Get out there and Get Optimized!

In this article I am going to explain a few ways that you can help your site become "Search Engine Friendly" and "Optimized" to help your customers find your site easier and one SEO dont! There are tons of ways to accomplish this same goal so today I am going to pick 10 ways that I feel will help you get on the right path to "Search Engine Optimization" and one that goes against it.

1. Be bold.

Use the <b> </b> tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.

2. Deep linking.

Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site. Here is an example of deep linking, in this case to my personal happiness workbook.

3. Title Tag. 

Near the very top of a web site’s source code you’ll find various meta tags — the standard ones being the Title, Description and Keyword tags. The title tag is technically not a meta tag, though it is commonly associated with them. The title tag plays such a large role in the indexing of your web site, that it is considered the most important of the three.

A page title is the first thing a search engine will look at when determining just what the particular page is about. It is also the first thing potential visitors will see when looking at your search engine listing.

It’s important to include a keyword or two in the title tag — but don’t go overboard – you don’t want to do what’s known as “keyword stuffing” which does nothing but make your web site look like spam. Most people will include either the company name, or title of the particular page here, as well.

4. Social bookmarking.

Make it easy for your visitors to social bookmark your website, creating important links that the search engines value. There are plenty of free social bookmarking widgets available.

5. First come, first served.

If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won't follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on this web site monitoring page

6. Multiple domains.

If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?

7. Article exchanges.

You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)

8. Titles for links.

Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.

9. Not anchor text.

Don't overdo the anchor text. You don't want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation - something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, "Gumbo Pudding Pop" occasionally, "Get gumbo pudding pops" as well, "Gumbo-flavored pudding pops" some other times, etc.

10. Site map.

A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It's called the navigation bar.

If you are looking at Site Optimization hopefully this list will help you acheive your goal, I will be posting some other tips later that can help you. Below is one tip that does NOT help your site if you are trying to optimize it for search engines.

Flash based Splash pages.

 Although Flash is nice and the artistic value may look professional not everyone likes to sit through an Ad about Web Hosting or some other link that has nothing to do with you or your site. Placing a Splash Page in Flash doesn't have data search engine bots use to continue into your site for indexing. This can lead to hours and hours of waisted time if the rest of your site is optimized as your Great Looking Splash page will defeat it. If you need to have a Splash page for your site, try integrating Flash into the HTML page. This will alow for Meta Data, Keywords and all the other things bots need to move through your site.