Search Engine Optimisation for Beginners+

Search Engine Optimisation for Beginners+

When you are considering taking on your own website design, there are some very important things you must know in order to get the most out of your site. These days, competition is fierce amongst websites vying for top search engine optimisation results - more and more people each month are researching how to get to #1 - or as close as possible to it. If you follow the basic guidelines below, your should be well on your way. However, don't forget that this is not a "do once and forget" kind of job. It takes long hours and hard work, and then once you've finished, you have to start over again. The Internet is a fluid entity - it continually changes - and your optimisation must also keep up with 'Net fluidity.

General Tips

• Avoid using "blackhat" optimisation techniques, such as hidden links, gateway pages, hidden or obfuscated links
• Your server should be located in the country you are trying to attract traffic from
• Register your domain name for more than one year

Site Construction

• Try to use validated XHTML and CSS to reduce page size
• You should have several sitemaps - a normal html (for visitors), a Google sitemap, and a Yahoo sitemap
• Create content that people will want to link to - "bait" them
• Keyword meta tags are pretty useless now, but should still be included
• Meta description tag should include relevant keywords
• Each separate page of your website should include a relevant title tag
• Title tags should include appropriate keywords
• Never use frames to construct your site
• Your internal links should be "absolute", rather than "relative"
• Reduce the loading time for your page

Web Page Copy

• Avoid replicating content
• Do not misspell words on purpose - don't forget your site will be read by real people/customers
• Employ alt tags on ALL images, and use the opportunity to add more keywords
• Integrate your main keywords into the web page copy/text
• Write articles (like this) for online eZine sites and link them back to your site
• Use H1 or H2 tags for headlines

Linking

• Initiate a linking strategy - one way links are best, but link exchanges are ok
• Dynamic URLs should be rewritten to display as "normal" html URLs
• If possible, to avoid the Google "sandbox", try and get some mature, high ranking websites to link to your site
• Add content to blogs and link back to your site
• Never link to porn or gambling sites
• Under NO circumstances participate in FFA link sites
• Don't just use your web address for links - use anchor text
• Be careful of the sites you link your site to - be aware of their content
• Initiate a "deep linking" strategy - that is, link to sub pages within your site
• Try to obtain links from .edu or .org "high trust" websites (referred to as authority sites)
• Add your site to important directories - even if you have to pay for the privilege
• Concentrate on getting relevant incoming links
• Do a search engine submission for new sites

If you require someone to do the above (and more) for you, please don't hesitate to contact justweb.