SEO Basics

[peteark]

Here are some basic fundamentals that may help, from an email sent this morning

Keyword research forms the basis of a good quality website, before considering having a website built work out what keywords each page of a site will be based around https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal carrying out the research after the build is like closing the door after the horse has bolted.

Keywords in a URL or URL extension are good

Page relevant keywords in the meta information is good

Page relevant keywords in headers is good (always think of h1,h2,h3 like the layout of a newspaper)

Keywords added within the page content is crucial, but they have to be semantically balanced and not too many

Alt tags are good

Pages that do not display the site navigation need to use anchor text

Google loves less images and more content

Image headers are poor

Code that validates is good

XML sitemaps are good

ROR sitemaps are good

HTML sitemaps are good

URL redirects are good http://mysite.com directing automatically to http://www.mysite.com (ht access)

Video is good, but needs to be embedded on site with care taken to mention page relevant keywords in the transcript

An onsite links page set to no follow is good

Mechanisms that add unique content to a site are crucial

Flash and animated text is bad if over used

When Dan designs a website, he automatically adds all these features to every page of a website, the result is all of the sites are viewed favorably by Google. Once the site is structured correctly it is then a matter of building strong links to every page of the website.

The results within search are dependant on a few factors

The age of the domain
Is the domain keyword rich
How well is the site coded
Has the above been taken care of
How many links are pointed to the URL
How strong are these links
How competitive are the targeted keywords.

In terms of link building, external links offer a score to a site/page if the no-follow attribute is not applied, the strength of this score is dependant on

The relevance of the site, is it on theme
How old is the site
The PR of the site
How many links are on the page
How often is the page viewed
Is anchor text used

 

[peteark]

A little follow up

I did mention setting a links page to no-follow, this is not really ethical but it prevents the bleed of strength. This page should be used by the site owner to exchange on theme links

Try and design a mechanism to build external links, I use a directory, it took a few years to get off the ground but now produces a steady stream of inbound links

Set up a Google webmaster account and set up your geographical location, image representation and url redirects, plus activate your XML sitemap

Set up a Google Analytic account and pay interest in your visitors stats

Host your site in the Country you are targeting, be wary of companies like 1&1 who appear to be UK based but have their servers in Germany. Many UK companies list in the US to lower the costs, a trend that will probably reverse due to the dollar sterling exchange rate

If you use an article or news section on your site, make sure the URL's are structured automatically from the article title. When writing articles base them around sector relevant, low competition keywords. A webpage can target around 3 keywords, if your site has 12 pages, there is a limitation on the keywords you can chase, by using articles this number can be increased.

Be careful about the distribution of articles from your site to other sources, wait a few weeks first as you want Google to award you ownership, article sites will generally be spidered more frequently than your own site

 

[Gordon N]

Google loves less images and more content

Image headers are poor

A useful list absolutley, although I hesitate on these two. Images and image headers if coded correctly hold the same weight as a small block of text. As long as you are not putting paragraphs of text inside an image!!

This is another of those situations where some will end designing a site with search engines as the major objective, and not the user experience and enjoyment. Whilst the search engines are very important, more so is providing a human readable, enjoyable website that draws visitors back and creates recommendations (that also performs well in the engines!).

 

[peteark]

Headers are an important structure when it comes to on-site optimisation, the problem with adding the words in an image is they go unseen by bots.

It is possible to include all these factors and still deliver a top quality website, it just needs the design and optimisation teams to work together.

Last week we launched a major upgrade on Leading supplier of Environmentally Friendly Printed Carrier Bags the problem with this business was it had good search engine presence but an amatuer website. The site owner was understandably worried that ranking would be lost if the site was revamped. After months of deliberation the decision was taken to press ahead with the upgrade.

All of the above was taken into account, the results have been very positive, with the site gaining position for sub page keywords and the ones that were at the top have consolidated with one term now being listed as an authority site printed bag - Google Search

The difficulty is finding the right people to work on these kind of projects, Craig was lucky to use a design and optimisation company that share many projects and are happy to work together in harmony. The result on the business. 12 months ago the company turnover was 40k, now it is near to 400.

People rightly have their own opinion on Internet marketing, but very few can convert their own strategy into pound notes.

 

[peteark]

People rightly have their own opinion on Internet marketing, but very few can convert their own strategy into pound notes.

I missed a bit off

People rightly have their own opinion on Internet marketing, but very few can convert their own strategy into pound notes, for their clients

 

[amestaper]

My work site brings business in, but I suspect everything is not as efficient and productive as it could be with the coding under the bonnet. As a builder I realise Google is the new Yellow Pages so thanks for taking the time to post a clear, concise checklist of website do's and dont's.

 

[stugster]

I've made this thread a sticky for the time being as the contributions, I feel, are extremely useful!

 

[peteark]

In celebration of having a 'sticky' I have added my signature block, even though its 6 months early

 

[Anita]

Hi Pete, just new on the forum. Many thanks for your SEO basic article. My sites are hosted with 1&1 - I note you advise to be wary. How detrimental could this be? My sites are only new and I doubt I'll acheive the kind of successes you describe in your long list of results ( mmm yes maybe you should get out more!!) but obviously there are basic things I can do and want to give myself the best chance.
Many thanks,

kindest regards

Anita