Search Engine Optimization Tutorial

This is the first in a series of tutorials on the basics of search engine optimization or "SEO". Search engine optimization, or "getting on the first page of Google" has been a hot topic the last few years and only continues to heat up the more competitive the industry becomes. What worked 6 months ago may get your web site banned right now, and what garners the top position on Yahoo might banish you to the 40th page on Google. The bottom line is that you have two choices; Use good old fashioned "on page" and "off page" optimization and decent content or spend every waking moment learning about the newest fads and tricks that may get you to number one or may result in a big "number two".

In my humble opinion, option one is preferable. Both for resulting in you having a life, and enjoying long term success. Most of my sites are on the first page of Yahoo right now and almost as many on Google. Now I've gone into quite a bit of detail so I'm going to sum up the most important right now, with no explanation, then go on to explain later in each article. I will cover each topic or a number of topics in each article in my series entitled "Optimization for the Common Webmaster"

Here's what I don't discuss:

• Pay Per Click
• Google Adwords
• Really sneaky, cheesy or tasky stuff!

On Page Optimization:

1. Pick your keyphrases carefully!
2. Keyphrase in title - keyphrase - company name
3. That exact keyphrase as first thing in description tag
4. That exact keyphrase as first thing in keyword tag
5. That exact keyphrase as first thing at top of visible page if possible, and in <h1></h1> Have 150 words minimum on your page that exact keyphrase as LAST thing on page reciprocal links pointing back at you that are relevant that exact keyphrase hyperlinked at least once that exact keyphrase in the very first image alt tag

Don't's
Key Phrases: Don't pick the wrong one!!
pick 2-3 key phrases that you're convinced people will type in to find your services. People rarely type in one "keyword" to find things, they usually type in a phrase such as "Advertising agencies boston ". I'd advise you to add a geographic location to each phrase as it will be much easier to get you listed well under a "regional" listing than a "national" or "global" listing. In other words, there may be only 10-12 web sites competing for the first page of Google under "Landscape Contractors Waterville Maine" but 9,785 competing for "Landscape Contractors".

I use inventory.overture.com to check on last months keyphrases. This is important. For instance, maybe you want to optimize your site for "landscapers waterville maine". But when you research this you realize only 3 people last month typed in that phrase. However, further research reveals 980 people typed in "landscape companies waterville maine". See???

Obviously, if you're target market is not geographic in nature, this is irrelevant. Do try to narrow it down as much as possible, however. Once you pick your keyphrase it will have to reappear several times in the exact same order. (i.e. advertising agencies boston if that's what you picked, don't use boston advertising agencies later, keep it in the same order)

Title Tag
Pick the most important phrase for your home page. use it in the title tag followed by a space followed by a dash followed by your company name. example: "Country Bands Maine - Cherokee Band". So again, the formula is keyphrase dash company name. Make sure the keyphrase you picked is the VERY FIRST PART of this tag. DO NOT PUT YOUR COMPANY NAME FIRST!! The reason for this is that the se's pick up on the first phrase and place more "weight" on it than the latter part. You want your company name in there so as to be professional looking and also give the search engines something to grab onto if someone should do a search for your specific company name. Imagine coming up number one in the world for "widgets Minnessota" but the 50 people who want to buy widgets from Acme Widget cannot find your web site because you forgot to put the company name in your title tag! Also do not put anything else other than what I've told you. The more words you put in the title tag the more it gets "diluted". In other words Google places more importance on "Landscape Contractors Maine - LaVoie's Lanscape Mgmt. Inc. than it does "Landscape contractors Maine - LaVoie's Landscape Mgmt. Inc. Landscape Landscapers. "Cheesiness" like this DOES actually work sometimes but it really sucks when you drop off the first page of Google cus' you were screwing around.

Description Tag
Use the description tag but don't make it too long. And use the words of your key phrase in there. No more than 110 characters and DO NOT repeat your title tag. DO use your key phrase, but just don't repeat your title tag. It may hurt ranking more than help. Some of the keyphrase(s) written in your Description tag ought to appear in some variation on your page, the closer to the top of the page, the better. Some professionals say 1,000 characters is ok, but I have found that your description is often used on the search page, and they only use the first line or two, so I stick with short, powerful descriptions without superlatives. DO NOT write "Best, fastest, cheapest, etc. as the search engines are getting smarter and tend to "penalize" or at least "ignore" these words. Make sure the keyphrase you picked is the VERY FIRST PART of this tag.

Body Text
Most important of all! (you won't find this info everywhere) Use the words of your key phrase in the visible readable body text. Place your keyphrase FIRST thing on the page, in <h1></h1> tags on each optimized page. Make sure your keyphrase is also on the page at least 1-3 times (but no more) in BOLD or italic. (Google places emphasis on these too) If a page is about your lawn mowing services put <h1>Lawn Mowing Services</h1> at the top like a "header". Search engines love this. It's important to actually use the <h1></h1> tag as this is what most search engines recognize. Make sure your keyphrase is hyper linked at least once on the page. You can do a "double kill" here or even "triple kill" by placing your keyphrase in bold, hyperlinked at the bottom of your page. Such as at the footer.

"LaVoie's Landscape Mgmt. Inc. - a <a href = "index.shtml"><b>Landscape Contractor in Maine</a>

Oh, yes, the keyphrase should also be the LAST thing on the page as well! Also make sure you have your keyphrase in one of the first 3 image alt tags. These img alt tags are important for proper coding anyway and look something like

<img src = "images/logo" width = "250" alt = "Landscape Contractors Maine">

Again, the search engines simply love this.

I must stress, however, to always concentrate on content first, then optimization when writing the visible copy for your pages. I've made the mistake a couple of times concentrating only on getting my key phrase on the page as much as possible, and the result tends to be awkward and "cheesy". Again if you can use the <h1></h1> as the VERY FIRST item on your page (or after the header) you'll be even better off.

Reciprocal Linking.

Very important to have your web site appear "important" to the search engines. A search engine "thinks" you're important when it sees your site "mentioned" on other web sites of the same or related nature. But…it thinks you're spamming when it sees your site mentioned on hundreds of "guestbooks", "link farms" and "online casino" sites. There is actually so much controversy around all the reciprocal linking stuff so here's my rule: When in doubt, do what seems like the professional, right thing to do. Is it right if you are a web design firm to have 125 web design firm links on your page? Uh .. no. But you might have some SEO directories or forums, etc. And just in case everything is true, I try to keep it relevant, jewelry links on jewelry sites, web design on web related, etc. etc.

Conclusion: shoot for 20 links traded and then try to get your site on as many other directories, etc. as you can without trading.

Use Text links and Menu!
If you have a java menu, flash or something like that, make sure you have plain old, pure text links at the bottom or margin of the page. When a search engine comes to your site, they cannot read that fancy java stuff, so they stop right there. If you have text links at the bottom, they will be able to spider out and index all your pages, some of which will be optimized for different searches. I repeat, make certain every page you want the search engines to see is linked to your home page with TEXT based links. (i.e. <a href = "about.html">About Us</a> ) Articles: Write articles and submit them. Searchwrap is one place but type "submit article(s)" in Google and see what comes up.

** DO NOT**

use keywords in your meta keyword tags that are NOT in your key phrase or are NOT in the body text of your page. I just learned this one recently. I understand that it can hurt you in the rankings. You definitely WILL NOT find that info. in too many places. I'm now in the process of correcting it on a few of my client's sites. Also, FYI, Google now ignores the keyword tag. (that's the one in the head of the code that goes <meta name = "keywords" content = "blah blah blah">

Use "refresh tags", redirection, frames, or too much "flash". Search engines are in the process of updating to be able to handle these things, but right now, static, content-rich pages work best. Trust me when I tell you that flash and animations are more annoying than anything else. I personally have software that prevents most of it from showing up as it's a distraction to surfing. It impresses the person who creates it, that's about it!

Use "tricks" like putting your name and web site on tons of guestbooks. Search engines are looking for your site to be on other 'relevant" sites, not just pasted on every guestbook and link farm. By the time of this writing, search engines are beginning to introduce algorhythms which penalize sites for having too many "nonsense" links. Don't ever put keywords in the same font color as your background. (invisible keywords). This is the oldest trick in the book, is considered "spamming" the search engines and can easily get you banned from Google. Ouch!

Tricks of the Trade: Use sparingly if AT ALL!!!
1. class = "seo"
a. may or may not work. On style sheet use

h1.seo {display: none;}

then in body of html doc, put your keyphrase in this h1 tag like

<h1 class = "seo">Keyphrase</h1>

The effect is that the search engines will read it like it's an h1 but it will be invisible on your page. A similar method is to use an image replacement. Contact me if you want this one as I'm using it now www.thesourceofasarra.com - see if you can find it!

2. stuffed tags
I happen to KNOW this works as a couple of competitor's web sites have outsted me using it. Go to google and type "wood flooring maine" and mainetimberworks.com will come up. Mouseover some images and see what happens, tooltips come up literally stuffed with keywords, as are the title and comment tags. Comment tags are like

3. keyphrase after ? after url
This is the "miserable failure" method. Type in miserable failure and a biography of George Bush comes up. Why?? Someone or a bunch of someones got together and put links to George Bush's biography on their web site(s). They linked it like this <a href = "http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html?miserable-failure">Miserable Failure</a>

- It is possible and has worked that when you send out your link code, add ?keyphrase to the .com and you might get surprised. I won't deal anymore with these tricks because this goes