A lot has changed in the way sites are optimized for search
engines since last year. For one thing, Google is not the only
search engine worth looking into anymore; Yahoo has definitely
managed to take away some of Google’s oomph over the past twelve
months. Another important change is that the intelligence of the
search engine spiders and algorithms has increased dramatically.
So without further ado, I will present you with a standard
search engine optimizing process.
Keyword Research
Nothing can be done until you know what your target phrases are.
Keyword research must be done to find out what people are
actually typing into the search engines. For example, do they
type in “medical insurance” or “health insurance” more often? Is
it worth targeting the keyword “dental insurance”? What do your
competitors think its clients type?
Keyword research usually begins by asking the client what they
think are good keywords and by looking at your competitor’s Meta
tags and text. You then have to brainstorm to find new and
related keywords that were not previously thought of. The use of
Wordtracker, Overture, and Google AdWords’ estimates is
indispensable. If you use the “KEI” offered at Wordtracker,
don’t fall into the trap of giving it too much worth. It is a
good tool to help discover keywords that have not been exploited
by the competition, but the really important number is the
amount of traffic each keyword generates. Finally, create a
chart to determine the relationship between keywords used. For
example, there is no point promoting dental insurance if your
site does not offer it. Texts
The next step is to write the text. Hire a specialized writer to
put the text together. Ideally someone who has been trained in
Internet writing, Internet marketing, and search engine
optimization (SEO), or get advice from professional SEOs,
marketing experts, and usability experts. Work with the client
to get a feel for what is needed for the site. Then use all
these skill to put together the delicate balance needed between
selling to people, selling to search engines, and making the
text interesting/useful to read.
Domain Selection
Once the text is written, come up with a catchy domain name for
the site. Try to include part of the keyword in the domain, and
to think ahead so that the domain can be expanded into the
title. Our site www.gloriousbahamas.com is a good example of a
domain with a keyword in it that is catchy and clearly stated.
The keyword for that site is “Bahamas real estate”, so having
part of the keyword in the domain will help in the long run.
Title and Meta Tags
From the domain name, you can then create a title with the full
main keyword in it (such as Glorious Bahamas Real Estate). The
title is the most important text on the site. The Meta tags
include the description tag, and the keyword tag. The
description is what the searchers will see in many search engine
results, so it must have the keywords in it and, more
importantly, it must sell the site. Write a description that is
objective, not subjective. Zeal has some good advice for titles
and especially description writing at
http://zeal.com/guidelines/style/site_titledesc/. The keyword
tag is done just in case some engines still use it (though very
few still do), so don’t pull your hair out over it. Just list
10-15 keyphrases and try not to repeat any single word more than
three times.
New Content
Now we come to the meat of today’s search engine optimization.
So far, we have not discussed anything new or original. It is
the same strategies that have been used since I first got into
the business of SEO in 1998. Today, with smarter engines, a site
needs to be something that is cared about. A site has to grow,
develop, and expand as if it were someone’s baby. Gone are the
days when you could build a site, get good listings, and then
forget about it as it brought in the traffic and the dough. Take
care of your site by adding useful content to it on a regular
basis, and then the site will gradually grow from a few pages to
dozens of pages. Not only will this make the site seem more
alive - radiating with the healthy glow of a developing child -
but it has the added benefit of increasing the amount of content
the site contains, and thus increasing the amount of keywords
found within it. For example with
www.canada-health-insurance.com we add pages with more details
about dental coverage or pages with details about government
coverage for each province. Every month there are new pages, so
that every time the spider comes back to visit, it spends more
time at the site reading new content. This is one half of the
key to getting good listings in the search engine results pages
(SERP).
Link Campaigns
The second half of the key is getting good sites to link to your
site. Going after web sites with related content, sites with
good authority in your web site’s field, and sites that are
“popular” are the priority. Getting only reciprocal links is not
the goal, getting the aforementioned sites to link to you
because you have good, valuable content is the goal. Sites that
do reciprocal linking usually have hundreds of links on their
link pages and these will add very little value to your site.
Don’t waste your time with reciprocal linking. Only link to a
site if doing so will increase the value of your site in the
eyes of your clients.
A link campaign is a lot of work, and it involves a lot of
frustration and rejection. You have to approach bigger sites and
sell the value that linking to your site will bring them. For
every 20 sites you approach, you will be lucky to get one to
link to you. You have to be persistent, consistent, and
determined.
Conclusions
Optimizing a site is no longer something you can do and then
forget about. For a site to succeed in the search engines today,
it has to constantly be changing and growing either in content
or in links, and ideally in both. It has to appear that the site
is the life and soul of its creator, and that somebody cares
enough about it to pay attention to it. Because after all, if
the creator doesn’t care, why should the search engines?
About the author:
Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce
marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc.
(http://www.redcarpetweb.com/). He has been researching and
developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent
listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of
the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.
Contact: shawn@redcarpetweb.com
