10 Steps to Optimizing Your Website
By Dianne Grant
Years ago, when I first started doing SEO work, I remember being frustrated by thousands of articles which offered little to no information on how to optimize a web site. Since that time, I have learned a lot through trial and error. I hope the following guide will be of help to others.
1. Find a Domain Name
If you do not already have a domain name, find a short phrase that describes what you do, sell, etc. For instance if you sell minerals you might consider the domain name "themineralguy". Having the word mineral in your domain name will immediately tell search engines that "mineral" is a relevant word for your web site.
Note: A good way to determine of a domain name is taken is to visit Godaddy. They have a domain name checking tool on the home page.
Note: If your site has been up and running for years please do not change the domain name. The length of time a URL has been in use is a significant factor in search ranking.
2. Provide Descriptive Names for Each Page of Your Web Site
Page names can be found in the address bar at the top of your browser window. Maybe you have a five page site navigation: Home, About, Products, Links, Contact. Your home page will be the domain name followed by a "/" or as "index" dot something (html, asp, php, etc). The home page must be named index. Focus on the other pages.
If the products page is simply named "products.html" it will not give the search engines all the information they need to correctly categorize the page. A better name would be "minerals-for-sale.html" making the new address "themineralguy.com/minerals-for-sale.html".
Note: If you decide to change the name of the page you will have to ensure that all parts of the site that link to that page are updated as well. If that sounds complicated hire a web professional. They should be able to change a five page navigation structure for $25 or less. This same methodology should be used for the About and Links pages.
Note: the dashes between the words are needed. They indicate spaces to search engines. Therefore, if someone searches for "minerals for sale" your address will match their search. Few people search for mineralsforsale as a single word.
3. Examine the Navigational Structure
Using "Minerals for Sale" in the navigational structure (the navigation will now be Home, About, Minerals For Sale, Links, Contact) provides even more information for the search engines. It increases your keyword density (we will get to that in a minute) and provides a boost in relevancy.
4. Input Meta Tag Information
Owners are often confused as to why they never come up in search. Many don't understand that just like a librarian who is given a book without a title, description or any relevant information would have a difficult time cataloging the book, a search engine also needs this information. After all, the web is really a VERY big library.
To view meta tag information on a current site simply right click on any page of the site and select "view page source" from the drop down menu. At the very top of the page source you should have three very important "tags": Title, Description, and Keywords. These meta tags provide search engines the information they need to correctly categorize your site. Every page should have it's own unique set of meta tags.
The Title tag needs to be no longer than 55 characters (including spaces) and contain your most important keyword. For this example "Quality Minerals Specimens for Sale - Timbuktu" might make a good title. Notice the capitalization of important terms - this is a very good practice when titling a page. Do not use all caps.
The description tag should be no longer than 250 characters and should contain as many keywords as possible. Descriptions are meant to be written in standard English (no capitalization of key words) with correct punctuation and no spelling errors.
The keywords/key phases tag is simply a list, separated by commas, of the top ten words or phrases which are relevant to the sites purpose. For our site we may use minerals for sale, South American mineral specimens, etc. Notice I said the top 10 - using a large number of keywords in this tag is known as "stuffing" and it will actually hurt your overall ranking. Don't do it!
Note: Many people will say keywords don't impact your Google rank and therefore, are not necessary. Think again - they are very important in Yahoo, Bing and other search algorithms.
5. Optimize the Copy
For each page of your site you should have a minimum of 150 words. Within that text you should mention your number one keyword (the one contained in the Title, Description and keywords tags) between nine to ten times. Essentially, you want a keyword density of approximately 7/100 words without exceeding this number. These references do not need to be, nor should they all be, exact matches. For our site "minerals for sale" and the "sale of minerals" as well as other variations should be used. Less important keywords should be used slightly less often.
6. The Links Page
Many web site owners use their links page to link to all their friends. A nice thing to do for sure but, this is business. When a visitor goes to the minerals for sale links page they are not seeking a local florist they are looking for other sources of useful information about, in this case, minerals. Find the best sites regarding your number one topic and provide links. Then,contact each of the sites and ask for a reciprocal link. If they will not provide one decide if the information on their site will be of use to your visitors. If it will provide the link anyway. If not, find another source who would be willing to reciprocate.
Note: It is a good practice to check the rank of these pages before supplying links. You can do this by searching for "check page rank" on your search bar and then typing in the links URL. If the site does not have a page rank and does not come up after numerous exact searches you should avoid linking to it. If, for some reason, the site have been penalized or black listed linking to it will hurt your credibility - guilty by association.
7. Create a Site Map
A site map is simply a text file that tells search engines what is on your site and how to locate it (like a card catalog). It also tells them how often to crawl your site and if any pages a should not be indexed (member data, etc). I use an automated site map creator. My favorite is: sitemapdoc.com they not only provide the site map but they give you a listing of potential problems (broken links etc.). That said, if a problem arises, fix it and then recreate the site map. When you have an error free site map save it in a text editor as "sitemap.xml" in the same folder as your web sites files.
8. Post your Web Site on the Web
Posting is done through a process called file transfer protocol or FTP. You will need an ftp client to do this. Some hosts provide them if yours does not download Firezilla or cuteFTP and put in the necessary information for your site. This will be provided by your host.
Once posted be sure that all the pages and links work correctly. I have yet to post a site the first time and not run into some type of error. Chances are you will not get lucky either.
9. Submit your Site to the Search Engines
You should hand submit to Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Many people will say that search engines like to find your site on their own but, there is no reason to risk not being found by the top three. You should submit all pages not just the index page. You should also go to Google webmaster tools and submit your site map.
10. Begin Link Building
If you have a links page you have already begun this process when you contacted relevant sites for reciprocal links. Now you will need to look for one way links to your site. Submit your site to DMOZ, Yahoo ($300) and other high ranking directories as well as local government sites that may except links to businesses (.org links are gold so if you can find them take them). Locate credible sources or organizations to which you belong who are willing to link to your site. This is time consuming but, you will not get the desired ranking without it. If you do not have the time hire a professional.
Dianne Grant
http://tabooni.com
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