The
Road to Better Results
by © Shawn Campbell
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 Googles 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 competitors
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, dont 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 http://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 dont 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 todays 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 someones 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 http://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 sites 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. Dont 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 doesnt care, why should
the search engines?
About the Author:
-----------------------
Copyright © IShawn Campbell
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
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