SEO / Search Engine Optimisation Top Tips - Part 2
10 February 2009 11:55 | Posted by Guy
5. Keywords:
Keyword Research: Research your keyword phrases. You think you know what people will search for you under; you may be surprised to learn that what you think and the reality of the situation are two different worlds. Use tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker or Google's Keyword Tool. Never use general keywords such as "golf" or "computers," as they are not what your site is all about. You are different, you are not generic. Write lists, compile relevant phrases for your site, and choose different ones for every page. Be adventurous, don’t stay safe.
Primary / Secondary Keywords: Decide on 4 or 5 primary keywords and base your web site sub sections on those keywords. Secondary keywords are words associated with the primary keywords. Use the Primary keywords as the sub section headers and use the secondary keywords as headers for content pages.
6. Search Engine Friendly:
Spider / Crawler Friendly: Search Engine Spiders are very clever, but, there is a lot that they cannot do. They can't fill out forms, they can't read JavaScript links and menus, they can't search your site and they can't understand graphics and Flash. Your site must be "crawler-friendly." I am not saying you can’t use those features on your site, you can and you should, however, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. You must have HTML links on every page that will bring you back to the top level of the site if you use drop down menus. HTML links do not have to be text only links. Use a graphical image for navigation that is wrapped in standard <a href=""> tags, the spiders can follow image links perfectly well!
7. Links:
Label Your Links: Label all internal text links and clickable image alt tags as clearly and descriptively as possible. Search Engines (and people!) look at the clickable part of your anchor text to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Be as descriptive as you can with all text and graphical links, don’t make the Search Engines and your site visitors guess as to the destination of the link, tell them! Build the destination pages keyword into the description, it all helps.
Are you worthy?: Search Engines place big emphasis on how high your sites link popularity is. Be popular! Be link-worthy. If your content is poor and your site is not of a high quality, who is going to link to you? Very few, all but the desperate will say no. They are ways that you can request thousands of links; it’s not worth it if the site is poor. Worthy sites will be linked to naturally and without having to ask for the link. Feel free to trade links, but be careful. Set high standards.
NEXT WEEK : Part 3 of SEO / Search Engine Optimisation Top Tips
Guy Fagan
10/02/09
Director – Lucidity Technologies
www.lucidity.ie
Keyword Research: Research your keyword phrases. You think you know what people will search for you under; you may be surprised to learn that what you think and the reality of the situation are two different worlds. Use tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Wordtracker or Google's Keyword Tool. Never use general keywords such as "golf" or "computers," as they are not what your site is all about. You are different, you are not generic. Write lists, compile relevant phrases for your site, and choose different ones for every page. Be adventurous, don’t stay safe.
Primary / Secondary Keywords: Decide on 4 or 5 primary keywords and base your web site sub sections on those keywords. Secondary keywords are words associated with the primary keywords. Use the Primary keywords as the sub section headers and use the secondary keywords as headers for content pages.
6. Search Engine Friendly:
Spider / Crawler Friendly: Search Engine Spiders are very clever, but, there is a lot that they cannot do. They can't fill out forms, they can't read JavaScript links and menus, they can't search your site and they can't understand graphics and Flash. Your site must be "crawler-friendly." I am not saying you can’t use those features on your site, you can and you should, however, you do need to provide alternate means of navigating your site as necessary. You must have HTML links on every page that will bring you back to the top level of the site if you use drop down menus. HTML links do not have to be text only links. Use a graphical image for navigation that is wrapped in standard <a href=""> tags, the spiders can follow image links perfectly well!
7. Links:
Label Your Links: Label all internal text links and clickable image alt tags as clearly and descriptively as possible. Search Engines (and people!) look at the clickable part of your anchor text to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Be as descriptive as you can with all text and graphical links, don’t make the Search Engines and your site visitors guess as to the destination of the link, tell them! Build the destination pages keyword into the description, it all helps.
Are you worthy?: Search Engines place big emphasis on how high your sites link popularity is. Be popular! Be link-worthy. If your content is poor and your site is not of a high quality, who is going to link to you? Very few, all but the desperate will say no. They are ways that you can request thousands of links; it’s not worth it if the site is poor. Worthy sites will be linked to naturally and without having to ask for the link. Feel free to trade links, but be careful. Set high standards.
NEXT WEEK : Part 3 of SEO / Search Engine Optimisation Top Tips
Guy Fagan
10/02/09
Director – Lucidity Technologies
www.lucidity.ie
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