do it yourself search engine optimizationA number of my clients have been asking me what they can do to improve their Google ranking. The short answer is – a ton of stuff. The long answer is – it’s complicated. Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short is something that you can spend hours, days, months on. Having said that, there are a few things you can do on your own that will certainly help to promote your site and/or blog.

This series is presented in 3 parts:
Part 1 – Important Stuff You Need To Know
Part 2 – Search Engine Submissions and Directories
Part 3 – Search Engine Optimization Resources
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Thanks in advance to the WordPress Codex for providing fabulous documentation used for research on this post.

IMPORTANT STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW – PART 1

  1. Good, clean code is a must. If you are using a theme listed with WordPress, you’re probably OK. If you want to test it to make sure, there are a number of tools you can use to identify errors in your code. Go to code validation tools for a list.
  2. Content is King, and words are important. Make sure you use words and phrases that someone would use to find your information. Use them more than once as you write, but not in every sentence. Search engines typically scan the first third of your page, so important content should be near the top.
  3. Keywords are important. Words found within your main content are compared to words found within your links and titles. The more that match, the better your Search Engine score. Get keyword ideas.
  4. Search engines look for ‘alt’ in image tags, and ‘title’ in link tags. Make sure you use them, and use your keywords when you can.
  5. Sites that link back to you are important to search engines. You can check the number of incoming links your site has by going to Google and typing in ‘link:www.yoursite.com’ . Other ways to generate incoming links to your site include:
  6. Add your site’s url to your signature to forum posts on other sites
  7. Submit your site to directories as well as search engines
  8. A search engine crawls through your site page by page. Good navigational links (ie. Putting things where people can find them, or expect them to be) will assist the search engine in moving easily from one page to another, following the connecting links and therefore covering most of the pages in your site.

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Post by: Judy Ranieri – MiBec Communications

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