SEO Basics – Where to start

Getting started with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a daunting task for many. There are so many ins and outs to SEO and with so many unknowns it makes knowing the right place to start difficult. This article is meant to help guide you through some of the steps to lay the proper ground work for quality SEO for your website. You want to make sure that the building blocks are in place before spending too much effort in driving visitors to your site through social media marketing, link building and article marketing.

Think about what the main topics of your website will be and do some homework finding some keywords and key phrases to help you focus your content towards supporting those main topics. These topics should be kept in mind when getting started with the building blocks for your web page or website. You can use Google Keyword Tool or some of these other keyword search tools to help you determine what the keywords and key phrases could be.

1. Semantic structure of your website

The quality and substance of HTML markup often determines how well a website will perform in search engines, regardless of whether or not an SEO campaign is conducted. You should check key components of a web page, like semantic structure, modern design techniques (up to W3C standards) and sufficient content for search bots. Your website should not use tables for its structure as this is an outdated way to build websites. Proper use of cascading style sheets (CSS) will allow you to make changes across an entire website very easily by only having to change the CSS style sheet.

The main semantic structure for your website is as follows:

DOCTYPE –Which version of HTML/XHTML is used
TITLE – The title of the document
METADATA - Key information about the document
H1 – Main Heading of the page (most important content)
H2 – Sub heading
H3 – Sub-sub heading
H4 – Sub-sub-sub heading
H5 – Sub-sub-sub-sub heading
H6 – Sub-sub-sub-sub-sub heading (least important content)

Most web pages will only use the top two or three heading levels. Between each of the heading levels the automated software expects to find blocks of text (paragraphs) that expand upon (explain) the heading above. Each lower level of heading will provide more detail of the relevant topic until, at the lowest level (H6), we are dealing with the minutiae of the subject.

2.Web Page Meta data

The meta data for your web page or website should include a proper Title and Description for each page. Ok, what are those? Let me show you what the Title and Descriptions are as well as where they will show up in the search engines.

First lets look at the Title which is at the top of your browser window or on individual tabs if you have multiple open.

Your title should be unique on each page and usually it will have the name of your site or business. (ie: Page Name – Website/Business Name)

Your description should consist of quality keywords used in a way that make sense to a search engine user. Both the Title and the description will show up in the search engines shown below.

3. Content & Web Copy

Is your content interesting unique and worth reading? Having quality content peppered with the right keywords that is presented in a clear and concise way will grab visitors attention. If you have valuable information on your site then people will find it. If you have a site filled with fluff then who would want to read that. Google is trying to provide search engine users with the best content for what they are searching for. This means you need to have each page dialed in and optimized as much as possible for the topics you are trying to promote. Content is king on the web so spend your time here. If you can add a description for a photo or product, do it.

4. Links, Links & More Links

Building back links takes time and quality information. After you finish writing the content on your site have others read it and give you some quality criticism, would they link to your site? Would you link to it?

There are a few places that you can submit your website to such as the DMOZ.org that will help if gaining quality links and exposure. Participate in the “community” as well and I am not talking about helping with the local trash pickup. Find out where your online niche is hanging out online. Are they on forums, Facebook or Twitter? They might be somewhere else completely. You may find some really interesting people or companies who have blogs that you could leave quality comments on in hopes they might return the favor.

5. Local Listings

Search engine users who are doing local searchers are highly qualified and ready to act. They already know what product or service they need, they’re just looking for a local business to fill that need. Here are some places online that you can submit your website and other business details to get started.

These are just some of the fundamentals to help in the search engine placement of your website. There are many other elements to look at and build upon but these will help in laying the right building blocks upon which to build your website.

Strategic Web Consulting & Website Analytics