A Simple Guide to Search Engine Optimization

You want to make sure your customers can find your website online–but how? There are lots of answers to this question, but the first thing you should do is make sure your website is optimized for search engines.

Written Jun 24, 2010, read 1982 times since then.

Other than a visitor typing www-dot-yourwebsite-dot-com into their browser, and links to your website from other places on the Internet, search engines are the only way people can find your website. Search Engine Optimization refers to the steps you take to make your website is “search engine friendly” so that search engines will find you, and the number of visitors to your website will increase.

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing or MSN scan the web for words and phrases that people search for from their websites. This is referred to as “crawling” the web. Once your website is crawled, it can be indexed by the search engines, and your information can be returned when someone searches for your products or services.

When someone performs a search for your product or service, the search engine returns a sorted list of links that it determines are most relevant–starting with the most relevant and ending with the least. This list is referred to as the “search engine results page.”

Here is a basic (by no means exhaustive) list of things you can do to make sure your website is crawled and indexed by search engines, as well as a list of things to avoid that will make your website difficult for search engines to crawl, or worse, banned from search because of things the search companies do not like.

THINGS TO DO:

Think about the words your target customer will use when searching for what you have to offer. These are going to be your “keywords” and “key phrases.”
If possible, use keywords in your url–this is not mandatory, but search engines do like it.
Use keywords in your title tag. This is the title of your page and will be displayed on the search engine results page. Every page of your website should have a unique page title. It should be short (5-6 words), and descriptive with keywords for the content of that page near the beginning.
Make the links on your website keywords if appropriate because it will be counted by search engines as a vote for your website as well as for that keyword or keyword phrase.
Use appropriate keywords in the your headings etc. Make sure the content under those headings pertains to the heading.
Use keywords in your website copy and make sure it is unique and relevant to the keywords for the page.
Use fresh, useful, and original content on your website, and change it out often because this will make your website more relevant as measured by search engines.
Make sure that all links coming to your website from other places on the web use the same url. Do not use different variations of your url because it will be counted by search engines as an entirely different url, which works against you when you are trying to increase the relevancy of your page. Always use http://www.yourwebsite.com/ to link to your website.
Make sure that the links coming to your website come from websites that search engines consider to be popular, measured by the number and popularity of the links pointing to them, because this will make your website more relevant to search engines.
Make sure the links coming to your website are coming from websites that have content that is relevant to your content. Search engines frown upon sites linking to yours when there is no good reason for it.
Use keywords in the alt tags of your images if appropriate, and include the word image because search around images has grown tremendously, and will continue to increase in the coming years.
Make sure your website has a sitemap. In simple terms, a sitemap is just a page of your website that lists every link that you wish to have followed by search engines within your website.
Make sure to link all of your social media pages. Your social media pages (such as on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.) carry a ton of weight with search engines.

THINGS TO AVOID:

Dynamic urls, (i.e. http://www.yourwebsite.com/page.php?id=1234=123%)
Pages that use frames
Pages that use Flash
Websites that use a splash or entry page
Pages that cannot be accessed from the home page
Pages that have too many keywords or phrases on a page (no more than 10% of your content)
Pages that have duplicate content
Links to your website from link farms or paid link websites

If you follow these basic guidelines, you will be on your way to a well optimized website!

Learn more about the author, Norma Maxwell.

Posted by Andrea Jacques, Bellingham, Washington | Jul 01, 2010

Norma,

Thanks for making the 'stuff' I've been reading for the last two weeks make sense! Clean, specific, useful informaiton on things I can actually do myself. MUCH appreciated! Andrea
Posted by Norma Maxwell, Minot, North Dakota | Jul 01, 2010

Hi Andrea - you bet! Thanks for your feedback and don't hesitate to let me know if you run across any questions in your seo pursuits. Cheers ~Norma
Posted by Kimberly Gauthier, Marysville, Washington | Jul 01, 2010

This is brief and to the point. This is exactly what I learned, but after 6 months of reading books and trying things out. When I set up my current website, it was easy peasy to get notice online.

The blog really helps too :)

Thanks for writing this!
Posted by Daphne Cochran-Shapiro, Deerfield Beach, Florida | Jul 02, 2010

Excellent info, without excess verbiage to make it confusing! :)

Thanks for sharing, ~Daphne
Posted by Pete DiSantis, Seattle, Washington | Jul 02, 2010

Norma,

Great info. I liked the "avoid" list, too.

Would you clarify your following statement:

"include the word image because search around images has grown tremendously, and will continue to increase in the coming years."

word image? search around image?

Thanks, ciao, P>}
Posted by Louise BOSSE, Metz, Lorraine France | Jul 04, 2010

Very useful information Norma, The list of things to avoid is very clear and helpful.
Posted by L Diane Johnson, Cary, North Carolina | Jul 04, 2010

Great concise article Norma! Thank you.

One q: why are php pages ones to avoid for SEO?

All the Best!
Posted by Gregor Schmidt, Seattle, Washington | Jul 04, 2010

A very concise and informative article, Norma, thank you! We already follow these guidelines when we develop sites for our clients, but it is always helpful to have a second professional opinion in writing.
Posted by Deborah Drake, Bellevue, Washington | Jul 06, 2010

When more than one professional recommends best practices, I listen with both ears.

I too appreciate this concise and clear list of best practices. I imagine that to plan from the start to do this would be the equivalent of strengthening onces CORE and Backbone. So that it continuously supports the rest of your body, limbs and all.

I have enjoyed our talks offline too Norma.

You are a student of this for a lifetime aren't you?

Deborah

Authentic Writing Provokes
Posted by Norma Maxwell, Minot, North Dakota | Jul 07, 2010

My goodness - lots of comments since I last checked--I must have forgotten to check the "receive email" box! Here are my responses:

Kim - thanks so much and you are right--blogs are essential. I am revamping mine and have spent the last few years taking care of other people's online presence rather than sharing my own. I'm excited to get my own blog up and rolling ;)

Thank you Daphne, Louise, and Gregor!

Pete - good question! What I mean here is that when you name an image in the alt meta tag, actually include the word "image" so that it is clear that it is an image to the bots - for example instead of alt="blue sky" use alt="image of blue sky" - does that make better sense?

Hi Di - it is not that php pages need to be avoided - it is that some pages (php and other types) have urls that are considered dynamic which are not followed by the search engine spiders (or bots). They can be identified by crazy symbols in the url like I noted above (often php is used, but sometimes asp and other scripting languages as well). It is okay to have pages with dynamic urls on your website, but just know those pages are not seo friendly so be sure to have pages on your website that are seo friendly so you can be found online.

Hi Deborah - I couldn't have said it better. When you have a strong seo foundation for your website and blog, your traffic begins to build like compound interest in a bank. It's a beautiful thing! I've enjoyed out talks as well :) Lifetime student? Yes, there is no way around that in this biz!! :) Good thing I love it so much...

Thanks everyone for so many great comments and questions--I am grateful and humbled. You all rock!!
Posted by Doug Hill, Broad Run, Virginia | Jul 08, 2010

Norma, great article! Lots of good information. My question is about the url text that leads to your site from a partners' site. One, how important is it for that url text to be consistent with your keywords (versus being www.websitename.com) and two, should that be the same url text over time or varied based on your keyword research?

Thanks!

Doug
Posted by Norma Maxwell, Minot, North Dakota | Jul 08, 2010

Hi Doug - thanks for the compliment :) I'm really glad that people are finding info they can use here. To answer your question, if I understand it correctly, it definitely helps to have a url that has your keywords in it--no question. However, that said, it is more important to have a url that has been around for a long time, so changing your url is not a good idea. If your url does not contain your keywords, but you have built up traffic under that domain name, you will get good results from making sure your title tag has keywords, along with ensuring you have keywords placed in your content on your website, and just following the guidelines above in general. Let me know if this answers your question! Cheers ~Norma
Posted by Nicole Pontillo, Federal Way, Washington | Jul 12, 2010

Hello Norma,

I really appreciate the structure of your article. The "do not do this " list was a great idea and helpfully. I look forward to more articles from you on this subject... maybe there is a part 2, a step above basic, that is brewing :)

Nicole Pontillo
Posted by Deborah Drake, Bellevue, Washington | Jul 12, 2010

As do I Nicole!

Here us Norma...we ask for more easy to digest, assimilate and implement strategies or...

...offer us ways to learn more from you!

Deborah
Posted by Norma Maxwell, Minot, North Dakota | Jul 12, 2010

Thanks Nicole and Deborah - I just wrote a follow up article (I'll send you an invite) that goes deeper into finding the right keywords and phrases for your business - would love you to check it out and give me your feedback. I am glad so many people are finding these helpful! Have an awesome day, ladies!
Posted by Cal Hotchkiss, Wenatchee, Washington | Jul 12, 2010

Hi Norma

Very well done! Helps to simplify a topic all are interested in.

Look forward to follow-up articles.

Cal H
Posted by Karista Bennett, Issaquah, Washington | Jul 12, 2010

Thank you Norma for the information. It's great to have one long comprehensive check list of things to look for to drive traffic to your site. Very helpful!
Posted by Ejaz Anwer, Delhi, New Delhi India | Jul 15, 2010

This is really very helpful article.
Posted by Michael Hartzell, Seattle, Washington | Jul 15, 2010

Way to go.

Guerrilla Marketing Ideas that Rock!
Posted by Nancy LaMont, Marysville, Washington | Sep 17, 2010

Norma, I tend to struggle with SEO and have gotten some very useful tips from your article. Very well written and easy to understand and follow.