of your affiliate program that you will know with any degree of certainty whether your assumptions were correct or not. Only then will you be able to make changes to improve your program. Most major search engines provide some sort of analytics for free.
Check Your Site Regularly
To get on the major search engines, you need to have your website optimized. There are many free tools that will help you with this. You can also manually submit your sites yourself, which is recommended. Making sure you are checking all of these items regularly will help ensure your success.
Major Changes Take Time To Propagate
Don’t be too quick to change domain names. It takes about 30 days for your keywords to start working on the search engine results pages, but can take up to one year. Wait at least a month after you make the change before you start sending out press releases or making other premature public statements about your website. This will give your site the best chance of being found by the general public. If it’s done right, you won’t even have to make a big deal out of the fact your website name has changed. The search engines will catch on to the change automatically and your rankings should improve immediately.
PPC vs SEO
When you have a solid SEO strategy, Pay per click advertising can be an effective supplement. PPC is most effective when you have a high search engine ranking.
Build A Solid SEO Foundation
A thoroughly planned and executed SEO campaign can yield major increases in traffic and profits. The results from an ongoing, organic campaign tend to be more consistent, and in many cases, growth continues even after the work is done and the cost is paid. Often, only minor adjustments are needed on an ongoing basis, related to new content and new items of sale or service.
Enhance Your SEO With PPC
There’s a lot of controversy surrounding PPC campaigns. Some people say they work. Others say they don’t. The fact is, they can work if you know what you’re doing. It may be true that PPC campaigns are, by their very nature, less than permanent but that doesn’t mean they aren’t profitable. They just need to be properly implemented. The harsh reality is that once you stop paying, your traffic immediately declines.
Hiring An SEO Pro
It's important for an SEO expert to understand a prospective online business owner as well as the technical aspects of the project. It's vital to discover what the business owner really wants to achieve, as well as the things that don't come out in a typical sales pitch.
Keep Your Needs In Mind
At stake, in the race to the top, is the very existence of your website, your business, and quite possibly your reputation. Be careful about what anyone suggests to you regarding your business goals. You are ultimately responsible for everything that happens in your business. You need to insist on total and complete transparency. If something doesn't seem right, ask questions and demand answers. Don't even think about allowing someone to work for you without first having an extensive interview process where you thoroughly check their references, their personal history, and their honesty and character.
Trust A Reputable SEO Pro
The most important consideration is to have a reputable firm handle the initial evaluation and suggested optimization planning first. After studying the plan and establishing a workable budget you may implement the plan as finances allow. Some SEO firms give their clients the illusion of progress when, in fact, their budgets are not large enough to implement an efficient plan. This leaves the client who has no alternative but to keep paying every month for disappointing results or total abandonment of their website. Either way, it costs them more in the long run.
Get Real Expectations On Your Budget
Keep in mind that sometimes when something sounds too good to be true... It IS too good to be true. While solid and measurable gains will always come from a thoroughly planned and executed optimization strategy, the internet is a competitive media, and we all want to be number one. Accept that steady growth over time will outperform a quick growth spurt followed by a fizzling out.
Unrealistic Guarantees
It is impossible to guarantee a specific position in the organic listings of major search engines. Those who make such claims are dishonest, delusional, or both. No one can ethically guarantee a number one ranking in the major search engines. People who make false promises either optimize for such vague search terms that no one will ever likely look for, or they are making a false claim, which they have no intention of keeping, or they have an inside edge, something which they will soon lose when the honest folks find out about it. The other option, that they will take the money and run, is worth mentioning here but we'll keep this professional.
Stay Up To Date On SEO
You need to keep an eye on the latest SEO news to stay ahead of the competition. You can use the latest SEO techniques to get a higher ranking for your website. Using these tips will help attract people who are most profitable to you and help search engines ensure that you are placed in this position. As search engines are constantly evolving, becoming more intelligent, changing the way they serve users, etc. You need to stay on top of the latest search engine news and updates to ensure you're using the most effective optimization techniques. Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a web page in organic search results. You need to constantly update your website to stay competitive and improve your search engine positioning. As search engines evolve and become more and more intelligent, the strategies used to optimize your position must also change.